Batch Scripting
Basics
Batch scripts are nothing but the sequence of commands which are executes one by one using command interpreter [cmd.exe]. The command line interpreter or cmd.exe is available in almost all versions of windows OS and located at c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe
First of all you need to know the commands which are interpreted by cmd.exe, but before let’s see how command are executes with command interpreter. The cmd.exe executes command in two modes :
1. Interactive Mode :
In Interactive Mode we type commands in “command prompt”. To start the command prompt just go to start Menu and type cmd on search box then hit enter. In this box type “echo hello world” and hit enter, after that command prompt will be return “hello world”. “echo” command prints all the arguments.
2. Non Interactive Mode or Batch Mode :
In Non Interactive Mode or Batch Mode we put all commands in a file and save it as “cmd.bat”, where cmd is file name and “.bat” is the file extension of Batch files or Batch scripts. We simply creates Batch file using notepad, first open notepad and type these
@echo off title My first Batch Script echo .......................... echo Hello Guys This is A batch Script echo .......................... pause exit /b
Now to go file Menu and click on save as option, then change save as type to all files and change the file name to cmd.bat then click to save button. Remember you could give any name to batch file but file extension is always .bat. To executes batch file just click on it.
The commands which are used in above script are :
- @echo off : command ‘echo off’ will be turn off the prompt. Prompt means the execution path of batch file. In my case the path is “C:\User\Ajay\Desktop\”, your differ. After putting @ at the start of a command will prevents shown the execution of command in that line. (To test what @echo off command does just create another batch script similar to above and change @echo off to @echo on then see what happen.)
- Title : Title command is used to set the title of console window.
- Pause : Pause command is pause the command execution and wait for the user input, when user gives any input then next command will be executed.
- Exit : Exit command close the command processor or cmd.exe.
Some Batch Commands
- md : (Make Directory) used to create a new directory.
md dir_name- cd : (Change Directory) used to change directory.
cd dir_name- copy : used to coping files.
copy source_file_name destination_file_name- move : used to moving files.
move source_file_name destination_file_name- ren : used to rename files.
ren old_file_name new_file_name- del : used del files.
del file_name
- dir : used to listing in current directory.
- rem : used to write comments or description inside batch scripts.
rem this is commentwe also write comments using :: sign
:: This is commentNow there is a simple script which demonstrate the above commands
These are some basic commands used in batch scripting. For more batch commands check these links :
@echo off title Script test md my_dir rem create a directory my_dir dir > dir_list.txt rem list all files in current directory with dir command and save the output in dir_list.txt copy dir_list.txt .\my_dir\ rem copy dir_list.txt in my_dir '.' sign before my_dir specify the current working directory. del dir_list.txt rem delete dir_list.txt cd my_dir rem change directory to my_dir ren dir_list.txt renamed_list.txt rem rename dir_list.txt to renamed_list.txt pause exit /b
windows commands List : http://ss64.com/nt/
windows command reference : http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=2632
Variables
To declare a variable use set command
set name="Ajay Kumar"
And to get the variable’s data use %variable_name%
echo %name%To know more about set command just type set /? in command prompt or look at the windows command reference help file. Now here is an example program of set command.
@echo off title TEXT File Creater echo. echo. set /p data="Enter the File Content = " echo. echo. set /p name="Enter file Name = " echo %data% > %name%.txt echo. echo File created Successfully. !! Press Any key To Exit. pause > nul exit /b
Loops
Goto Loop :
@echo off :loop msg * Hello world!! Pause goto loop
For Loop :
Syntax of For loop is
for %%{variable} in (set) do (command)Example :
@echo off FOR %%i IN (Windows, Linux, Mac_OS) DO (echo %%i) Pause exit /b
For loop on numeric mode
Syntax :
for /L %%{variable} in (starting point, step, end point) do (command)@echo off FOR /L %%i IN (1, 1, 20) DO (echo Hello world!!!) Pause exit /b
The above script prints Hello world!!! 20 times, In For loop (1, 1, 20), where first 1 is starting point and second 1 is step means first 1 is increased by 1 at every loop and 20 is end point, when first 1’s value is 20 then for loop is end.
We also write this loop as :
for /L %%i in (20, -1, -1) do (echo hello world)
Conditional Statement
if-else :
@echo off
:Again
set /p num="Enter A Number{0 to continue}: "
if %num%==0 (goto Again) else (
echo.
echo You have entered %num%)
pause > nul
exit /b
if not-else :
@echo off echo. set password=12345 :pass set /p user_input="Enter The Password : " if not %password% == %user_input% ( echo Wrong Password ? echo. goto pass ) else ( echo. echo Congratulations..!! You have SuccessFully Log in pause > nul exit /b)
if exist :
@echo off echo. if exist "C:\Windows\SysWOW64" (echo Your Operating System is 64 bit) else ( echo Your Operating System is 32 bit) echo. Pause exit /b
Command line Arguments
We also use arguments in batch scripts, to access arguments use %1, %2… where %1 denotes first argument and %2 denotes second. Here is an example script which shows how to use Arguments :
@echo off set /a ans=%1+%2+%3 echo. echo The Sum of %1, %2, %3 is %ans%. pause > nul exit /b
Above program takes three arguments, then print their sum. Make sure run this script via command line.
Functions
We can also create functions in Batch programming. Functions are simply a reusable piece of code, in Batch programming a function is creates using a Label and goto :EOF command. Here is an Example of a simple function
:print Echo Hello this is my first function. Echo Which Prints this Message. Goto :EOF
A function can be called by call command which followed by function’s label.
call :printSo the above script look like this
@echo off call :print pause > nul exit/b :print Echo Hello this is my first function. Echo Which Prints this Message. Goto :EOF
for more information and detailed tutorial about functions check out below link
http://commandline.co.uk/lib/treeview/index.php
http://www.dostips.com/DtTutoFunctions.php
Now here is function written by me which returns the IP address of given website url
@echo off & setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS
echo.
set /p url="Enter The WEBSITE URL : "
call :SiteIp %url% ip
echo.
echo The IP Address of %url% is : %ip%
pause > nul
goto :EOF
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:SiteIp %address% ip
::
:: Func: Return the IP address of given Website URl.
:: If function fails, it shows "Problem in Connection.??"
::
:: Args: %1 var for WebSite URl & %2 to receive IP Address.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS & set "ans=Problem in Connection.??"
for /f "tokens=3" %%a in ('ping -n 1 %1^|findstr /B Pinging') do ( set d=%%a)
if exist %d%=nul ( endlocal & set "%2=%ans%" & goto :EOF)
for /f "delims=[]" %%b in ('echo %d%') do ( set data=%%b )
endlocal & set "%2=%data%"
goto :EOF
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
In this below link has a huge collection of ready made functions
http://www.dostips.com/DtCodeCmdLib.php
Colored Batch Script
To create a color-full Batch script use color command, with this command we can change the text color as well as background color. The color code of Batch script is
| Code | Color |
|---|---|
| 0 | Black |
| 1 | Blue |
| 2 | Green |
| 3 | Aqua |
| 4 | Red |
| 5 | Purple |
| 6 | Yellow |
| 7 | White |
| 8 | Gray |
| 9 | Light blue |
| A | Light green |
| B | Light aqua |
| C | Light red |
| D | Light purple |
| E | Light yellow |
| F | Bright white |
For more info about color command type color /? in command prompt. To change the text color only type
color [color code]Example :
color a
For changing text and background color use :
color [background color][text color]Example :
color 1a
Try out this command with different combinations of colors.
Multicolored Batch Script :
Example of a Batch Script which shows multiple colors in a single script :
@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=#" %%a in ('"prompt #$H#$E# & echo on & for %%b in (1) do rem"') do (
set "DEL=%%a"
)
rem Prepare a file "X" with only one dot
<nul > X set /p ".=."
echo.
call :color 0a " Hello Guys This IS Test.... "
echo.
call :color 0b " This IS The Second Colour........ "
echo.
call :color 0c " This IS The Third Colour........ "
echo.
echo.
pause >nul
del X
exit /b
:color
set "param=^%~2" !
set "param=!param:"=\"!"
findstr /p /A:%1 "." "!param!\..\X" nul
<nul set /p ".=%DEL%%DEL%%DEL%%DEL%%DEL%%DEL%%DEL%"
exit /b
Script source page :
References
Here is the list of links for Batch Scripting References :