[batch-file] Batch file to run a command in cmd within a directory

I want to have a batch file(must be placed on desktop) which does the following;

• opens cmd
• navigates to a directory, e.g. C:\activiti-5.9\setup
• runs a command within the directory, e.g. ant demo.start (this command runs the activiti server)

I tried the following to reach to the directory but how to run command, "ant demo.start"?

START cmd.exe /k "cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup"

Thank you for the help.

EDIT:

Referring to zb226's answer below: One more question if you can answer me is how to make that cmd to be run as administrator? will the following work?

START cmd /K "runas /user:administrator & cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup & ant demo.start"

Chain arbitrary commands using & like this:

command1 & command2 & command3 & ...

Thus, in your particular case, put this line in a batch file on your desktop:

START cmd.exe /k "cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup & ant demo.start"

You can also use && to chain commands, albeit this will perform error checking and the execution chain will break if one of the commands fails. The behaviour is detailed here.

Edit: Intrigued by @James K's comment "You CAN chain the commands, but they will have no effect", I tested some more and to my surprise discovered, that the program I was starting in my original test - firefox.exe - while not existing in a directory in the PATH environment variable, is actually executable anywhere on my system (which really made me wonder - see bottom of answer for explanation). So in fact executing...

START cmd.exe /k "cd C:\progra~1\mozill~1 && firefox"

...didn't prove the solution was working. So I chose another program (nLite) after making sure that it was not executable anywhere on my system:

START cmd.exe /k "cd C:\progra~1\nlite && nlite"

And that works just as my original answer already suggested. A Windows version is not given in the question, but I'm using Windows XP, btw.

If anybody is interested why firefox.exe, while not being in PATH, is executable anywhere on my system - and very probably on yours as well - this is due to a registry key where applications can be registered to be available everywhere. See this SU answer for details.

You Can Also Check It:

cmd /c cd /d C:\activiti-5.9\setup & ant demo.start

CMD.EXE will not execute internal commands contained inside the string. Only actual files can be launched with that string.

You will need to actually call a batch file to do what you want.

BAT1.bat

start cmd.exe /k bat2.bat

BAT2.bat

cd C:\activiti-5.9\setup
ant demo.start

You may want to create a folder called BAT, and add it's location to your path. So if you create C:\BAT, add C:\BAT\; to the path. The path is located at:

    click -> Start -> right-click Computer -> Properties ->
    click -> Avanced System Settings -> Environment Variables
   select -> Path (From either list. User Variables are specific to 
                   your profile, System Variables are, duh, system-wide.)
    Click -> Edit
Press the -> the [END] or [HOME] key.
     Type -> C:\BAT\;
    Click -> OK -> OK

Now place all your batch files in C:\BAT and they will be found, regardless of the current directory.

Mine DID execute commands in order. Here's my version of what I was using it for:

START cmd.exe /k "U: & cd U:\Design_stuff\new_lcso_website_2017 & python -m http.server"

I needed to

1. Change to my U drive
2. CD to a specific folder containing a website I'm redesigning
3. Execute python with the http server module (to display the contents in my browser).

If those commands are out of order, it would not display the correct files. I initially forgot to change to U: and, running the batch file on my Desktop, it created a web page in my browser at http://localhost:8000 showing me the contents of my Desktop instead of the folder I wanted.

This question is 5 years old. I wonder why still nobody has found the /d switch to set the working folder:

start /d "c:\activiti-5.9\setup" cmd /k ant demo.start