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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Batch-Files’ Category

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Windows batch files: How to set a variable with the result of a command (via: Stack Overflow)

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/12/11

One of the easy things in *nix is to set the value of an environment with the output of a command.

Something like this is possible in Windows too, but you have to instruct Windows to keep an empty set of delimiters to capture the full first line.

There is also a small but important difference between Windows and *nix upon command failure: *nix will always return an empty value, but in Windows you must make sure to empty the value first.

Thanks Jesse Dearing for this summary: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »

shorter version of batch file: getting directory and parent directory

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/08/17

Two years ago, I posted a batch file that gets the parent directory of the batch file that runs.

It was convoluted, using substrings and intermediate environment variables so you needed setlocal.

This one does not any more: for both the directory of the batch file, and the parent directory of that directory, one-liners suffice:


echo batchfile=%0
echo full=%~f0
setlocal
for %%d in (%~dp0.) do set Directory=%%~fd
echo Directory=%Directory%
for %%d in (%~dp0..) do set ParentDirectory=%%~fd
echo ParentDirectory=%ParentDirectory%
endlocal

view raw

ShowParentDirectory.bat

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

–jeroen

via: batch files: getting directory and parent directory « The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff.

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Scripting, Software Development | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

command line – create empty text file from a batch file (via: Stack Overflow)

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/08/15

StackOverflow has [WayBack] quite a [WayBack] few questions [WayBack] on creating [WayBack] empty text files from a batch file.

Most answers involve the [WayBack] NUL special file (which is not available on one special version of Windows [WayBack] Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, but can easily be retrofitted).

[WayBack] This is the solution I use most often:

type NUL > EmptyFile.txt

–jeroen

via: [WayBack] command line – How to create empty text file from a batch file? – Stack Overflow.

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Scripting, Software Development | 2 Comments »

Remove the first 3 characters in var in batch file (via: Stack Overflow and Rob van der Woude)

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/08/13

Getting substrings in a batchfile requires you to use the %…:~…% syntax as explained by Rob van der Woude.

Note this only works on batch file variables, so not on batch/function arguments (%1, %2, …)and for-loop indexes (%%f, etc).

This code gets the leftmost three characters of var:

set var=%var:~3%
echo %var%

–jeroen

via Remove the first 3 characters in var in batch file? – Stack Overflow.

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Delphi XE4: installer batch file for “experimental GExperts + code formatter for Delphi XE4”

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/12

Slightly more than a month ago, Thomas Müller release the experimental GExperts + code formatter for Delphi XE4.

Since there is no official GExperts for Delphi XE4 build yet, his installation instructions include this:

Use the ExpertManager tool to register GExperts to Delphi XE4.

The thing is: ExpertManager is part of GExperts, so this introduces a “chichen-and-egg” situation.

So I wrote a small batch file and a bit of documentation to install it.

Just in case you cannot download that SVN changeset easily, here are the documentation and batch-file:

Documentation

Steps to install:
0- Quit Delphi XE4
1- Download the GExperts XE4 experimental from http://blog.dummzeuch.de/2013/04/28/experimental-gexperts-code-formatter-for-delphi-xe4/
2- Recursively unpack that download
3- Copy the batch file Install-GExperts-XE4-experimental–run-as-administrator-from-ExpertManager.exe-directory.bat into that directory
4- From that directory, run the copied Install-GExperts-XE4-experimental–run-as-administrator-from-ExpertManager.exe-directory.bat
5- Run Delphi XE4
6- Check if GExperts is installed

Batch file

:: check if user is administrator

  "C:\Windows\system32\cacls.exe" "C:\Windows\system32\config\system" 1>nul 2>&1  && (goto :isAdmin)
:isNoAdmin
  echo you need to be Administrator, and (when under Vista or higher) run this using using UAC
  goto :exit

:isAdmin

:: Gets the right link for x86 (32-bit) program files
IF /I %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE% == amd64 goto :x64
IF /I %PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432% == amd64 goto :x64
goto :x86
:x64
   :: OS is 64bit
   set ProgramFilesX86=%ProgramFiles(x86)%
  goto :continue
:x86
   :: OS is 32bit
  set ProgramFilesX86=%ProgramFiles%
  goto :continue

:continue

:: create the right directory and copy the files

  setlocal

  set TargetDirectory=%ProgramFilesX86%\GExperts for RAD Studio XE4

  mkdir "%TargetDirectory%"
::  set FilesToCopy=DbugIntf.pas ExpertManager.exe GExperts.chm GExpertsDebugWindow.exe GExpertsGrep.exe regularexpert\GExpertsRSXE4.dll Readme.txt preview.pas
  set FilesToCopy=ExpertManager.exe GExperts.chm regularexpert\GExpertsRSXE4.dll preview.pas

  for %%f in (%FilesToCopy%) do copy /y %%f "%TargetDirectory%\"
  set RegFile="%TargetDirectory%\ExpertsXE4.reg"
::  explorer /select,"%TargetDirectory%\GExpertsRSXE4.dll"

:: expand backslash into double backslash for .REG file
  set ExpertTarget="%TargetDirectory%\GExpertsRSXE4.dll"
  set ExpertTarget=%ExpertTarget:\=\\%

::Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
::
::[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Embarcadero\BDS\11.0\Experts]
::"GExperts"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\GExperts for RAD Studio XE4\\GExpertsRSXE4.dll"
::
  echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 >%RegFile%
  echo. >>%RegFile%
  echo [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Embarcadero\BDS\11.0\Experts] >>%RegFile%
  echo "GExperts"=%ExpertTarget% >>%RegFile%
  echo. >>%RegFile%
::  explorer /select,%RegFile%
  regedit /S %RegFile%

  endlocal

  goto :exit

:exit

–jeroen

via: experimental GExperts + code formatter for Delphi XE4 « twm’s blog.

Posted in Batch-Files, Delphi, Delphi XE4, Development, Scripting, Software Development | 2 Comments »

WinAmp AACPlus v2 Encoder: how to encode mono

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/05

AACPlus allows for a many combinations of encoding flags.

Finding out whick allows to encode a mono audio stream is a bit time consuming.

Luckily, I found this post:

If you want encode in mono make this:

enc_aacPlus test.wav test.aac --br (max 256000) --mono

or for streaming:

enc_aacplus - - --br (max 256000) --silent --rawpcm 44100 2 16 --mono

Note that the various versions of enc_aacPlus.exe requires the enc_aacPlus.dll from WinAmp.

--jeroen

via: AACPlus v2 Encoder Problem..

Posted in BASS.NET, Batch-Files, Development, Media Streaming, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Un4seen BASS Audio Library | Leave a Comment »

Handling trailing backslash & directory names with spaces in batch files – Stack Overflow

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/04/04

Thanks Jeb for answering this:

You can solve it with delayed expansion, because delayed expansion works different than percent expansion.

:START
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
@echo What folder do you want to process? (Provide a path without a closing backslash)
set /p datapath=

::Is string empty?
IF X!datapath! == X GOTO:START

::Does string have a trailing slash? if so remove it
IF !datapath:~-1!==\ SET "datapath=!datapath:~0,-1!"

echo !datapath!

It expands later than the percent expansion, and after the delayed expansion no more parsing is done, so even spaces or special characters have any effect.

–jeroen

via:

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Power User, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Command line tool to manage Windows 7 Libraries, with source code – The Old New Thing – Site Home – MSDN Blogs

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/28

Interesting: Command line tool to manage Windows 7 Libraries, with source code – The Old New Thing – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.

Especially as next to some documentation, it points to these two:

–jeroen

Posted in .NET, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, Batch-Files, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, Development, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

START: Start a program, **even if it is not on the PATH** ideal to start various versions of apps from DOS

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/29

A while ago, I had to adapt a DOS app that used one specific version of Excel to do some batch processing so it would support multiple versions of Excel on multiple versions of Windows.

One of the big drawbacks of DOS applications is that the command lines you can use are even shorter than Windows applications, which depending you how you call an application are:

This is how the DOS app written in Clipper (those were the days, it was even linked with Blinker :) started Excel:

c:\progra~1\micros~2\office11\excel.exe parameters
01234567890123456789012345678901234567890
          1         2         3         4

The above depends on 8.3 short file names that in turn depend on the order in which similar named files and directories have been created.

The trick around this, and around different locations/versions of an application, is to use START to find the right version of Excel.

The reason it works is because in addition to PATH, it checks the App Paths portions in the registry in this order to find an executable: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Batch-Files, Development, Encoding, Power User, Scripting, Software Development, Unicode, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

Adding the localized [BUILTIN\Administrators] as SQL Server and giving them SA equivalent rights

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/02

On development machines it can be comfortable to add the local Administrators group to SQL Server, and make them equivalent to SA (SQL Server Administrator).

This especially as SA is disabled by default when you install using Windows Authentication mode (which is the default). You can Change Server Authentication Mode to include SQL Server mode, but then you still have to enable SA (you can even rename SA)

This is basically what you want to do:

CREATE LOGIN [BUILTIN\Administrators] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master];
EXEC master..sp_addsrvrolemember @loginame = N'BUILTIN\Administrators', @rolename = N'sysadmin';
GRANT CONTROL SERVER TO [BUILTIN\Administrators];

There are a few gotchas here:

  • The name of the group BUILTIN\Administrators depends on the localization of your system.
    This is one of the reasons I usually advise clients to have server systems run on the most common ENU (English USA) localization of Windows.
    Another reason is that it is far easier to find information ENU English Messages back on the internet.
  • You need to be SQL Server Administrator to begin with.
    There is a little trick to get this done: you can stop the SQL Server service, then restart SQL Server it in single-user mode.
    In single-user mode, members from the BUILTIN\Administrators group can connect as a member of the sysadmin fixed server role.
  • If you want to access SQL Server as member from BUILTIN\Administrators, you need to run your SQL client tools with the UAC elevated permission (otherwise the Administrative bit is not set, and the BUILTIN\Administrators is not recognized).

That’s what the batch file below solves.

You need to start it as member of BUILTIN\Administrators with elevated privilege (the easiest way is to run it from an elevated command prompt).

It will: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Batch-Files, Database Development, Development, Scripting, Software Development, SQL Server, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012 | Leave a Comment »

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