Batch script to execute some commands in each sub-folder

Question

I need to write a script to work in Windows, that when executed will run a command in some of sub-directories, but unfortunately I have never done anything in batch, and I don't know where to start.

With the example structure of folders:

\root    \one    \two    \three    \four 

I want the script to enter the specified folders (e.g. only 'one' and 'four') and then run some command inside every child directories of that folders.

If you could provide any help, maybe some basic tutorial or just names of the commands I will need, I would be very grateful.

Answer 1

You can tell the batch to iterate directories:

for /d %i in (C:\temp\*) do ( cd "%i" &  *enter your command here* )  

Use a percent sign when run directly on the command line, two when run from a batch

In a batch this would look something like this:

@echo off set back=%cd% for /d %%i in (C:\temp\*) do ( cd "%%i" echo current directory: cd pause ) cd %back% 

Put the commands you need in the lines between ( and ). If you replace C:\temp\ with %1 you can tell the batch to take the value of the directory from the first parameter when you call it. Depending of the amount of directories you then either call the batch for each directory or read them from a list:

for /f %i in (paths.lst) do call yourbatch %i 

The paths.lstwill look like this:

C:\ D:\ Y:\ C:\foo 

All of this is written from memory, so you might need to add some quotations marks ;-) Please note that this will only process the first level of directories, that means no child folders of a selected child folder.