Batch file to run a command in cmd within a directory

Question

I want to have a batch file(must be placed on desktop) which does the following;

• opens cmd
• navigates to a directory, e.g. C:\activiti-5.9\setup
• runs a command within the directory, e.g. ant demo.start (this command runs the activiti server)

I tried the following to reach to the directory but how to run command, "ant demo.start"?

START cmd.exe /k "cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup"

Thank you for the help.

EDIT:

Referring to zb226's answer below: One more question if you can answer me is how to make that cmd to be run as administrator? will the following work?

START cmd /K "runas /user:administrator & cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup & ant demo.start"

Answer 1

Chain arbitrary commands using & like this:

command1 & command2 & command3 & ...

Thus, in your particular case, put this line in a batch file on your desktop:

START cmd.exe /k "cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup & ant demo.start"

You can also use && to chain commands, albeit this will perform error checking and the execution chain will break if one of the commands fails. The behaviour is detailed here.

Edit: Intrigued by @James K's comment "You CAN chain the commands, but they will have no effect", I tested some more and to my surprise discovered, that the program I was starting in my original test - firefox.exe - while not existing in a directory in the PATH environment variable, is actually executable anywhere on my system (which really made me wonder - see bottom of answer for explanation). So in fact executing...

START cmd.exe /k "cd C:\progra~1\mozill~1 && firefox"

...didn't prove the solution was working. So I chose another program (nLite) after making sure that it was not executable anywhere on my system:

START cmd.exe /k "cd C:\progra~1\nlite && nlite"

And that works just as my original answer already suggested. A Windows version is not given in the question, but I'm using Windows XP, btw.

---

If anybody is interested why firefox.exe, while not being in PATH, is executable anywhere on my system - and very probably on yours as well - this is due to a registry key where applications can be registered to be available everywhere. See this SU answer for details.

Answer 2

For me, the following is working and running activiti server as well as opening the explorer in browser (with the help of zb226's answer and comment);

START "runas /user:administrator" cmd /K "cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup & ant demo.start"

START /wait localhost:8080/activiti-explorer

Answer 3

This question is 5 years old. I wonder why still nobody has found the /d switch to set the working folder:

start /d "c:\activiti-5.9\setup" cmd /k ant demo.start

Answer 4

CMD.EXE will not execute internal commands contained inside the string. Only actual files can be launched with that string.

You will need to actually call a batch file to do what you want.

BAT1.bat

start cmd.exe /k bat2.bat

BAT2.bat

cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup
ant demo.start

You may want to create a folder called BAT, and add it's location to your path. So if you create C:\BAT, add C:\BAT\; to the path. The path is located at:

    click -> Start -> right-click Computer -> Properties ->
    click -> Avanced System Settings -> Environment Variables
   select -> Path (From either list. User Variables are specific to 
                   your profile, System Variables are, duh, system-wide.)
    Click -> Edit
Press the -> the [END] or [HOME] key.
     Type -> C:\BAT\;
    Click -> OK -> OK

Now place all your batch files in C:\BAT and they will be found, regardless of the current directory.