CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsbatch-fileenvironment-variables
R1234
R1234

Reputation: 484

unable to set variable in OR condition when the first condition fails inside a batch file

These commands are inside a bat file which has delayed expansions enabled. I'm trying to check for a non existent command so that if it fails my programs doesn't hang up and I have a flag which can help me.

The flag here is path_check:

set /a path_check=1
echo !PATH! | ( findatr /i "C:\\Windows\\System32;" 2>NUL || echo "here")

this prints "here" with success: 

set /a path_check=1
echo !PATH! | ( findatr /i "C:\\Windows\\System32;" 2>NUL || set /a path_check=1
)
echo !path_check!

this prints 1 instead of 0.

I can't attribute anything to this inconsistent behavior. In case the command exists but fails otherwise the program is responding fine.

EDIT

Based on the responses, I want to highlight that I'm using a non existent command and NOT a command that returns an error but exists otherwise. findatr is not a typo, it's intentionally that because I want to check for a non existent command.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 73

Answers (3)

jeb
jeb

Reputation: 82307

Your code works, but not at you expect!

The variable path_check is set to 1, but as the pipe creates a new cmd-context, the variable is only valid/accessible there.
And after the pipe is ready the sub cmd-context will be removed and also the variable.

But perhaps you should change your solution to first check if your program is in the path, before you try to start it.

set "path_check=0"
for /f "delims=" %%I in ("findatr.exe") do (
  if "%~$PATH:I" == "" set "path_check=1"
)
echo %path_check%

Upvotes: 0

foxidrive
foxidrive

Reputation: 41234

newcommand >nul 2>nul & if errorlevel 9009 echo command doesn't exist (on the path)

Upvotes: 1

Endoro
Endoro

Reputation: 37569

example (prints 0 if found, otherwise 1):

set /a path_check=0
echo %PATH% | findstr /i "C:\\Windows\\System32;" 2>NUL || set /a path_check=1
echo %path_check%

Upvotes: 1

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