How to run multiple .BAT files within a .BAT file

Question

Use:

call msbuild.bat
call unit-tests.bat
call deploy.bat

When not using CALL, the current batch file stops and the called batch file starts executing. It's a peculiar behavior dating back to the early MS-DOS days.

All the other answers are correct: use call. For example:

 call "msbuild.bat"

History

In ancient DOS versions it was not possible to recursively execute batch files. Then the call command was introduced that called another cmd shell to execute the batch file and returned execution back to the calling cmd shell when finished.

Obviously in later versions no other cmd shell was necessary anymore.

In the early days many batch files depended on the fact that calling a batch file would not return to the calling batch file. Changing that behaviour without additional syntax would have broken many systems like batch menu systems (using batch files for menu structures).

As in many cases with Microsoft, backward compatibility therefore is the reason for this behaviour.

Tips

If your batch files have spaces in their names, use quotes around the name:

call "unit tests.bat"

By the way: if you do not have all the names of the batch files, you could also use for to do this (it does not guarantee the correct order of batch file calls; it follows the order of the file system):

FOR %x IN (*.bat) DO call "%x"

You can also react on errorlevels after a call. Use:

exit /B 1   # Or any other integer value in 0..255

to give back an errorlevel. 0 denotes correct execution. In the calling batch file you can react using

if errorlevel neq 0 <batch command>

Use if errorlevel 1 if you have an older Windows than NT4/2000/XP to catch all errorlevels 1 and greater.

To control the flow of a batch file, there is goto :-(

if errorlevel 2 goto label2
if errorlevel 1 goto label1
...
:label1
...
:label2
...

As others pointed out: have a look at build systems to replace batch files.

If we want to open multiple command prompts then we could use

start cmd /k

/k: is compulsory which will execute.

Launching many command prompts can be done as below.

start cmd /k Call rc_hub.bat 4444

start cmd /k Call rc_grid1.bat 5555

start cmd /k Call rc_grid1.bat 6666

start cmd /k Call rc_grid1.bat 5570.

Try:

call msbuild.bat
call unit-tests.bat
call deploy.bat

You are calling multiple batches in an effort to compile a program. I take for granted that if an error occurs:
1) The program within the batch will exit with an errorlevel;
2) You want to know about it.

for %%b in ("msbuild.bat" "unit-tests.bat" "deploy.bat") do call %%b|| exit /b 1

'||' tests for an errorlevel higher than 0. This way all batches are called in order but will stop at any error, leaving the screen as it is for you to see any error message.

If we have two batch scripts, aaa.bat and bbb.bat, and call like below

call aaa.bat
call bbb.bat

When executing the script, it will call aaa.bat first, wait for the thread of aaa.bat terminate, and call bbb.bat.

But if you don't want to wait for aaa.bat to terminate to call bbb.bat, try to use the START command:

START ["title"] [/D path] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
  [/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
  [/AFFINITY <hex affinity>] [/WAIT] [/B] [command/program]
  [parameters]

Exam:

start /b aaa.bat
start /b bbb.bat