This is something that i searched for very long and never even found another that asked the same !
Is it possible to have a variable input with text under it !
Because, in the code, the text beneath is shown only on ending of the input.
Basicly, i'd like to make a thing like this :
######################
INPUT (the set /p cmd)
######################
The thing i want is to make the line under the set command visible
No!
It's not possible with pure batch.
There is a simple reason,
as there is no way to go up with the cursor, it's only possible to go back in the same line (with the CR or BACKSPACE characters).
Only CLS can bring the cursor up, but then the screen is empty again.
I know two commands with the possibility to go lines up, but I don't know a way to use them from a batch file.
set and cmd in a double threaded command window.
#echo off
if "%~1"=="intern" (
prompt %2$G
call %2
exit
)
start /b "" "%~f0" intern :thread2
:thread1
prompt :thread1$G
call :cls
echo Use ESC to go up lines
for /L %%n in (1 1 10) DO (
ping localhost -n 2 > nul
echo( %%n
)
exit /b
:thread2
set /p var=Press ESC ... NOW!
exit /b
But there exists many external tools to set the cursor position (CursorPos.exe from Aacini)
Related
I have a use case where I want to replace %%20 which is part of a string for example: "Calculation%%20One". I want to replace this with "Calculation One".
This where I am stuck:
#echo off
setlocal enableextensions disabledelayedexpansion
>"temp" (
echo !Option1!
echo !Option2!
echo !Option3!
)
set "pattern=%%20"
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%a in ("temp") do (
echo data: %%a
set "line=%%a"
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
if "!line:%pattern%=!"=="!line!" (
set string=!Option1!
set string2=%!string1!:%%20= %
) else (
set string2=%%a
)
endlocal
)
del /q tempFile
Can someone please help me with this? I have a program which is a combination of batch and python.
Thanks
It is unclear for me why the options are written into a temporary file for processing the values of the environment variables Option1, Option2 and Option3. And it would have been good to see the lines which define the environment variables Option1, Option2 and Option3 for the real values assigned to them.
So I suggest here a batch file which replaces %20 as found for example in HTML files or emails by a space character in all Option environment variables.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "Option1=Calculation%%20One"
set "Option2=Calculation %%%%20Two!"
set "Option3=Any other string"
cls
echo The options before processing:
echo/
set Option
for /F "delims==" %%I in ('set Option 2^>nul') do call :ProcessOption "%%I"
echo/
echo The options after processing:
echo/
set Option
echo/
endlocal
pause
goto :EOF
:ProcessOption
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "ModifiedOption=!%~1:%%20= !"
endlocal & set "%~1=%ModifiedOption%"
goto :EOF
It is necessary to use delayed expansion on replacing all occurrences of %20 by a space character because otherwise Windows command interpreter would not know where the environment variable reference with string substitution ends. Replacing a string with percent sign is not possible using immediate expansion for that reason.
The command set Option outputs alphabetically sorted all environment variables starting case-insensitive with the string Option in format variable=value as it can be seen twice on running this batch file.
FOR executes this command with using a separate command process started in background and captures all lines written by command SET to handle STDOUT.
The string 2^>nul is executed finally as 2>nul and redirects the error message output by command SET to handle STDERR to the device NUL to suppress it. SET would output an error message in case of no environment variable starting with Option is defined in current environment. This error condition does not occur with this batch file. Read the Microsoft article about Using Command Redirection Operators. The redirection operator > must be escaped here with ^ to be interpreted first as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes the entire FOR command line before executing the command FOR which executes cmd.exe /c set Option 2>nul in background.
FOR processes the captured output of set Option line by line and splits each line up into substrings (tokens) with using the equal sign as delimiter as specified with delims==. The string left to first equal sign on each line is assigned to loop variable I. This is the name of the environment variable, i.e. Option1, Option2 and Option3 for this batch file.
With each OptionX environment variable name the subroutine ProcessOption is called for replacing all %20 in its value by a space character.
Here is a solution for environment variables with one or more exclamation marks in variable name.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "!Option1!=Calculation%%%%20One"
set "!Option2!=City%%20Country"
set "!Option3!=State%%%%20Country"
set "!Option4!=Any other address/string"
cls
echo The options before processing:
echo/
set !Option
for /F "delims==" %%I in ('set !Option 2^>nul') do call :ProcessOption "%%I"
echo/
echo The options after processing:
echo/
set !Option
echo/
endlocal
pause
goto :EOF
:ProcessOption
call set "ModifiedOption=%%%~1%%"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "ModifiedOption=!ModifiedOption:%%%%20= !"
set "ModifiedOption=!ModifiedOption:%%20= !"
endlocal & set "ModifiedOption=%ModifiedOption%"
set "%~1=%ModifiedOption%"
set "ModifiedOption="
goto :EOF
This batch code replaces %20 AND %%20 in all environment variables starting with !Option in name by a space character in comparison to above replacing just %20 by a space in environment variables beginning with Option in name.
It is of course a bad idea to use characters in variable names which have a special meaning for Windows command interpreter like the characters &()[]{}^=;!'+,`~|<>%. It is possible as demonstrated above, but it is definitely not a good idea.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
call /?
cls /?
echo /?
endlocal /?
for /?
goto /?
set /?
setlocal /?
See also answer on Single line with multiple commands using Windows batch file for an explanation of & operator.
And read DosTips forum topic ECHO. FAILS to give text or blank line - Instead use ECHO/ why it is better to use echo/ instead of echo. to output an empty line.
Let's say I'd have a file named "testfile.txt" set on a variable:%File% and I'd like to remove the extension when echoing it . Echo %File:~0,8% would come out as "testfile" but what I want to do is to have it display anything and everything to the left of the ".txt" because I won't always make files which have 8 characters in their name.
Is there a simple solution to this ?
Yep.
for %%I in ("testfile.txt") do echo %%~nI
or
for %%I in ("%file%") do echo %%~nI
Do help for in a cmd console window and see the last two pages for more information on tilde operations.
There is another way to accomplish what you want, using substring substitution similar to your attempts illustrated in your question.
set "file=testfile.txt"
echo %file:.=&rem;%
That substitutes the dot with &rem;. When the variable is evaluated, the batch interpreter treats the newly substituted data as a compound command. And since everything following rem is treated as a remark to be ignored, you're left with only testfile as the output. This will only work if:
you don't include quotation marks in your variable value
your filename only includes the one dot
you don't do it within a parenthetical code block (if statement or for loop) where delayed expansion is required
You can try this:
#echo off
set "file=testfile.txt"
call :removeExtension "%file%"
echo %newFile%
pause
goto :eof
:removeExtension
set "newFile=%~n1"
goto :eof
However, this only works if the file has no path. If it does, you can do this:
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "file=files\testfile.txt"
call :removeExtension "%file%"
echo %newFile%
pause
goto :eof
:removeExtension
set "file=%~1"
set "newFile=!file:%~x1=!"
goto :eof
Is there any method in Windows through which we can execute a batch script without *.bat extension?
This is an interesting topic to me! I want to do some observations about it.
The important point first: A Batch file is a file with .BAT or .CMD extension. Period. Batch files can achieve, besides the execution of usual DOS commands, certain specific Batch-file facilities, in particular:
Access to Batch file parameters via %1 %2 ... and execution of SHIFT command.
Execution of GOTO command.
Execution of CALL :NAME command (internal subroutine).
Execution of SETLOCAL/ENDLOCAL commands.
Now the funny part: Any file can be redirected as input for CMD.exe so the DOS commands contained in it are executed in a similar way of a Batch file, with some differences. The most important one is that previous Batch-file facilities will NOT work. Another differences are illustrated in the NOT-Batch file below (I called it BATCH.TXT):
#echo off
rem Echo off just suppress echoing of the prompt and each loop of FOR command
rem but it does NOT suppress the listing of these commands!
rem Pause command does NOT pause, because it takes the character that follows it
pause
X
rem This behavior allows to put data for a SET /P command after it
set /P var=Enter data:
This is the data for previous command!
echo Data read: "%var%"
rem Complex FOR/IF commands may be assembled and they execute in the usual way:
for /L %i in (1,1,5) do (
set /P line=
if "!line:~0,6!" equ "SHOW: " echo Line read: !line:~6!
)
NOSHOW: First line read
SHOW: Second line
NOSHOW: This is third line
SHOW: The line number 4
NOSHOW: Final line, number five
rem You may suppress the tracing of the execution redirecting CMD output to NUL
rem In this case, redirect output to STDERR to display messages in the screen
echo This is a message redirected to STDERR >&2
rem GOTO command doesn't work:
goto label
goto :EOF
rem but both EXIT and EXIT /B commands works:
exit /B
:label
echo Never reach this point...
To execute previous file, type: CMD /V:ON < BATCH.TXT
The /V switch is needed to enable delayed expansion.
More specialized differences are related to the fact that commands in the NOT-Batch file are executed in the command-line context, NOT the Batch-file context. Perhaps Dave or jeb could elaborate on this point.
EDIT: Additional observations (batch2.txt):
#echo off
rem You may force SET /P command to read the line from keyboard instead of
rem from following lines by redirecting its input to CON device.
rem You may also use CON device to force commands output to console (screen),
rem this is easier to write and read than >&2
echo Standard input/output operations> CON
echo/> CON
< CON set /P var=Enter value: > CON
echo/> CON
echo The value read is: "%var%"> CON
Execute previous file this way: CMD < BATCH2.TXT > NUL
EDIT: More additional observations (batch3.txt)
#echo off
rem Dynamic access to variables that usually requires DelayedExpansion via "call" trick
rem Read the next four lines; "next" means placed after the FOR command
rem (this may be used to simulate a Unix "here doc")
for /L %i in (1,1,4) do (
set /P line[%i]=
)
Line one of immediate data
This is second line
The third one
And the fourth and last one...
(
echo Show the elements of the array read:
echo/
for /L %i in (1,1,4) do call echo Line %i- %line[%i]%
) > CON
Execute this file in the usual way: CMD < BATCH3.TXT > NUL
Interesting! Isn't it?
EDIT: Now, GOTO and CALL commands may be simulated in the NotBatch.txt file!!! See this post.
Antonio
Just use:
type mybat.txt | cmd
Breaking it down...
type mybat.txt reads mybat.txt as a text file and prints the contents. The | says capture anything getting printed by the command on its left and pass it as an input to the command on its right. Then cmd (as you can probably guess) interprets any input it receives as commands and executes them.
In case you were wondering... you can replace cmd with bash to run on Linux.
in my case, to make windows run files without extension (only for *.cmd, *.exe) observed, i have missed pathext variable (in system varailbles) to include .cmd. Once added i have no more to run file.cmd than simply file.
environment variables --> add/edit system variable to include .cmd;.exe (ofcourse your file should be in path)
It could be possible yes, but probably nor in an easy way =) cause first of all.. security.
I try to do the same thing some year ago, and some month ago, but i found no solution about it.. you could try to do
execu.cmd
type toLaunch.txt >> bin.cmd
call bin.cmd
pause > nul
exit
then in toLaunch.txt put
#echo off
echo Hello!
pause > nul
exit
just as example, it will "compile" the code, then it will execute the "output" file, that is just "parse"
instead of parsed you could also just rename use and maybe put an auto rename inside the script using inside toLaunch.txt
ren %0 %0.txt
hope it helped!
It is possible at some degree. You'll need an admin permissions to run assoc and ftype commands. Also a 'caller' script that will use your code:
Lets say the extension you want is called .scr.
Then execute this script as admin:
#echo off
:: requires Admin permissions
:: allows a files with .scr (in this case ) extension to act like .bat/.cmd files.
:: Will create a 'caller.bat' associated with the extension
:: which will create a temp .bat file on each call (you can consider this as cheating)
:: and will call it.
:: Have on mind that the %0 argument will be lost.
rem :: "installing" a caller.
if not exist "c:\scrCaller.bat" (
echo #echo off
echo copy "%%~nx1" "%%temp%%\%%~nx1.bat" /Y ^>nul
echo "%%temp%%\%%~nx1.bat" %%*
) > c:\scrCaller.bat
rem :: associating file extension
assoc .scr=scrfile
ftype scrfile=c:\scrCaller "%%1" %%*
You even will be able to use GOTO and CALL and the other tricks you know. The only limitation is that the the %0 argument will be lost ,tough it can be hardcoded while creating the temp file.
As a lot of languages compile an .exe file for example I think this a legit approach.
If you want variables to be exported to the calling batch file, you could use
for /F "tokens=*" %%g in (file.txt) do (%%g)
This metod has several limitations (don't use :: for comments), but its perfect for configuration files.
Example:
rem Filename: "foo.conf"
rem
set option1=true
set option2=false
set option3=true
#echo off
for /F "tokens=*" %%g in (foo.conf) do (%%g)
echo %option1%
echo %option2%
echo %option3%
pause
I'm currently creating a batch script that has to loop through the lines in a file, checking for some string, and if theres a match prefix that string with a '#' (comment it out).
I'm perfectly new to batch script, all I got this far is:
for /f %%j in (CMakeLists.txt) do (
if "%%j"=="Extensions_AntTweakBar" (
echo lol1
)
if "%%j"=="Extensions_Inspection" (
echo lol2
)
if "%%j"=="Extensions_InspectionBar" (
echo lol3
)
)
So my current issue is, I don't know how to operate on string within batch scripts. If someone could help me out that would be appreciated :)
You can just use the text you want to append followed by your variable generally.
C:\>set MY_VAR=Hello world!
C:\>echo #%MY_VAR%
#Hello world!
C:\>set MY_VAR=#%MY_VAR%
C:\>echo %MY_VAR%
#Hello world!
If you're just doing echo, that's fine. echo #%%j will do what you need.
But if you want to set the line to a variable, you have to enable delayed expansion. Add setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION to the top of your file and then surround your variables with ! instead of %. For example (and notice that I've added delims= to put the entire line in %%j instead of the first word on the line):
#echo off
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
set LINE=
for /f "delims=" %%j in (CMakeLists.txt) do (
set LINE=%%j
if "%%j"=="Extensions AntTweakBar" (
set LINE=#%%j
)
if "%%j"=="Extensions Inspection" (
set LINE=#%%j
)
if "%%j"=="Extensions InspectionBar" (
set LINE=#%%j
)
echo !LINE!
)
Given this input file:
Extensions AntTweakBar
some text
Extensions Inspection
Extensions What?
some more text
Extensions InspectionBar
Extensions InspectionBar this line doesn't match because delims= takes all text
even more text
The above script produces this output:
C:\>comment.bat
#Extensions AntTweakBar
some text
#Extensions Inspection
Extensions What?
some more text
#Extensions InspectionBar
Extensions InspectionBar this line doesn't match because delims= takes all text
even more text
And of course removing #echo off will help you debug problems.
But all that being said, you're about at the limit of what you can accomplish with batch string processing. If you still want to use batch commands, you may need to start writing lines to temporary files and using findstr with a regex.
Without a better understanding of what you want inside your loop or what your CMakeLists.txt file looks like, try this on for starters:
FINDSTR "SOMETHING" %%J && ECHO #%%J || ECHO %%J
The && makes the second command (the ECHO) conditional on the first command exiting without an error state, and the || is like a logical OR and it runs when the first one doesn't.
Really, for modifying the internals of a text file you are probably going to be much better off using either sed or awk - win32 binaries can be found in the UnxUtils project.
I need to replace some text in a JNLP file using a DOS batch file to tune it for the local machine.
The problem is that the search pattern contains an equals sign which is messing up the string replacement in the batch file.
I want to replace the line,
<j2se version="1.5" initial-heap-size="100M" max-heap-size="100M"/>
with specific settings for the initial and max heap sizes.
For example at the moment I have,
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%a in (%filePath%agility.jnlp) do (
set str=%%a
set str=!str:initial-heap-size="100M"=initial-heap-size="%min%M"!
echo !str!>>%filePath%new.jnlp)
but the = in the search pattern is being read as part of the replacement command.
How do I escape the equals sign so it is processed as text?
The best solution is to download and install Cygwin or GNUWin32 but, if you're really limited to the standard command processor, it can get a little messy.
This is not the fastest method in the world but it's at least functional. This command file processes each line one character at a time, treating specially the case where you find the stanza you're looking for.
#echo off
set init=50M
set max=75M
setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%a in (agility.jnlp) do (
set str1=%%a
call :morph
echo !str2!>>agility_new.jnlp
echo !str2!
)
endlocal
goto :eof
:morph
set str2=
:morph1
if not "x!str1!"=="x" (
if "!str1:~0,18!"=="initial-heap-size=" (
set str2=!str2!initial-heap-size="!init!"
set str1=!str1:~24!
goto :morph1
)
if "!str1:~0,14!"=="max-heap-size=" (
set str2=!str2!max-heap-size="!max!"
set str1=!str1:~20!
goto :morph1
)
set str2=!str2!!str1:~0,1!
set str1=!str1:~1!
goto :morph1
)
goto :eof
With the input file:
<j2se version="1.5" initial-heap-size="100M" max-heap-size="100M"/>
next line
===
you end up with:
<j2se version="1.5" initial-heap-size="50M" max-heap-size="75M"/>
next line
===
One cannot simply replace (a substring with) an equal-sign, without splitting up (for-statement with "delims==") or trimming…
But perhaps you could go for this simpler but more confusing approach, using the following statement in your for-loop:
set str=!str:"100M" max-heap-size="%min%M" max-heap-size!
It just combines the string to replace with what comes after instead of what comes before, avoiding any equal-sign replacements entirely.
If you can pass the arguments as something else, such as double underscores, you can iterate through them and convert them to '=' in the batch file.
#rem Replace __ with = in batch files.
#rem This works around the lack of equals signs in args
#rem args contains full args string with substitutions in place
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
:argloop
if "%~1" NEQ "" (
set str=%~1
set out=!str:__==!
set %~1=!out!
set args=!args!!out!
SHIFT
goto :argloop
)
#rem Can now run program on a line on its own with just %args%
Source: https://github.com/mlabbe/batchargs
Here's an alternative solution. If you can afford to download GNU tools, you can use sed:
C:\test>set a=200
C:\test>sed -i.bak "s/^\(.*initial-heap-size=\"\).*\( max.*\)/\1%a%\"\2/" file