Batch

This page is about Microsoft Batch script language.

Syntax

Command	Content
`cd X`	Move to folder X
`REM`	Comments / Remarks
`echo`	Write to console
`@echo off`	Don’t write script content to console
`a & b`	Do `a` and `b` commands in parallel
`a && b`	Do `a` and `b` commands in serial

Variables

Set and use a variable

  REM Spaces are significants
  set message=Hello World
  echo %message%

  REM to define variables to be local:
  setlocal
  REM to add something to PATH
  set PATH=%PATH%;c:\whatever\else

Environment variables	Content
`%COMPUTERNAME%`	Computer name

Loops

if var1 == var (
    echo do something
) else (
    echo do else
)

Files & Folder

Folder
- Create mkdir
Files & folder
- Rename REN or rename
- Use a drag-n-dropped file in a batch: "%~1"
- Shortcut to start a command line in the current directory: create a bat file containing @cmd
Variables stored into a file
- Save echo %var%>filename
- Load set /p var=<filename
Test if something exists
- File if exist filename (...)
- Folder if exist folder\ (...)

Executables

There’s several ways to launch an app:

start
call

Somewhat related: if you want to pass a command in a LNK shortcut to the command line, use cmd.exe /k yourcommand