cmd files

On Thu, 2 Dec 2010 09:43:34 -0600, Dond13 wrote:

OK, I've been getting so many helpful comments that I am probably getting
confused. I am taking the suggestion of the "CHOICE" command and using it.
It seems to work up to a point, and that is when I substitute "%drive%" for
the drive address, it inserts nothing. I receive an error that I can't make
a 'cyclic' copy. I am showing a shortened version of my original cmd file
with the suggested fixes. Can you look it over and see where I am going
wrong please? Thanks

Don D.

CHOICE /C LGDID /N /m "Backup to drive l:, G:, I: D:, (or N for None)?"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 SET DRIVE = L:
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 SET DRIVE = G:
IF ERRORLEVEL 3 SET DRIVE = I:
IF ERRORLEVEL 4 SET DRIVE = D:
IF ERRORLEVEL 5 (
ECHO nO BACKUP DRIVE CHOSEN
ECHO
PAUSE
rem GOTO EXIT
)

ECHO Backing up to %DRIVE%
echo/
CHOICE /C YN /N /m "OK to proceed? Y or N?"
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 (
pause
GOTO exit)



ECHO

xcopy c:\excel\*.* %DRIVE%\excel\ /v /y /s /d
if errorlevel 1 goto error
xcopy c:\quattro\*.* %DRIVE%\quattro\ /v /y /s /d
if errorlevel 1 goto error
goto exit
:error
echo There was an error writing to the disk.
echo The disk may be full or it may not be
echo formatted. Check and try again.
echo.
pause
:exit
pause

You would get that behavior if drive didn't get set, since in that case
the xcopy command would be interpreted as:
xcopy c:\excel\*.* \excel\ /v /y /s /d

Put a command
echo Selected drive is %drive%

ahead of the copy commands and see what you get.

Also in your choice command you wrote LGDID instead of LGDIN. I have no
idea what that would do. I'll leave the testing up to you - but do the
echo before you make that change, just to see what is happening - that
makes for a better experiment :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message
.. .


The only bad thing is that I almost never use scripts (bat, cmd)
these
days, so now I have knowledge that all I can do with is brag about
it
:-)

Maybe I'll do that at lunch later today...


They are still a regular part of my life both at home and work so I
tend to keep up with the basics - I won't pretend to be anything more
than a casual batch scripter, intermediate level at best. I always
thought I was pretty good at it, but I've since learned where I really
am on the scale - if you've seen what the regulars over in
alt.msdos.batch and alt.msdos.batch.nt are capable of you'd understand
where I'm coming from...

--
Zaphod

Voted "Worst Dressed Sentient Being in the Known Universe" for seven
years in a row.

On Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:11:28 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote:
A blank REM is good for layout spacing.

A double colon is even better.

RegCleaner is one of my all-time favourite

You're entitled to your opinion.



--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On Thu, 2 Dec 2010 16:09:50 -0500, Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote:

"Gene E. Bloch" wrote in message
.. .


The only bad thing is that I almost never use scripts (bat, cmd)
these
days, so now I have knowledge that all I can do with is brag about
it
:-)

Maybe I'll do that at lunch later today...


They are still a regular part of my life both at home and work so I
tend to keep up with the basics - I won't pretend to be anything more
than a casual batch scripter, intermediate level at best. I always
thought I was pretty good at it, but I've since learned where I really
am on the scale - if you've seen what the regulars over in
alt.msdos.batch and alt.msdos.batch.nt are capable of you'd understand
where I'm coming from...

Maybe I'll look there, but right now I'm not ready to embarrass myself
:-)

And I forgot to say thanks for this:
A bit of research reveals that when called from a .CMD,
'set' resets errorlevel, but when called from a .BAT, it does not.
Not sure what the reasoning is behind the behavior, but it is
consistent back to XP at least
....

from an earlier post by you. It's very credible, but testing it could be
hard. It is possible that echo %errorlevel% would return a new
errorlevel. Yeahbut...One could first save the value by:

set tempval %errorlevel%

with no loss of generality (I haven't said *that* for a long time!).

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

"Stan Brown" wrote in message
t...
On Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:11:28 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote:
A blank REM is good for layout spacing.

A double colon is even better.


Except that using a broken label (double colon) as comment starter in
a loop or other parenthetical structure will break it. For example:

IF EXIST C:\autoexec.bat (
::
ECHO Do something
::
)

results in the error message:

) was unexpected at this time.

But if you replace them with REM statements, it works fine. You run
into similar problems in FOR loops.

--
Zaphod

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster: A cocktail based on Janx Spirit.
The effect of one is like having your brain smashed out
by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 20:12:01 -0000, Sunny Bard
wrote:

Dond13 wrote:
I would appreciate some help with a problem I am having. I have some
cmd files that I have written to backup specific folders to a flash
drive. I want to be able to change the physical drive using either an
entry calling the cmd file or imbed a command within the file to be able
to change the physical address of the drive. Sometimes I use F: G: or
H: and don't feel it is necessary to have separate cmd files for each
drive. I have been a programmer in another life, but am an old fart now
and can't get it done as I could in the past. I just need help. .

If you call the .cmd file from a shortcut, or from a cmd.exe window,,
you can pass the F: G: or H: argument on the command line, then within
the .cmd file replace your hard coded drive letter with %1


keep your backup command on the pendrive - then you *have* to find the
drive letter!

e.g. savefile.cmd is

copy c:\users\mystuff\*.* \mystuffbu\

etc

--
"Nuns! NUNS! Reverse! Reverse!"

On Fri, 3 Dec 2010 08:26:05 -0500, Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote:

"Stan Brown" wrote in message
t...
On Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:11:28 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote:
A blank REM is good for layout spacing.

A double colon is even better.


Except that using a broken label (double colon) as comment starter in
a loop or other parenthetical structure will break it. For example:

IF EXIST C:\autoexec.bat (
::
ECHO Do something
::
)

results in the error message:

) was unexpected at this time.

But if you replace them with REM statements, it works fine. You run
into similar problems in FOR loops.

Thanks -- I haven't actually written a batch file in native command
prompt since before the ( ... ) construct was added; I've been using
4NT and then TCCLE. So I appreciate the correction.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...