Recovering from an invalid GOTO command in a Windows batch file

Question

In a Windows batch file, I am taking an optional parameter that allows the caller to jump to the middle of the batch file and resume from there.

For example:

if [%1] neq [] (
echo Starting from step %1
goto %1
if %errorlevel% neq 0 goto error
)

:step1

:step2

...

goto end
:error
echo Error handler
...

:end

If the supplied parameter is not a valid label, the batch file immediately exits with the error The system cannot find the batch label specified.

Is there any way for me to handle this error and either execute my error handler block, or resume execution of the entire batch file, as if no parameter had been supplied?

Answer 1

You could try using findstr on the batch locating the goto target:

findstr /r /i /c:"^:%1" %0>nul
if errorlevel 1 goto error

It's a bit of a hack, but should work.

Answer 2

call :label spits out the error doesn't spit out an error when stderr is redirected (thanks, Johannes), and doesn't appear to change the error level, but continues with the batch file. You could set a variable after a label to indicate whether execution got that far.

@echo off
call :foo 2>nul
echo %errorlevel%
:bar
echo bar

yields

C:\>test.cmd
The system cannot find the batch label specified - foo
1
bar
C:\>