The power of batch files

[Ian]

For those that used DOS years ago, batch files (.bat) were really handy little scripts that you could run to perform quick tasks.

I thought I'd seen the last of them years ago, however I've spent a couple of hours making & testing a backup script for the server which automates the last thing I had to do manually. It's easy to forget how powerful batch files can be!

This thing lets me zip up all the files on the server, name them by date, FTP them to a remote server and clean up the temp files that are left over. All in about 15 lines

I forgot how much I like using DOS!

 

[bodhi]

Haha, im with you Ian!! When i used to work in that computer shop, we started building PC's with Dos 6.22 and Windows 3.11. Used to really enjoy configuring computers using the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files etc. I dropped out of computing for a few years and now i am no where near as good as i was at configuring. But give me a PC running DOS and i'll sort it out!!

Bring back DOS!! Lets start a campaign!! Who needs this GUI Vista crap!!

 

[floppybootstomp]

I still have the instructions on how to compile a batch file written in a notebook somewhere.

Also still have the official manuals for DOS 5 & DOS 6. Still look at them occasionally.

I think the last batch file I wrote was to make Quake 1 load from a desktop icon in Win 98.

 

[Anon_F]

I had a few DOS questions on the Software paper for my A+ exam in 2006.
It's now not part of the exam at all!

 

[muckshifter]

Ian, I had to smile ... .BAT files have never died.


A Vista example ...

Open Notepad and type the following on the first line:

cd C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local

and on the second line type:

rmdir /S /Q Temp

and save the file to your desktop, or any location, as ... removeTemp.bat


It's a simple .BAT file for removing your temp files ... in Vista, only files older than a week are deleted using their built-in cleanup tools ... the .BAT file above deletes all.

You do need to use separate lines in Vista.

There is also a "fix" if your .BAT files do not 'execute' but just open notepad.


One of the first thing one learnt in "those days" was how to write a .BAT file.