CMD commands vs .bat commands

[Nathan]

Hello,

I am not exaclty sure if this is the right place to be posting this but it may be considered OS b/c it is windows specific?

Anyways here is the situation. I would like to run a .bat file to run a program through the command line. Here is the code I would like to run from the cmd.

for /R %i IN (.) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" x "%i/*.rar"

Since it is in a .bat I can copy the bat file to the directory and then run the .bat

Here is the problem, when I run it in a .bat it just shows up and disappears. (it doesnt even look like it gets past the command) but the cmd needs to stay open to run the command.

I have tried "pause" and I have also tried to run a "cmd /k" as:

cmd /k 
for /R %i IN (.) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" x "%i/*.rar"

and

for /R %i IN (.) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" x "%i/*.rar" 
cmd /k

and finally:

cmd /k for /R %i IN (.) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" x "%i/*.rar"

None of which worked.

I then tried to run a pause after an echo after the last command ^

Here is exactly what the .bat says:

cmd /k for /R %i IN (.) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" x "%i/*.rar" 
echo test
pause

And here is the output.

C:\Users\Toshiba\Desktop\testing>cmd /k for /R[COLOR="Lime"] \Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" x
"i/*.rar"[/COLOR]
[COLOR="Lime"]Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" x "i/*.rar"  was unexpected at this time.[/COLOR]

C:\Users\Toshiba\Desktop\testing>echo test
test

C:\Users\Toshiba\Desktop\testing>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

It seems as though the bat isnt importing the exact line into the cmd window. Any Ideas?

 

[Yobbles]

You have to run .bat files as admin for them to work correctly in Vista/Win7. Are you doing that?

 

[Nathan]

I ran as admin and same result.

 

[Snowknight26]

Replace each %i with %%i.

 

[icemochalatte]

Try escaping the percent sign using a double percent sign:

for /R %%i IN (.) do "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe" x "%%i/*.rar"

 

[notarat]

Looks like you're trying to archive a large amount of files?

I use the following to xcopy them to a different drive, then I image the drive.

for /f "delims=" %%i in (archives.txt) do echo F|xcopy "K:\%%i" "F:\Archive\%%i" /c /i /z /y

It looks through archives.txt and runs the command for each entry. I too use the %%i

 

[Nathan]

Thank you it worked!!!

Now because I am a person of knowledge, Why is this the case? do .bet files ignore "%" but "%%" is read as "%"

 

[Snowknight26]

As the % is an escape character, you need to escape it in order to have a literal % (that is used to expand the '%i' variable).

 

[tesfaye]

As the % is an escape character, you need to escape it in order to have a literal % (that is used to expand the '%i' variable).

Co-signed.

Nathan: In general, you don't need admin rights to run a cmd file. However, you do need admin rights if you are going to touch a resource/perform an operation that requires admin rights.