Hi all,

If I'm running a "FOR /R" loop that encounters a directory with an
exclamation in it's name and DELAYEDEXPANSION is on, it fails because the
exclamation is left out of the command that FOR builds. The following code
will demonstrate this if you run it on a dir that has a subdir with an ! in
it's name:

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /r "%~1" %%a in (.) do (
dir "%%a">nul
)
endlocal

You will see a "The system cannot find the file specified." pop up.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 12:54:34 -0400, "Michael Herz" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>If I'm running a "FOR /R" loop that encounters a directory with an
>exclamation in it's name and DELAYEDEXPANSION is on, it fails because the
>exclamation is left out of the command that FOR builds. The following code
>will demonstrate this if you run it on a dir that has a subdir with an ! in
>it's name:
>
>setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
>for /r "%~1" %%a in (.) do (
> dir "%%a">nul
> )
>endlocal
>
>You will see a "The system cannot find the file specified." pop up.
>
>Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>

If the folder was C:\\Exc!mark

use C:\\Exc^^!mark

Jerold Schulman
Windows: General MVP
JSI, Inc.
http://www.jsiinc.com

"Michael Herz" wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>If I'm running a "FOR /R" loop that encounters a directory with an
>exclamation in it's name and DELAYEDEXPANSION is on, it fails because the
>exclamation is left out of the command that FOR builds. The following code
>will demonstrate this if you run it on a dir that has a subdir with an ! in
>it's name:
>
>setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
>for /r "%~1" %%a in (.) do (
>dir "%%a">nul
>)
>endlocal
>
>You will see a "The system cannot find the file specified." pop up.
>
>Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
Beside avoiding either exclamation marks or enabledelayedexpansion
(or temporarily switching to disabledelayedexpansion) I see no cure for
your problem.

The for variable passes a value without exclamation mark when delayed
exp. is enabled - and if a folder with that name exists its the wrong
one.

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /r "%~1" %%a in (.) do (dir "%%a">nul)
setlocal disabledelayedexpansion
for /r "%~1" %%a in (.) do (dir "%%a">nul)
endlocal


HTH
--
Greetings
Matthias________________________________________
For help on nt commands enter in a cmd window:
W2K>HH windows.chm::ntcmds.htm XP>HH ntcmds.chm

Exclamations really should have been in the list of disallowed characters
for file names :-(

I thought about scanning for !s and possibly replacing with ^^!s but that's
a lot of work if it's doable at all.

Mike

"Matthias Tacke" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:caqfgc$1e9$01$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Michael Herz" wrote:
>
> >Hi all,
> >
> >If I'm running a "FOR /R" loop that encounters a directory with an
> >exclamation in it's name and DELAYEDEXPANSION is on, it fails because the
> >exclamation is left out of the command that FOR builds. The following
code
> >will demonstrate this if you run it on a dir that has a subdir with an !
in
> >it's name:
> >
> >setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
> >for /r "%~1" %%a in (.) do (
> >dir "%%a">nul
> >)
> >endlocal
> >
> >You will see a "The system cannot find the file specified." pop up.
> >
> >Any thoughts would be appreciated.
> >
> Beside avoiding either exclamation marks or enabledelayedexpansion
> (or temporarily switching to disabledelayedexpansion) I see no cure for
> your problem.
>
> The for variable passes a value without exclamation mark when delayed
> exp. is enabled - and if a folder with that name exists its the wrong
> one.
>
> setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
> for /r "%~1" %%a in (.) do (dir "%%a">nul)
> setlocal disabledelayedexpansion
> for /r "%~1" %%a in (.) do (dir "%%a">nul)
> endlocal
>
>
> HTH
> --
> Greetings
> Matthias________________________________________
> For help on nt commands enter in a cmd window:
> W2K>HH windows.chm::ntcmds.htm XP>HH ntcmds.chm

"Jerold Schulman" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> >
>
> If the folder was C:\\Exc!mark
>
> use C:\\Exc^^!mark
>

The problem is that "FOR /F" is going to be filling in the data based on
what it finds in your dir tree. It's not a user entry.

"Michael Herz" wrote:

>Exclamations really should have been in the list of disallowed characters
>for file names :-(
>
>I thought about scanning for !s and possibly replacing with ^^!s but that's
>a lot of work if it's doable at all.
>
>Mike
>

Not a lot of work, but I'd replace with a minus. But if programs with
registry entries rely on the exclamation mark there is a problem.

@echo off
setlocal disabledelayedexpansion
for /F "delims=" %%A in ('dir /S/B \*!*') do (
set new=%%A
call set new=%%new:!=-%%
call echo ren "%%A" %%new%%
rem call echo ren "%%A" %%new%% >>renexclam.cmd
)

But I'd edit renexclam.cmd before executing it. There are some files
(like PLUS!.hlp in w98) which should keep their names.

--
Greetings
Matthias________________________________________
For help on nt commands enter in a cmd window:
W2K>HH windows.chm::ntcmds.htm XP>HH ntcmds.chm

Thanks Matthias but that's not what I meant. I meant that I thought about
catching the offending files while in the enabledelayedexpansion FOR loop
and somehow specially handling them there.

This limitation almost makes any cmd script that uses "FOR /F" unusable.

Mike

"Michael Herz" wrote:

>Thanks Matthias but that's not what I meant. I meant that I thought about
>catching the offending files while in the enabledelayedexpansion FOR loop
>and somehow specially handling them there.
>
>This limitation almost makes any cmd script that uses "FOR /F" unusable.
>
>Mike
>
You realized, that my batch uses some tricks to circumvent the usage of
enabledelayedexpansion? This way your batches also stay compatible with
win nt4 which doesn't know of delayedexpansion at the cost of slower
execution when using additional calls.

You may also call internal subs, so I can't fully agree with your
statement. For /f is still one of the most useful and used enhanced
commands.

--
Greetings_Matthias___________________________________________________
Have a look at: XP> <hh.exe ntcmds.chm::/ntcmds_new_tools.htm>
W2k and XP> <hh.exe ntcmds.chm::/dos_diffs.htm>

The reason that I say this limitation almost makes any cmd script that uses
"FOR /F" unusable is because if you run into a directory with an ! in it's
name, the for loop will process the dir with the name minus the !. Hopefully
you have error proofed your code so you handle "file not found" errors
properly but in a bad case, processing could pass to an unintended
directory. For example, files in a "!windows" dir would process directing
the commands to the "windows" dir. Depending on what you are doing, this
could be catastrophic.

"Michael Herz" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> The reason that I say this limitation almost makes any cmd script that
uses
> "FOR /F" unusable is because if you run into a directory with an ! in it's
> name, the for loop will process the dir with the name minus the !.
Hopefully
> you have error proofed your code so you handle "file not found" errors
> properly but in a bad case, processing could pass to an unintended
> directory. For example, files in a "!windows" dir would process directing
> the commands to the "windows" dir. Depending on what you are doing, this
> could be catastrophic.

The factors you describe are a good reason to do either or both of the
following:

- develop a standard file and folder naming convention that avoids
problematic filename characters such as "!", "(", and ")".

- test all batch code using the most obtuse file names allowed by the above
policy, and consider using vbscript or some other less syntactically
limiting language when your find most of your coding time is dealing with
filename issues.

Given the above, I use FOR /F in a large proportion of my batch scripts, and
find that it works flawlessly.


/Al