How can I find my error in the batch script?

Question

The code below should archive some files by moving them into a subfolder. The batch file asks the user for the folder path. Then a subfolder should be created and if that was successful, it should move all files in the user input directory into the subdirectory. It works, but it closes although using pause. It does not output anything about a syntax error or anything at all. Please let me know if somebody notices something.

@echo off

SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion

echo Insert path: 
set /p path=
echo the path is %path%
cd %path%

echo The files will be moved to a new folder
pause
mkdir %path%archived_files
IF EXIST "archived_files" ( 
    for /f %%A in ('DIR /A /D /B') do (
        echo %%A && move /Y %path%\%%A %path%archived_files) 
    echo Folder "archived_files" created or already exists
) else ( echo Folder "archived_files" does not exist )

echo the files have been transferred

pause
ENDLOCAL

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65837116/how-can-i-find-my-error-in-the-batch-script

Answer 1

I suggest to use this batch file for the file moving task.

@echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "BatchFileName=%~nx0"
set "BatchFilePath=%~dp0"
set "UserPath=%~1"
if defined UserPath goto ChangeFolder
:UserPrompt
set "UserPath="
set /P "UserPath=Enter path: "
rem Has the user not entered a string?
if not defined UserPath goto UserPrompt
rem Remove all double quotes from input string.
set "UserPath=%UserPath:"=%"
rem Has the user entered just one or more double quotes?
if not defined UserPath goto UserPrompt
:ChangeFolder
pushd "%UserPath%" 2>nul || (echo Folder "%UserPath%" does not exist.& goto UserPrompt)
for /F "eol=| delims=" %%I in ('dir /A-D /B 2^>nul') do goto CreateSubfolder
echo The folder does not contain any file to archive.& goto EndBatch
:CreateSubfolder
md "archived_files" 2>nul
if not exist "archived_files" echo Failed to create subfolder: "archived_files"& goto EndBatch
rem It must be avoided that the currently running batch file is moved too.
set "ExcludeFileOption="
for %%I in ("%UserPath%") do set "CurrentFolderPath=%%~dpI"
if "%CurrentFolderPath%" == "%BatchFilePath%" set "ExcludeFileOption= /XF "%BatchFileName%""
rem The command MOVE used with wildcard * does not move hidden files. A FOR loop
rem with MOVE is slow in comparison to usage of ROBOCOPY to move really all files.
rem The ROBOCOPY option /IS can be removed to avoid moving same files existing
rem already in the subfolder archived_files from a previous batch execution.
echo The files are moved to a new folder.
%SystemRoot%System32
obocopy.exe . archived_files%ExcludeFileOption% /MOV /R:2 /W:5 /IS /NDL /NFL /NJH /NJS
if not errorlevel 2 if errorlevel 1 echo All files are moved successfully.
:EndBatch
popd
endlocal
pause

The batch file can be started with a a folder path as argument. So it is possible to right click on the batch file and click in opened context menu in submenu Send to on item Desktop (create shortcut). The .lnk file created on the user′s desktop can be renamed now also via context menu or key F2 to whatever name is useful like Archive files. Then the shortcut file can be cut with Ctrl+X and pasted with Ctrl+V in the folder %APPDATA%MicrosoftWindowsSendTo to have in Send to context submenu the menu item Archive files. This makes it possible to right click on a folder and click in opened context menu in submenu Send to on Archive files to run the batch file without the need to enter a folder path manually.

The batch file prompts the user for the path if not started with a folder path as first argument or the folder cannot be found at all. This user prompt is done using a safe method. The batch file makes the passed or entered folder temporarily the current folder for the remaining commands using PUSHD and POPD instead of CD to work also with UNC paths.

There is checked next if the folder contains any file at all. Otherwise the user is informed that the directory does not contain files to archive and batch file ends without any further action.

The file movement is done with ROBOCOPY for the reasons described in a remark in the batch file which requires Windows Vista or a newer Windows version or Windows Server 2003 or a newer Windows server version.

I recommend to see also:

• Debugging a batch file which answers your question.
• What is the reason for "X is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"? It explains why path as name for the environment variable to assign the user entered path is a really bad idea.
• How to stop Windows command interpreter from quitting batch file execution on an incorrect user input? It explains the reasons for using the additional code to evaluate the string entered by the user.
• Why is no string output with 'echo %var%' after using 'set var = text' on command line? It explains the recommended syntax for the (re)definition of an environment variable and why using this syntax.
• Syntax error in one of two almost-identical batch scripts: ")" cannot be processed syntactically here describes several common issues made by beginners in batch file coding like not enclosing a file/folder path in double quotes.

For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.

• call /? ... explains %~nx0, %~dp0 and %~1 whereby argument 0 is always the batch file itself.
• dir /?
• echo /?
• endlocal /?
• for /?
• goto /?
• if /?
• md /?
• pause /?
• popd /?
• pushd /?
• rem /?
• robocopy /?
• set /?
• setlocal /?

Other useful documentations used to write this code:

• single line with multiple commands using Windows batch file
• the Microsoft documentations for the used Windows Commands
• the SS64 documentations for the used Windows CMD commands, especially:
  • ROBOCOPY.exe
  • ROBOCOPY Exit Codes
• the Microsoft documentation about Using command redirection operators
  and the SS64 documentation How-to: Redirection

Note: The redirection operator > must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing command FOR which executes the embedded dir command line in a separate command process started in background with %ComSpec% /c and the command line within ' appended as additional arguments.