Command line .cmd/.bat script, how to get directory of running script

Question

How can you get the directory of the script that was run and use it within the .cmd file?

Answer 1

This is equivalent to the path of the script:

%~dp0 

This uses the batch parameter extension syntax. Parameter 0 is always the script itself.

If your script is stored at C:\example\script.bat, then %~dp0 evaluates to C:\example\.

ss64.com has more information about the parameter extension syntax. Here is the relevant excerpt:

You can get the value of any parameter using a % followed by it's numerical position on the command line.

[...]

When a parameter is used to supply a filename then the following extended syntax can be applied:

[...]

%~d1 Expand %1 to a Drive letter only - C:

[...]

%~p1 Expand %1 to a Path only e.g. \utils\ this includes a trailing \ which may be interpreted as an escape character by some commands.

[...]

The modifiers above can be combined:

%~dp1 Expand %1 to a drive letter and path only

[...]

You can get the pathname of the batch script itself with %0, parameter extensions can be applied to this so %~dp0 will return the Drive and Path to the batch script e.g. W:\scripts\

Answer 2

Raymond Chen has a few ideas:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20050128-00/?p=36573

Quoted here in full because MSDN archives tend to be somewhat unreliable:

The easy way is to use the %CD% pseudo-variable. It expands to the current working directory.

set OLDDIR=%CD%
.. do stuff ..
chdir /d %OLDDIR% &rem restore current directory

(Of course, directory save/restore could more easily have been done with pushd/popd, but that's not the point here.)

The %CD% trick is handy even from the command line. For example, I often find myself in a directory where there's a file that I want to operate on but... oh, I need to chdir to some other directory in order to perform that operation.

set _=%CD%\curfile.txt
cd ... some other directory ...
somecommand args %_% args

(I like to use %_% as my scratch environment variable.)

Type SET /? to see the other pseudo-variables provided by the command processor.

Also the comments in the article are well worth scanning for example this one (via the WayBack Machine, since comments are gone from older articles):

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/01/28/362565.aspx#362741

This covers the use of %~dp0:

If you want to know where the batch file lives: %~dp0

%0 is the name of the batch file. ~dp gives you the drive and path of the specified argument.