Windows 'copy' is funny. Type 'copy 1 2' and the file '1' will be copied into a new file '2'. Now separate them by a plus sign instead of a space (copy 1+2) and you'll concatenate 1 and 2 and replace the old file '1' with the result of the concatenation! Xcopy is a built in command on Windows OS which has advanced features than the basic Copy command. The additional features Xcopy has are listed below. Xcopy can copy directories; Xcopy can copy all files including subdirectories recursively and can replicate the source directory structure as is. Xcopy can exclude files based on file name. Normally, the first line in a batch file often consists of the following command. ECHO Command @echo off By default, a batch file will display its command as it runs. The purpose of this first command is to turn off this display. The command 'echo off' turns off the display for the whole script, except for the 'echo off' command itself. How to Write a Batch File. This wikiHow teaches you how to write and save a basic batch file on a Windows computer. A batch file contains a series of DOS (Windows language) commands, and is commonly written to automate frequently performed.
The ren and rename commands are used to change the name of files and directories.
Tip
In earlier releases of MS-DOS, instead of using ren or rename you need to use the move command to rename directories or files.
Availability
Ren and rename are internal commands that are available in the following Microsoft operating systems.
Ren and rename syntax
Renames a file/directory or files/directories.
Note
You cannot specify a new drive or path for the destination of a renamed file.
Ren and rename examplesWindows Batch File Command Multiple Lines
Change the name of the directory computer to hope.
Rename all text files to files with .bak Yosemite zone dmg torrent. extension.
Rename all files to begin with 1_. The asterisk (*) in the command above is an example of a wild character and can represent one or more characters. With nothing placed before or after the first asterisk, all files in the current directory are renamed with a '1_' as the first two characters of the file name.
Tip
To represent or match one single character only, use the question mark (?) character instead.
Note
This command does not append or add text to the front of the file name; it replaces the first two characters of every file in the current directory. For example, if there was a file were named hope.txt, it would be renamed to 1_pe.txt.
Rename the file 'computer hope.txt' to 'example file.txt'. When you are dealing with a file or directory with a space, it must be surrounded by quotes. Otherwise, you'll get an error indicating that 'The syntax of the command is incorrect.'
Additional information
Windows Batch File Syntax Pdf
Using copy command, we can copy files from one directory to another directory. This command is similar to the Linux cp command, but it does not match with the full functionality of cp. Windows copy command can be used to copy files only, we can’t copy directories.
The syntax and usecases of copy command are explained below with examples.
Copy the contents of a file to another file
Example: To copy a file from c:datafile1.doc to D:backupfile2.doc
If the destination file already exists you will be prompted for confirmation. To suppress this confirmation you can use /Y switch with copy command. This would be useful if you are executing copy command from a batch file.
If the destination file exists, the above command will overwrite the same without asking the user for confirmation.
Copy file to another directory
When we specify a directory path as the destination, the files will be copied with the same name. We can assign a different name by specifying the new name in the destination path. Example is shown below.
To copy the file 1.doc loated at c:datadocuments to the directory c:datanewdocs
Copy files with white space in name
If the file name has white space within it, we can wrap up the name in double quotes.
Example: To copy file, my resume.doc to another folder Copy multiple files
We can’t specify multiple file names in
copy command. However, we can use wildcards to identify a group of files and then copy all of them in a single command.For example, to copy all excel files from current folder to another folder F:backup
To copy all files in current folder to another folder
Use of environment variables
We can use environment variables in the copy command to specify the path of the folders. Like USERPROFILE, SystemRoot, ProgramFiles, TEMP, WINDIR, APPDATA, HOMEPATH.
For example, to copy a file to a user’s documents folder
The above command copies the file to the
My Documents folder of the current logged in user.
Windows Batch File Commands
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