I am having trouble getting the date modified for my file from within a nested loop.
I am running this batch script:
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
net use S: \\devfs\edcsrc\epoletto\campusanyware
SET CLIENTS= DEMO
FOR %%a in (%CLIENTS%) DO (
S:
CD AD
FOR %%B in (*.cbl) DO (
set file=%%B
echo !file!
for %%c in (!file!) do (echo %%~ta))
)
pause
net use S: /delete /Y
ECHO.
Here is my output:
The command completed successfully.
ad1.cbl
ECHO is off.
ad2.cbl
ECHO is off.
ad3.cbl
ECHO is off.
Press any key to continue . . .
All of my file names are correct, but when the script goes into the the third FOR loop (for %%c in (!file!) do (echo %%~ta))), I cannot get the date/time modified for my file.
As a proof of concept, I tried this same logic from the command line from within the directory:
for %B in (*.cbl) DO (for %a in (%B) do echo %~ta)
And my output from that command was (including initial command):
V:\>for %B in (*.cbl) DO (for %a in (%B) do echo %~ta)
V:\>(for %a in (ad1.cbl) do echo %~ta )
V:\>echo 05/02/2017 11:32 AM
05/02/2017 11:32 AM
V:\>(for %a in (ad2.cbl) do echo %~ta )
V:\>echo 04/18/2017 02:04 PM
04/18/2017 02:04 PM
V:\>(for %a in (ad3.cbl) do echo %~ta )
V:\>echo 04/27/2017 11:46 AM
04/27/2017 11:46 AM
I'm confused as to why I can't get these dates from within my script. My ultimate goal is to check the date for each file and then execute another command dependent on that date. Right now I'm just trying to verify I can get the date using echo. Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thank you!
Instead of
for %%c in (!file!) do (echo %%~ta))
use
for %%c in (!file!) do (echo %%~tc))
because you want the modified time of %%c, not of %%a.
:)
Does anyone knows how to control many command prompt windows through one . What exactly I would like to do is start many command windows and then run multiple commands in all of them through a batch file. Such as starting adb shell logcat in one, kmsg in one and if kmsg stops then turn red, and similar things.
For that I need to be able to listen to events from other command lines and also send commands to many command prompt one after the other.
Thanks your reply is appreciated.
If you know how to do it in perl that would also work. Plzz help!!
Updated;
Update Notes:
Took note of Jeb's suggestion and took his advice as well as Endoro's
Okay, this will be a little complicated because it needs batch files to write into some sort of file and another batch file getting / grabbing the data from said file. In order to do this, we must produce the "sender / terminal / MAIN window" for your batch file;
The script i am writing for you as of now can only support 4 Batch files being controlled by a mother batch file.
#echo off
:a
title Main Terminal
echo ---------------------------
set /p prompt1="Command 1: "
set /p prompt2="Command 1: "
set /p prompt3="Command 1: "
set /p prompt4="Command 1: "
if defined prompt echo %prompt% > com1.rsm
if defined prompt2 echo %prompt2% > com2.rsm
if defined prompt3 echo %prompt3% > com3.rsm
if defined prompt4 echo %prompt4% > com4.rsm
:: .RSM file extension means ReSource Module; I made it myself :3
goto a
Receiver
#echo off
title Reciever 1
:check
if EXIST com1.rsm goto get
timeout /t 1 >nul
echo Waiting for packet
goto check
:get
set /p prompt1=<com1.rsm
%prompt1%
del com1.rsm
goto check
Receiver 2
#echo off
title Reciever 2
:check
if EXIST com2.rsm goto get
timeout /t 1 >nul
echo Waiting for packet
goto check
:get
set /p prompt=<com2.rsm
%prompt%
del com1.rsm
goto check
Receiver 3
#echo off
title Reciever 3
:check
if EXIST com3.rsm goto get
timeout /t 1 >nul
echo Waiting for packet
goto check
:get
set /p prompt=<com3.rsm
%prompt%
del com1.rsm
goto check
Receiver 4
#echo off
title Reciever 4
:check
if EXIST com4.rsm goto get
timeout /t 1 >nul
echo Waiting for packet
goto check
:get
set /p prompt=<com4.rsm
%prompt%
del com1.rsm
goto check
You're welcome;
SonorousTwo
1 echo off
2
3 echo Please enter a date
4 set /p a=
5 echo %a%
6 for /D %%d in (M:\Serienbriefauftrag\*) do (
7 if not exist %%d\Erledigt\*.bat echo %%d
8 )
9 pause
10 for /d %%b in (dir M:\Serienbriefauftrag\%%d /T:C)
11 echo %%b
12 pause
The Code works fine until line 10 (syntax error) the aim is, to get the creation date of the folder compare it with "%a%" and and if it's under the entered date "%a%", the folder should be moved. but somehow...
found a way to get the creation date
if not exist %%d\Erledigt\*.bat echo %%~td|findstr /i /l
the new task is to make the output "calculateable"
Two things:
1) In line 10 %%d is undefined (empty), since the scope of the first loop (where it is defined) is left in line 8.
You can set another variable to %%d to be able to use it after the loop ends, but be careful. In batch using set in for loops is a bit tricky. To get around the aweful use of delayed variable expansion, I would suggest to you staying inside of the loop while doing your work.
#echo off
set /p a=Please enter a date:
for /d %%d in (M:\Serienbriefauftrag\*) do (
if not exist %%d\Erledigt\*.bat (
:: Do whatever you want with %%d in here
echo "%%d"
)
)
pause
2) The syntax of your second loop is wrong. You are missing the do before the loop body and /d lets the loop iterate over all folders in a specified directory. dir M:\Serienbriefauftrag\%%d /T:C is not a directory but a command.
If you want to iterate over the output of that command, you have to use /f and put the contents of the paranthesis in single quotes, like that ('dir M:\Serienbriefauftrag\%%d /T:C').
Goal: Have every dll file in a computer passed into regsvr32.exe
Accomplished:
cd\
::REM Exports every file and directory (/s) into a file in root of c: called dir.txt with only file names (/b)
dir /s /b>>dir.txt
::REM Now, this will contain every extension type. We only want dll's, so we findstr it into dll.txt:
findstr ".dll$" dir.txt>>dll.txt
The Kink:
Now, if I want to regsvr32.exe "file" every file that is now in dll.txt, I somehow need to get out every individual filename that is individually on each line. I was wondering if there is a third party command line tool that can export each line of the file into a variable. This way, I could:
==========
::REM assume this tool had switches /l for the line number, and /v:"" for variable to use, and used "file" at the end:
set line=1
:loop
set dll=
tool.exe /l %line% /v:"dll" "dll.txt"
::REM We if defined here because if the line doesn't exist in dll.txt, the tool would return nothing to %dll%
if not defined %dll% exit
::REM With the variable defined, we can continue
regsvr32.exe %dll%
set /a line=%line%+1
goto loop
=======================
Then the tool would process each path of each line of the file until it exits automatically, because there would be no more lines. Notice right after loop I set dll to nothing so that 'if not defined' will work each time.
If this type of third-party tool cannot be done, is there a way to do that with for??
I honestly never learned for, and tried to but could never figure it out.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Sorry if this has already been answered.
EDIT/UPDATE:
I have discovered how I will make this work.
Thanks to: http://pyrocam.com/re-register-all-dlls-to-fix-no-such-interface-supported-error-in-windows-7-after-installing-ie7-standalone/
and : Read a txt line by line in a batch file
The first link shows manually replacing the beginning with regsvr32.exe
The second shows how to use for in this case {also thanks to craig65535 FOR his help :)}
Code:
#echo off
color 1f
title Register .dll
echo.
echo Exporting file list . . .
echo.
cd /d c:
cd\
if exist dll.txt del dll.txt
if exist dir.txt del dir.txt
if exist dll.bat del dll.bat
echo Part 1 of 3 . . .
echo.
dir /s /b>>dir.txt
echo Part 2 of 3 . . .
echo.
findstr ".dll$" dir.txt>>dll.txt
del dir.txt
echo Part 3 of 3 . . .
echo.
for /f "delims=" %%i IN ('type dll.txt') do echo regsvr32.exe /s "%%i">>dll.bat
del dll.txt
echo Ready to begin regsvr32.exe . . .
echo.
pause
echo.
echo Beginning registration . . .
echo *This will take time, close any popups that occur
echo.
call dll.bat
echo.
echo Deleting registration file . . .
if exist dll.bat del dll.bat
echo.
echo DONE.
echo.
pause >nul
The command you want is for /f.
for /f %%f in ('type dll.txt') do regsvr32.exe %%f
That takes the output of type dll.txt and puts one line at a time into %%f. You can then use %%f as an argument for some other command.
If you want to do more than regsvr32.exe %%f, you can write another batch file and call that:
for /f %%f in ('type dll.txt') do call process.bat %%f
process.bat would then receive the filename as %1.
I need to know that before any attempt to do anything with such file.
Not sure about locked directories (does Windows have that?)
But detecting if a file is being written to by another process is not difficult.
#echo off
2>nul (
>>test.txt echo off
) && (echo file is not locked) || (echo file is locked)
I use the following test script from another window to place a lock on the file.
(
>&2 pause
) >> test.txt
When I run the 2nd script from one window and then run the 1st script from a second window, I get my "locked" message. Once I press <Enter> in the 1st window, I get the "unlocked" message if I rerun the 1st script.
Explanation
Whenever the output of a command is redirected to a file, the file of course must be opened for write access. The Windows CMD session will attempt to open the file, even if the command does not produce any output.
The >> redirection operator opens the file in append mode.
So >>test.txt echo off will attempt to open the file, it writes nothing to the file (assuming echo is already off), and then it closes the file. The file is not modified in any way.
Most processes lock a file whenever they open a file for write access. (There are OS system calls that allow opening a file for writing in a shared mode, but that is not the default). So if another process already has "test.txt" locked for writing, then the redirection will fail with the following error message sent to stderr - "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.". Also an error code will be generated upon redirection failure. If the command and the redirection succeed, then a success code is returned.
Simply adding 2>nul to the command will not prevent the error message because it redirects the error output for the command, not the redirection. That is why I enclose the command in parentheses and then redirect the error output to nul outside of the parens.
So the error message is effectively hidden, but the error code is still propagated outside of the parens. The standard Windows && and || operators are used to detect whether the command inside the parens was successful or failed. Presumably echo off will never fail, so the only possible reason for failure would be the redirection failed. Most likely it fails because of a locking issue, though technically there could be other reasons for failure.
It is a curious "feature" that Windows does not set the %ERRORLEVEL% dynamic variable to an error upon redirection failure unless the || operator is used. (See File redirection in Windows and %errorlevel%). So the || operator must read the returned error code at some low level, not via the %ERRORLEVEL% variable.
Using these techniques to detect redirection failure can be very useful in a batch context. It can be used to establish locks that allow serialization of multiple events in parallel processes. For example, it can enable multiple processes to safely write to the same log file at the "same" time. How do you have shared log files under Windows?
EDIT
Regarding locked folders. I'm not sure how Windows implements this, perhaps with a lock. But if a process has an active directory involving the folder, then the folder cannot be renamed. That can easily be detected using
2>nul ren folderName folderName && echo Folder is NOT locked || echo folder is LOCKED
EDIT
I have since learned that (call ) (with a space) is a very fast command without side effects that is guaranteed to succeed with ERRORLEVEL set to 0. And (call) (without a space) is a fast command without side effects that is guaranteed to fail with ERRORLEVEL 1.
So I now use the following to check if a file is locked:
2>nul (
>>test.txt (call )
) && (echo file is not locked) || (echo file is locked)
In addition to great answer from dbenham, the following form finally help me understand used technique:
( type nul >> file.txt ) 2>nul || echo File is locked!
type nul command gives an empty output and does not affect the current echo setting like echo off command in orginal.
If you want to use if–then–else condition remember of correct order - success statement (&&) is going first and alternate statement (||) is going second:
command && (echo Command is successful) || (echo Command has failed)
If you download and install the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools there is a utility called oh.exe that will list open file handles for a given file:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657
Once you install it, reboot your machine and you'll be able to use the utility. You can see all the options in the Help and Support center as well as by typing oh /? in the command prompt.
(Info from : http://windowsxp.mvps.org/processlock.htm )
Note, the writing of a message stating the file status was less helpful than a batch command that set a return code. For example, return code 1 if file is locked.
#echo off
2>nul (
>>test.tmp echo off
) && (EXIT /B 0) || (EXIT /B 1)
Other answers resulted in side-effects for me. For instance, the following from this answer will cause file watchers to trigger:
COPY /B app.exe+NUL app.exe
And the following from the top answer here would overwrite any changes made to the target file:
2>nul (
>>test.txt (call )
) && (echo file is not locked) || (echo file is locked)
On modern version of Windows, you can call into Powershell to accomplish this task with zero side-effects:
powershell -Command "$FileStream = [System.IO.File]::Open('%FILE%', 'Open', 'Write'); $FileStream.Close(); $FileStream.Dispose()" && (echo File is not locked) || (echo File is locked)
This will not modify the file or its metadata at all, even when it isn't locked.
Example usage
I use this method in my custom git mergetool script for merging Excel files. The way a git mergetool works is that it waits for the script shell to exit, then checks if the target file was modified, prompting with "XX.yyy seems unchanged. Was the merge successful [y/n]?" if it wasn't. However, Excel (at least the version I'm using) does not spawn a new process for each file it opens. So if Excel is already open, the script will exit immediately, and git will detect no changes to the file, resulting in that prompt.
So I devised the method above, and I use it like below:
REM block until MERGED is closed
:loop
powershell -Command "$FileStream = [System.IO.File]::Open('%MERGED%', 'Open', 'Write'); $FileStream.Close(); $FileStream.Dispose()" >NUL 2>NUL || (goto :loop)
Incidentally, dbenham's solution also seems to be an effective way to find out if a process is running. It was the best solution I found for the following application:
start /b "job1.exe >> job1.out"
start /b /wait "job2.exe >> job2.out"
::wait for job1 to finish using dbenham's code to check if job1.out is in use
comparejobs.exe
Just i want to share with you an example of my script based on #dbenham's trick
Description of this script : Check_Locked_Files.bat :
This script can scan and check for locked files on a set of folders that can be modified into the script; for example, i have chosen those set of folders to be scanned :
Set Folders=^
^ "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"^
^ "%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"^
^ "%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer"^
^ "%ProgramFiles%\Skype"^
^ "%ProgramFiles%\TeamViewer"^
^ "%WinDir%\system32\drivers"^
^ "%Temp%"
The output result is in HTML format for more readability.
If the file is locked we show it in red color otherwise we show it in green color.
And the whole script is : Check_Locked_Files.bat
#echo off
Rem This source is inspired from here
Rem hxxps://stackoverflow.com/questions/
Rem 10518151/how-to-check-in-command-line-if-a-given-file-or-directory-is-locked-used-by-any?answertab=active#tab-top
Rem Thanks for dbenham for this nice trick ;)
Mode con cols=90 lines=5 & color 9E
Title Scan and Check for Locked Files by Hackoo 2017
set "LogFile=%~dp0%~n0.html"
(
echo ^<html^>
echo ^<title^> Scan and Check for locked files by Hackoo 2017^</title^>
echo ^<body bgcolor^=#ffdfb7^>
echo ^<center^>^<b^>Log Started on %Date% # %Time% by the user : "%username%" on the computer : "%ComputerName%"^</b^>^</center^>
)> "%LogFile%"
echo(
echo --------------------------------------------------------------------------
echo Please Wait a while ....... Scanning for locked files is in progress
echo --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rem We Play radio just for fun and in order to let the user be patient until the scan ended
Call :Play_DJ_Buzz_Radio
Timeout /T 3 /nobreak>nul
cls
Set Folders=^
^ "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"^
^ "%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"^
^ "%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer"^
^ "%ProgramFiles%\Skype"^
^ "%ProgramFiles%\TeamViewer"^
^ "%WinDir%\system32\drivers"^
^ "%Temp%"
#For %%a in (%Folders%) Do (
( echo ^<hr^>^<font color^=DarkOrange^>^<B^>Folder : %%a^</B^>^</font^>^<hr^>) >> "%LogFile%"
#for /f "delims=" %%b in ('Dir /A-D /s /b "%%~a\*.*"') do (
Call :Scanning "%%~nxb"
Call:Check_Locked_File "%%~b" "%LogFile%"
)
)
(
echo ^<hr^>
echo ^<center^>^<b^>Log ended on %Date% # %Time% on the computer : "%ComputerName%"^</b^>^</center^>
echo ^</body^>
echo ^</html^>
)>> "%LogFile%"
Start "" "%LogFile%" & Call :Stop_Radio & exit
::***********************************************************************************
:Check_Locked_File <File> <LogFile>
(
2>nul (
>>%1 (call )
) && ( #echo ^<font color^=green^>file "%~1"^</font^>^<br^>
) || (
#echo ^<font color^=red^>file "%~1" is locked and is in use^</font^>^<br^>
)
)>>%2 2>nul
exit /b
::***********************************************************************************
:Scanning <file>
cls
echo(
echo --------------------------------------------------------------------------
echo Please Wait a while... Scanning for %1
echo --------------------------------------------------------------------------
exit /b
::***********************************************************************************
:Play_DJ_Buzz_Radio
Taskkill /IM "wscript.exe" /F >nul 2>&1
Set "vbsfile=%temp%\DJBuzzRadio.vbs"
Set "URL=http://www.chocradios.ch/djbuzzradio_windows.mp3.asx"
Call:Play "%URL%" "%vbsfile%"
Start "" "%vbsfile%"
Exit /b
::**************************************************************
:Play
(
echo Play "%~1"
echo Sub Play(URL^)
echo Dim Sound
echo Set Sound = CreateObject("WMPlayer.OCX"^)
echo Sound.URL = URL
echo Sound.settings.volume = 100
echo Sound.Controls.play
echo do while Sound.currentmedia.duration = 0
echo wscript.sleep 100
echo loop
echo wscript.sleep (int(Sound.currentmedia.duration^)+1^)*1000
echo End Sub
)>%~2
exit /b
::**************************************************************
:Stop_Radio
Taskkill /IM "wscript.exe" /F >nul 2>&1
If Exist "%vbsfile%" Del "%vbsfile%"
::**************************************************************
:: Create the file Running.tmp
ECHO %DATE% > Running.tmp
ECHO %TIME% >> Running.tmp
:: block it and do the work
(
>&2 CALL :Work 30
) >> Running.tmp
:: when the work is finished, delete the file
DEL Running.tmp
GOTO EOF
:: put here the work to be done by the batch file
:Work
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 -w 1000 > NUL
ping 127.0.0.1 -n %1 -w 1000 > NUL
:: when the process finishes, the execution go back
:: to the line after the CALL
In case you want to use this in a Cygwin Bash, here are the one-liners:
# To lock a file: (in a different window)
cmd.exe /C "( >&2 pause ) >> test.txt"
#Press any key to continue . . .
# To test if a file is locked (with text)
cmd.exe /C "2>nul ( >>test.txt (call ) ) && (echo ok) || (echo locked)"
#locked
# To test if a file is locked (with POSIX exit code)
cmd.exe /C "2>nul ( >>test.txt (call ) ) && (exit /b 0) || (exit /b 1)"
echo $?
#1
In case of windows network share you can try powershell command:
Get-SmbOpenFile
For example execute on file server command as administrator:
Get-SmbOpenFile | Where-Object -Property Path -match "file.txt"