"Frequently Asked Questions about CMD.EXE Command Line Scripts"

T

Timo Salmi

Dear Readers,

Before posting a CMD.EXE command line script related question please be
aware of the information and solutions material already available, such
as

91623 Mar 18 2004 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/link/tscmd.zip
tscmd.zip Useful NT/2000/XP script tricks and tips, T.Salmi

In case of grave difficulties in getting this file from Garbo archives
see
Sites with permission to mirror Garbo archives
http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/garbinfo/garbmirr.html

The contents of the FAQ-like script tips collection is given below.
For more command line script or near information sources please see

http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/http2.html#cmdscript

This file TSCMDIDX.TXT lists the contents of

1CMDFAQ.TXT NT/2000/XP CMD.EXE Script Tricks
in ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/link/tscmd.zip
Alternatively available with the version number as
ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/ts/tscmd18.zip

--------------------------------------------------------------------
1} How get today's date elements into environment variables?
2} On Windows XP how do you stop the script files from closing?
3} How can I customize the Command Prompt Window with script commands?
4} How can I test is it on MSDOS/Win3..9x/Me or NT/2000/XP?
5} How do I get a fully qualified path name of my script?
6} How does one get yesterday's date?
7} How can I test if two files agree in size and datetime stamp?
8} How do I find all the files made at of after YYYYMMDD HHMM?
9} How can I suppress script error messages altogether?
10} How can I change the environment variable values within a FOR loop?
11} How do I retain my original code page in these scripts?
12} How can I rename all my .JPG files sequentially in a folder?
13} How do I get the current day of the week?
14} Help! My old batch files won't work since there is no choice.
15} Is it possible to echo without linefeed like the Unix echo -n?
16} How can I get the time without having to press enter?
17} How can I avoid the potential "ECHO is off." in echoing %myvar%
18} How does one build re-usable script function modules?
19} How can one build a delay / sleep / wait procedure for a script?
20} Is is possible to right-justify numbers or words in a script?
21} Do you have pointers to additional script material and tips?
22} How do I capture the current folder name into a variable?
23} How do I get the n:th, the first and the last line of a text file?
24} How do I get the m:th item on the n:th line of a text file?
25} How can I quote with e.g. "> " an entire message?
26} How do I get the length of a string into a variable?
27} How can I remove all the blank lines from a text file?
28} How to convert a file written in IBM PC characters into LATIN1?
29} How do I drop the first two characters of a string, and so on?
30} Can one calculate the difference between two times in a script?
31} How many days ago was 31.12.2003? What date it was a 100 days ago?
32} How can I convert a decimal number to binary, octal, hexadecimal?
33} How can I convert a binary, octal, hexadecimal into a decimal?
34} How can I remove the quote characters from a line?
35} How can I substitute the second field on each line of my file?
36} I start a program from my script and it hogs my command window.
37} How can I insert a line in the middle of a file with a script?
38} How can I set and test the errorlevel within a script file?
39} Is there a subroutine to convert a variable into uppercase?
40} How do I get the number of arguments given to a script?
41} How can I create a zero-byte file? How do I test for it?
42} What is the subroutine for testing a filename for wildcards?
43} Is there a way of counting the number of files in a folder?
44} How do I get the first 68 columns from a text file?
45} How can I find out how many days old a file is?
46} Is a program available in the default folder or at path?
47} Is it possible to echo the redirection symbol in a script?
48} Why do some comment lines cause errors? What can I do about it?
49} I need to reverse a text file. How do I do that fairly quickly?
50} How do I get the position of a substring in a string?
51} How can I echo lines in different colors in NT scripts?
52} How can I enter a password into a variable without echoing it?
53} How can I test if a disk device is ready or not?
54} How can I get the type of a disk device?
55} How to get the creation, last modified and last access of a file?
56} How to find and move more recent files from one folder to another?
57} How do I get a list of all my empty folders on c:\ ?
58} How do I best combine two quoted arguments into one quoted string?
59} How do I find if a folder exists? How about visible files in it?
60} How do I delete all but most recent 20 files in a folder?
 
J

John Tiedt

It gives the error message "Out" is not a recognized program or Batch File.
Then states that files are '0' old.

J. Tiedt
 

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