Update: Now that it’s 2016 I’d use PowerShell for this unless there’s a really compelling backwards-compatible reason for it, particularly because of the regional settings issue with using date. See @npocmaka’s https://stackoverflow.com/a/19799236/8479 What’s a Windows command line statement(s) I can use to get the current datetime in a format that I can put into a … Read more
I want to create a few batch files to automate a program. My question is when I create the batch file, what is the current directory? Is it the directory where the file is located or is it the same directory that appears in the command prompt, or something else? 9 s 9 From within … Read more
What command can I put at the end of a batch file to prevent auto-closing of the console after the execution of the file? 19 s 19 In Windows/DOS batch files: pause This prints a nice “Press any key to continue . . . ” message Or, if you don’t want the “Press any key … Read more
I’ve been using Remote Desktop Connection to get into a workstation. But in this environment, I cannot use the power options in Start Menu. I need an alternative way to shutdown or restart. How do I control my computer’s power state through the command line? 10 s 10 The most common ways to use the … Read more
I am looking for a way to delete all files older than 7 days in a batch file. I’ve searched around the web, and found some examples with hundreds of lines of code, and others that required installing extra command line utilities to accomplish the task. Similar things can be done in BASH in just … Read more
How can you you insert a newline from your batch file output? I want to do something like: echo hello\nworld Which would output: hello world 23 s 23 Use: echo hello echo: echo world
I’m trying to get my commit-build.bat to execute other .BAT files as part of our build process. Content of commit-build.bat: “msbuild.bat” “unit-tests.bat” “deploy.bat” This seems simple enough, but commit-build.bat only executes the first item in the list (msbuild.bat). I have run each of the files separately with no problems. 18 s 18 Use: call msbuild.bat … Read more
This question already has answers here: How to wait in a batch script? [duplicate] (6 answers) Closed 4 years ago. Windows’s Snipping tool can capture the screen, but sometimes I want to capture the screen after five seconds, such as taking an image being displayed by the webcam. (Run the script and smile at the … Read more
As I understand it, .bat is the old 16-bit naming convention, and .cmd is for 32-bit Windows, i.e., starting with NT. But I continue to see .bat files everywhere, and they seem to work exactly the same using either suffix. Assuming that my code will never need to run on anything older than NT, does … Read more
How can I split long commands over multiple lines in a batch file? 7 s 7 You can break up long lines with the caret ^ as long as you remember that the caret and the newline following it are completely removed. So, if there should be a space where you’re breaking the line, include … Read more
