find path of current folder - cmd

Question

I use this script to find out the current folder with its .bat file:

for /f %%i in ("%0") do set curpath=%%~dpi  echo  %curpath%  

it doesn't work correctly, if the path contains spaces(D:\Scripts\All Scripts -> retrieves only D:\Scripts\, if I place in the folder, whose path doesn't have spaces it retrieves the full path). How can I fix it?

Answer 1

2015-03-30: Edited - Missing information has been added

To retrieve the current directory you can use the dynamic %cd% variable that holds the current active directory

set "curpath=%cd%" 

This generates a value with a ending backslash for the root directory, and without a backslash for the rest of directories. You can force and ending backslash for any directory with

for %%a in ("%cd%\") do set "curpath=%%~fa" 

Or you can use another dynamic variable: %__CD__% that will return the current active directory with an ending backslash.

Also, remember the %cd% variable can have a value directly assigned. In this case, the value returned will not be the current directory, but the assigned value. You can prevent this with a reference to the current directory

for %%a in (".\") do set "curpath=%%~fa" 

Up to windows XP, the %__CD__% variable has the same behaviour. It can be overwritten by the user, but at least from windows 7 (i can't test it on Vista), any change to the %__CD__% is allowed but when the variable is read, the changed value is ignored and the correct current active directory is retrieved (note: the changed value is still visible using the set command).

BUT all the previous codes will return the current active directory, not the directory where the batch file is stored.

set "curpath=%~dp0" 

It will return the directory where the batch file is stored, with an ending backslash.

BUT this will fail if in the batch file the shift command has been used

shift echo %~dp0 

As the arguments to the batch file has been shifted, the %0 reference to the current batch file is lost.

To prevent this, you can retrieve the reference to the batch file before any shifting, or change the syntax to shift /1 to ensure the shift operation will start at the first argument, not affecting the reference to the batch file. If you can not use any of this options, you can retrieve the reference to the current batch file in a call to a subroutine

@echo off     setlocal enableextensions      rem Destroy batch file reference     shift     echo batch folder is "%~dp0"      rem Call the subroutine to get the batch folder      call :getBatchFolder batchFolder     echo batch folder is "%batchFolder%"      exit /b  :getBatchFolder returnVar     set "%~1=%~dp0" & exit /b 

This approach can also be necessary if when invoked the batch file name is quoted and a full reference is not used (read here).

Answer 2

for /f "delims=" %%i in ("%0") do set "curpath=%%~dpi" echo "%curpath%" 

or

echo "%cd%" 

The double quotes are needed if the path contains any & characters.