CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsbatch-filedouble-quotes
Danny Lo
Danny Lo

Reputation: 1583

Troubles with double quotes and for /f

I am working on a batch-script and trying to make it work in directories containing spaces. In a particular line I do the following loop:

for /f "tokens=*" %%A in ('%~dp0fciv\fciv.exe -md5 %~dp1%FN%') do ...

If the current directory contains spaces the loop will fail to call the executable. Now I put it double quotes to fix it:

for /f "tokens=*" %%A in ('"%~dp0fciv\fciv.exe" -md5 %~dp1%FN%') do ...

This works fine until the parameter doesn't have spaces. Thus I need to put it in the double quotes too:

for /f "tokens=*" %%A in ('"%~dp0fciv\fciv.exe" -md5 "%~dp1%FN%"') do ...

But this doesn't work as expected. I made additional tests straight in the cmd:

for /F "tokens=* usebackq" %A in (`"c:\Test Folder\fciv\fciv.exe" -md5 "d:\Somefile"`) do echo %A
for /F "tokens=*" %A in ('"c:\Test Folder\fciv\fciv.exe" -md5 "d:\Somefile"') do echo %A

The error is: "c:\Test" not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

I also tried to leave the second double quotes out again:

for /F "tokens=*" %A in ('"c:\Test Folder\fciv\fciv.exe" -md5 d:\Somefile') do echo %A

That command does surprisingly what it should.

Why does the error happening and how to achieve the desired functionality?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 180

Answers (2)

Robert Brisita
Robert Brisita

Reputation: 5844

I recently had this issue and the accepted answer did not work for me. I ended up wrapping the command and its functionality into another CMD file and then calling it from the FOR /F. Here is an example of the command:

wmic fsdir where name="C:\\some\\path\\to\\a\\folder" get creationdate

The path was extracted and passed in as a variable and the output captured and set in the DO section for the FOR /F of the calling script.

Hopes this helps someone in the future.

Upvotes: 0

fredasw
fredasw

Reputation: 26

Enclose entire command, within the backquotes, in quotes. 

C:\Users\User>for /F "usebackq tokens=*" %A in (`""C:\Users\Use r\Desktop\Editor\UEd\UEd.exe" -md5 "d:\Somefile""`) do echo %A

Removing the last backquote may have worked if no parameters.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions