DOS Batch tips

Using ANSI Colors in echo
Variables
- Get the function name
- Remove double-quotes
Code snippets
Functions
License

Using ANSI Colors in echo

You can combine colors like [30m[43m where 30is the font-color (black) and 43 the background-color (yellow).

@ECHO off
cls
ECHO.
ECHO [30m[43mSomething written in BLACK (with a YELLOW background for visibility)[0m
ECHO [31mSomething written in RED[0m
ECHO [32mSomething written in GREEN[0m
ECHO [33mSomething written in YELLOW[0m
ECHO [34mSomething written in BLUE[0m
ECHO [35mSomething written in PURPLE[0m
ECHO [36mSomething written in CYAN[0m
ECHO [37mSomething written in WHITE[0m
ECHO.
ECHO [40mSomething with a BLACK background[0m
ECHO [41mSomething with a RED background[0m
ECHO [42mSomething with a GREEN background[0m
ECHO [43mSomething with a YELLOW background[0m
ECHO [44mSomething with a BLUE background[0m
ECHO [45mSomething with a PURPLE background[0m
ECHO [46mSomething with a CYAN background[0m
ECHO [47m[31mSomething with a WHITE background (written in RED for visibility)[0m

See also https://gist.github.com/mlocati/fdabcaeb8071d5c75a2d51712db24011 for a few more like bold, underline, ...

Variables

Variable	Description
`%~0`	In a function, display the name of the function
`%~dfp0`	Return the full name of the running script (return f.i. `c:\temp\a.cmd`)
`%~n0%~x0`	Return the base name of the running script (return f.i. `a.cmd`)
`%~dp0`	Return the parent folder name of the running script (return `c:\temp\` when the executed script is `c:\temp\a.cmd`). This is different to the current directory.
`%cd%`	Return the current directory
`%CMDCMDLINE%`	Allow to determine if the script has been fired from a DOS prompt (`"C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe"`) or with a double-click from f.i. the file explorer (`C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c ""C:\temp\script.bat" "`)
`%DATE%`	The system date
`%ERRORLEVEL%`	The error level returned by the last executed command, or by the last called batch script
`%RANDOM%`	A generated pseudo-random number between 0 and 32767
`%TIME%`	The system time in HH:MM:SS.mm format

Get the function name

This is useful for, f.i., debugging purpose (saying which function is responsible for which action/ECHO);

@echo off
cls

call :showhelp :show
exit/b

:showhelp
    ECHO You are in function %~0
    GOTO:EOF

Remove double-quotes

Suppose your script is started with a parameter like this: run.cmd "C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer\readme.txt".

The parameter needs double-quotes here since the full name contains spaces.

The solution is to use %THE_VARIABLE:"=% i.e. the name of the variable followed by a :, the character to trim " and ended by =.

@ECHO off
cls

SET INPUT="C:\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer\readme.txt"

ECHO Not filtered: %INPUT%

SET FILTERED=%INPUT:"=%

ECHO Filtered    : %FILTERED%

Code snippets

Get the number of arguments

Count the number of arguments passed to the script.

This code can't be put in a function since, then, we need to pass arguments to the function and we don't know how many arguments are there.

set argcount=0
for %%i in (%*) do set /a argcount+=1
ECHO The number of arguments is %argcount%

Ask for user input

choice allow to prompt user input. When the choice is a list of options (yes/no or like below 1/2/3/0), the selected option index can be retrieved by reading the %ERRORLEVEL% variable.

@ECHO OFF

CHOICE /C 1230 /M "Press 1 ... or 2 ... or 3  ... or 0 to quit"

IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="1" SET ANSWER=You've choosen for 1
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="2" SET ANSWER=You've choosen for 2
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="3" SET ANSWER=You've choosen for 3
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="4" SET ANSWER=You've choosen to cancel

ECHO Your choice: %ANSWER%

Detect if started from Windows

When you DOS script makes some echos like showing an error message, if the user has double-click on the script through f.i. Windows Explorer, he'll not be able to see the message: the DOS window is closed automatically at the end of the execution.

The snippet below will add a pause to the script in that situation.

Just add this code at the end of your batch.

REM Try to detect if the script was started by double-clicking on it from, f.i., Windows explorer.
REM This is the case when the intern variable %cmdcmdline% contains the "/c" parameter.
REM Note: %cmdcmdline% is empty if the script has been fired from DOS otherwise, looks like this:
REM C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /c ""C:\...\docker-up.bat" "
REM When "/c" is found, ERRORLEVEL is set to 0 so, it's Windows.
REM https://stackoverflow.com/a/12036163/1065340

echo %cmdcmdline% | find /i "/c" >nul 2>&1

if %errorlevel% EQU 0 (
    echo.
    pause
)

Get the list of files, process one by one

Get the list of files in the current folder (in the example) and process files one by one.

@ECHO off
cls
for %%f in (*.*) do (
    ECHO %%f
)

Get the prefix (LEFT)

How to extract the xxx first characters of a string.

Imagine a directory structure where each your coding projects are stored in their own folder and you're using a php_ prefix to sort projects based on the most used language:

@echo off

SET folder=C:\Folder\php_MyProject
SET PREFIX=%folder:~0,4%%

IF %PREFIX% EQU "php_" (
    ECHO "That folder is a PHP project"
)

Loop

See https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Windows_Batch_Scripting#FOR for much more way to make a loop

Simple loop, from 1 till 5

@ECHO off
cls
for %%i in (1,2,3,4,5) do (
    ECHO %%i
)

Loop from 1 till 20, only odd numbers

@ECHO off
cls
for /l %%i in (1,2,20) do (
    ECHO %%i
)

Read a file line by line

With the for /f construct like below, we can process a file line by line, like below:

@ECHO off
cls
for /f "tokens=*" %%l in (readme.md) do (
    ECHO %%l
)

Get the suffix (RIGHT)

How to extract the xxx last characters of a string.

@echo off

SET folder=C:\Folder\SubFolder.wiki
SET SUFFIX=%folder:~-5%

IF %SUFFIX% EQU ".wiki" (
    ECHO "The foldername ends with .wiki"
)

Retrieve the full path of a program in your path

Let's take a real life example: your batch will run an external program and redirect the output to a text file so, just before leaving the batch, you can open the file with Notepad++ but ... how can you make your code generic and open notepad.exe if notepad++ isn't installed?

Here is the solution:

First make sure that the folder where Notepad++ is well mentioned in your system environment variables (i.e. in PATH). Then check the code below; mainly the IF EXISTS block. The FOR /F ... line is quite strange but allow to run the where notepad++.exe command and redirect the output into the notepad variable.

If notepad++ is found in the PATH, %%g will be initialized to the full path of the program;
If notepad++ is not found, the code won't reset the notepad variable and thus keep the default notepad.exe value.

@ECHO OFF

SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion

SET outputFile=%tmp%\test.log

REM Any statements... the objective here is just to create a log file
DIR *.* > %outputFile%

REM Open the log
IF EXIST %outputFile% (

    SET notepad=notepad.exe

    WHERE "notepad++.exe" /Q

    IF !errorlevel!==0 (
        FOR /F "tokens=*" %%g IN ("where notepad++.exe") do (
            SET notepad=%%g
        )
    )

    REM Start notepad++.exe is present otherwise start notepad.exe
    START "!notepad!" %outputFile%
)

ENDLOCAL

Functions

A few theory

Return a boolean or an integer

For this purpose, just use the %errorlevel% internal value.

Below an example, idea is to validate a list of mandatory parameters. If the check is successful, return 0, if anything goes wrong, return -1 (or any code in fact).

REM Check parameters and make sure mandatory parameters have been set
call :checkParams %1 %2 %3

if  %errorlevel% == 0 (
    ECHO "Great, parameters have been set"
)

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- checkParams - Make sure this script is called with the
::      required parameters. In case of errors, the help is
::      displayed and the script will be ended
::  return 0 when success, -1 otherwise
::--------------------------------------------------------
:checkParams

    SET bContinue=0

    IF "%1"=="" (
        ECHO "Please specify a value for all required parameters."
        SET bContinue=-1
    ) ELSE (
        IF "%2"=="" (
            ECHO "You have mention only the first parameter. Please also do this for the second and third one."
            SET bContinue=-1
        ) ELSE (
            IF "%3"=="" (
                ECHO "You forget to set the third parameter."
                SET bContinue=-1
            )
        )
    )

    exit /b %bContinue%

Access the variables inside the function

A function parameter is retrieved by using the %~ syntax; followed by a number to get the first parameter, the second one, ...

For instance (partial example; not executable as is)

@ECHO off
REM Call doIit with two parameters, we can imagine that the first
REM parameter can be any extension and the second is an action
REM like open/copy/print/...
CALL :doIt "PDF" "OPEN"
EXIT/B

:doIt
    ECHO Generate %~1 files and, when done, %~2 them
    GOTO:EOF

CreateLink

Create a symbolic link only if the file doesn't exists yet or is different.

The example below will use the file c:\master\git_check_status.cmd as the master one.

If the file git_check_status.cmd didn't exists yet in the current folder or if the content of that file is different, the file will be (re) created: a symbolic link will be made to the master one.

@ECHO off cls

call :fnFileCreateLink "git_check_status.cmd" "c:\master\git_check_status.cmd"

GOTO END:

::-------------------------------------------------------- ::-- fnFileCompare: Compare two files :: %1 = Full name of the first file :: f.i. "C:\Christophe\Repository\push_wiki.cmd" :: %2 = Full name of the second file :: f.i. "C:\Christophe\Repository\master\push_wiki.cmd" :: :: Return "0" when files are identical; "1" otherwise ::-------------------------------------------------------- :fnFileCompare

SET current=%1
SET master=%2

SET FileCompare="0"

REM /C - case insensitive
REM /L - compare as ASCII text
REM /W - compress whitespace and tabs for comparison
fc /C /L /W "%current%" "%master%" > nul

REM 0 = files are identical
REM 1 = files are different
REM 2 = at least one file didn't exists
IF %ERRORLEVEL% NEQ 0 SET FileCompare="1"

GOTO:EOF

::-------------------------------------------------------- ::-- fnFileCreateLink: Create a file that is a symbolic :: link to another one :: :: %1 = Full name of the file to create :: f.i. "C:\Christophe\Repository\push_wiki.cmd" :: %2 = Full name of the master file :: f.i. "C:\Christophe\Repository\master\push_wiki.cmd" :: :: Note: if the file is already present, a file compare will be :: made so the file will be "recreated" only if there is :: a difference with the master one. ::-------------------------------------------------------- :fnFileCreateLink

SET current=%1
SET master=%2

SET CreateFile="Y"

IF EXIST "%current%" (

    REM The file already exists, check if different of the master
    call :fnFileCompare "%current%" "%master%"

    IF !FileCompare! EQU "0" (
        REM Files are identical, nothing to dy
        SET CreateFile="N"
    )
)

IF %CreateFile% EQU "Y" (
    IF EXIST "%current%" DEL "%current%"
    MKLINK "%current%" "%master%"
)

GOTO:EOF

:END

File compare

Compare two files, return 0 when files are identical, 1 when there is at least one difference.

getAbsolutePath

Get the absolute path from a relative file.

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :getAbsolutePath %~dp0..\..\..\..\..\..\autoexec.bat

REM Display C:\autoexec.bat
ECHO %AbsolutePath%

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getAbsolutePath - Make a path absolute, like reapath() does
::--    %1 A filename
::--
::-- Return "C:\Temp\test.cmd" when %1 is "C:\Folder\..\Temp\test.cmd"
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getAbsolutePath
    SET AbsolutePath=%~dpfn1
    GOTO:EOF

:END

getBaseNameWithoutExtension

Remove any folder in a variable filename and return only the filename but without the extension.

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :getBaseNameWithoutExtension C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.txt

REM Display test
ECHO Basename without extension is "%BaseNameWithoutExtension%"

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getBaseNameWithoutExtension - Get basename of a file w/ extension
::--    %1 A filename
::--
::-- Return "test" when %1 is "C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.txt"
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getBaseNameWithoutExtension
    SET BaseNameWithoutExtension=%~n1
    GOTO:EOF

:END

getBaseNameWithExtension

Remove any folder in a variable filename and return only the filename (with extension).

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :getBaseNameWithExtension C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.txt

REM Display test.txt
ECHO Basename with extension is "%BaseNameWithExtension%"

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getBaseNameWithExtension - Get basename + ext of a file
::--    %1 A filename
::--
::-- Return "test.txt" when %1 is "C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.txt"
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getBaseNameWithExtension
    SET BaseNameWithExtension=%~nx1
    GOTO:EOF

:END

getFileNameFromPATH

Get the full name of a file that is stored in one of the folder mentioned in the %PATH%.

If the file can't be found in the %PATH%, return an empty string.

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :getFileNameFromPATH notepad++.exe

REM If Notepad++.exe is in the PATH, return the full name
REM of the file f.i. C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
ECHO File name is %FileNameFromPATH%

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getFileNameFromPATH - Get the full name of a file
::--    that is present in the PATH. Return the first occurrence
::--    If the file isn't found, returns an empty string
::--
::--    %1 A filename
::--
::-- Return a number, the size in bytes
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getFileNameFromPATH
    SET FileNameFromPATH=%~$PATH:1
    GOTO:EOF

:END

getFileSize

Get the file size in bytes.

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :getFileSize C:\Temp\test.bat

REM Display the filesize
ECHO File size is %FileSize%

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getFileSize - Get the file size in bytes
::--    %1 A filename
::--
::-- Return a number, the size in bytes
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getFileSize
    SET FileSize=%~z1
    GOTO:EOF

:END

getFileExtension

Return the file's extension.

Note: when the file has multiple extensions like .xlsx.bak, only the last extension is returned.

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :getFileExtension C:\file.xlsx

REM Display xlsx
ECHO File extension is "%FileExtension%"

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getFileExtension - Get the file's extension
::--    %1 A filename
::--
::-- Return "xlsx" when %1 is "C:\file.xlsx"
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getFileExtension
    SET FileExtension=%~x1
    GOTO:EOF

:END

getFolderName

Return the folder of a file / sub-folder

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :getFolderName C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.txt

REM Display C:\Folder\SubFolder\
ECHO %FolderName%

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getFolderName - Get the foldername of a file
::--    %1 A filename
::--
::-- Return "C:\Folder\SubFolder" when %1 is "C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.txt"
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getFolderName
    SET FolderName=%~dp1
    GOTO:EOF

:END

getParentFolderName

Return the parent folder of a folder

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :getParentFolderName C:\Folder\SubFolder\

REM Display C:\Folder\
ECHO %ParentFolderName%

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getParentFolderName - Get the parent foldername of a folder
::--    %1 A foldername
::--
::-- Return "C:\Folder\" when %1 is "C:\Folder\SubFolder\"
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getParentFolderName
    SET Folder=%1
    FOR %%a IN ("%Folder:~0,-1%") DO SET ParentFolderName=%%~dpa
    GOTO:EOF

END:

getSymLinkTargetPath

Consider the following situation:

You've a generic script called C:\Folder\my_script.cmd
You've create a symbolic link C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.cmd to that file (called the target path).

By running C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.cmd and displaying the script fullname (ECHO %~dfp0), you'll obtain C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.cmd which is the symbolic link. How can you retrieve the target file? The following function will return that info.

@ECHO off
cls

REM %~dfp0 is the current script filename and thus C:\Folder\SubFolder\test.cmd
CALL :getSymLinkTargetPath %~dfp0

REM Display C:\Folder\my_script.cmd
ECHO %SymLinkTargetPath%

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- getSymLinkTargetPath - When a file is a symlink, return the
::--    target path i.e. the original path of the file
::--
::--    %1 A filename that is a symlink to another file
::--
::-- Return "C:\Christophe\...\generate.cmd" f.i. when %1 is
::-- is a symbolic link to that file, no matter where the file is located
::--------------------------------------------------------
:getSymLinkTargetPath

    SET FILE=%1
    SET TargetPath=""
    SET fileDirInfo=""

    IF EXIST %tmp%\symlinks.tmp (
        DEL %tmp%\symlinks.tmp
    )

    REM When using "DIR filename", we get something like below when
    REM the file is a symlink.
    REM 16-10-19  13:18    <SYMLINK>      phan.bat [C:\Christophe\phan.bat]
    REM
    REM Using the findstr pipe will allow us to check if the file is a
    REM symlink
    REM Output that line in the .tmp file so we can read the file after
    REM and process the string as a DOS string variable
    dir %FILE% | findstr "<SYMLINK>" > %tmp%\symlinks.tmp

    IF EXIST %tmp%\symlinks.tmp (
        SET /p fileDirInfo=<%tmp%\symlinks.tmp

        REM Here, fileDirInfo, contains the following:
        REM 16-10-19  13:18    <SYMLINK>      phan.bat [C:\Christophe\phan.bat]
        REM Extract here the portion between brackets => we'll extract part2
        for /f "useback tokens=1,2,3 delims=[]" %%a in ('!fileDirInfo!') do (
            set "TargetPath=%%b"
        )
    )

    REM Done, we've our original file (C:\Christophe\phan.bat)
    SET SymLinkTargetPath=%TargetPath%

    GOTO:EOF

:END

isAdmin

Detect if the script has been executed from a DOS Prompt fired under admin privileges.

call :fnIsAdminMode

IF %isAdmin% EQU "0" (
    END "Please start this script with admin privileges"
    GOTO END
)

REM ... Ok, the script can continue

GOTO END

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- fnIsAdminMode: Detect if the CMD prompt has been started
::      with "Run as admin" or not
:: Return "1" when admin mode set; "0" otherwise
::--------------------------------------------------------
:fnIsAdminMode

    SET isAdmin="0"

    openfiles >nul 2>&1

    REM If not equal to 0, command prompt not run under admin privileges
    IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 SET isAdmin="1"

    GOTO:EOF

END:

isEmptyFolder

Detect is a folder is empty or not.

@ECHO off
cls

CALL :fnIsEmptyFolder C:\Folder

IF "%isEmpty%" EQU "1" (
    ECHO "The folder is empty"
) ELSE (
    ECHO "There is at least one file in the folder"
)

GOTO END:

::--------------------------------------------------------
::-- fnIsEmptyFolder: Check if a folder is empty or not
:: Return 1 when empty, 0 if there is at least one file
::--------------------------------------------------------
:fnIsEmptyFolder

    SET isEmpty=1

    for /f "delims=" %%a in ("dir /b %1") do (
        REM At least one file
        SET isEmpty=0
    )

    GOTO:EOF

:END

License

MIT

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readme.md

readme.md

DOS Batch tips

Using ANSI Colors in echo

Variables

Get the function name

Remove double-quotes

Code snippets

Get the number of arguments

Ask for user input

Detect if started from Windows

Get the list of files, process one by one

Get the prefix (LEFT)

Loop

Read a file line by line

Get the suffix (RIGHT)

Retrieve the full path of a program in your path

Functions

A few theory

Return a boolean or an integer

Access the variables inside the function

CreateLink

File compare

getAbsolutePath

getBaseNameWithoutExtension

getBaseNameWithExtension

getFileNameFromPATH

getFileSize

getFileExtension

getFolderName

getParentFolderName

getSymLinkTargetPath

isAdmin

isEmptyFolder

License

Files

readme.md

Latest commit

History

readme.md

File metadata and controls

DOS Batch tips

Using ANSI Colors in echo

Variables

Get the function name

Remove double-quotes

Code snippets

Get the number of arguments

Ask for user input

Detect if started from Windows

Get the list of files, process one by one

Get the prefix (LEFT)

Loop

Read a file line by line

Get the suffix (RIGHT)

Retrieve the full path of a program in your path

Functions

A few theory

Return a boolean or an integer

Access the variables inside the function

CreateLink

File compare

getAbsolutePath

getBaseNameWithoutExtension

getBaseNameWithExtension

getFileNameFromPATH

getFileSize

getFileExtension

getFolderName

getParentFolderName

getSymLinkTargetPath

isAdmin

isEmptyFolder

License