IF EXIST C directory goto a else goto b problems windows XP batch files

Question

whenever i run the code below it occurs to me I have made a mistake using the if exist lines  as no matter whether the directory exists or not  it acts as if the line was never there    either that or its not reading the else line     echo off   echo   echo  c  Ryan Leach 2010   echo Stockmaster Backup System for exclusive use of Riverland Paper Supplies   echo   echo Please ensure that all computers are out of stock master to the windows xp screen   echo and that the backup usb with the day of the week labeled on it is inserted    pause    IF EXIST D  RPS BACKUP backups to zip  goto zipexist else goto zipexistcontinue    zipexist   IF EXIST d  RPS BACKUP backups old  rd  s  q D  RPS BACKUP backups old   echo backup did not complete last time  backup will restart from zip-usb phase    pause   call zip   goto tidyup    zipexistcontinue    IF EXIST D  RPS BACKUP backups old  goto oldexists else oldexistscontinue    oldexists   IF EXIST d  RPS BACKUP backup temp  rename D  RPS BACKUP backups temp backups to zip   rd  s  q D  RPS BACKUP backups old   echo backup did not complete last time  backup will restart at the zip to usb phase    pause   call zip   goto tidyup    oldexistscontinue    IF EXIST D  RPS BACKUP backups temp  goto tempexists else goto tempexistscontinue    tempexists   IF EXIST D  RPS BACKUP backups old  goto backupfailed else goto tempexistscontinue    backupfailed    rd  s  q D  RPS BACKUP backups temp   echo backup did not complete last time  backup will restart from start    pause    tempexistscontinue    md D  RPS BACKUPS backups temp   xcopy   user1 c   D  RPS BACKUP backups temp user1 c  h  e  z  f  r  i  s  k   IF NOT ERRORLEVEL    1 GOTO ErrorHandler   xcopy C    D  RPS BACKUP backups temp user2 c  h  e  f  r  i  s  k   IF NOT ERRORLEVEL    1 GOTO ErrorHandler   xcopy   user3 c   D  RPS BACKUP backups temp user3 c  h  e  z  f  r  i  s  k   IF NOT ERRORLEVEL    1 GOTO ErrorHandler   call sub   call zip    tidyup   rename D  RPS BACKUP backups to zip backups   pause   goto  eof     ErrorHandler   echo xcopyerrorcode is ERRORLEVEL contact ryan   pause

User · Answer

From the help  if        The ELSE clause must occur on the same line as the command after the IF   For example       IF EXIST filename            del filename        ELSE           echo filename  missing         The following would NOT work because the del command needs to be terminated by a newline       IF EXIST filename  del filename  ELSE echo filename  missing  Nor would the following work  since the ELSE command must be on the same line as the end of the IF command       IF EXIST filename  del filename      ELSE echo filename  missing

User · Answer

If you want to rule out any problems with the else part  try removing the else and place the command on a new line  Like this   IF EXIST D  RPS BACKUP backups temp  goto tempexists goto tempexistscontinue

User · Answer

There s an ELSE in the DOS batch language  Back in the days when I did more of this kinda thing  there wasn t   If my theory is correct and your ELSE is being ignored  you may be better off doing  IF NOT EXIST file GOTO label      which will also save you a line of code  the one right after your IF    Second  I vaguely remember some kind of bug with testing for the existence of directories  Life would be easier if you could test for the existence of a file in that directory  If there s no file you can be sure of  something to try  this used to work up to Win95  IIRC  would be to append the device file name NUL to your directory name  e g   IF NOT EXIST C  dir NUL GOTO

User · Answer

echo off   START rmdir temporary cls IF EXIST  temporary     echo The temporary directory exists  else echo The temporary directory doesn t exist echo  dir temporary  A D pause  echo  echo  echo Note the directory is not found echo  echo Press any key to make a temporary directory  cls  and test again pause  Mkdir temporary cls IF EXIST  temporary     echo The temporary directory exists  else echo The temporary directory doesn t exist echo  dir temporary  A D pause echo  echo press any key to goto START and remove temporary directory  pause   goto START

User · Answer

Use parentheses to group the individual branches   IF EXIST D  RPS BACKUP backups to zip   goto zipexist  else goto zipexistcontinue   In your case the parser won t ever see the else belonging to the if because goto will happily accept everything up to the end of the command  You can see a similar issue when using echo instead of goto   Also using parentheses will allow you to use the statements directly without having to jump around  although I wasn t able to rewrite your code to actually use structured programming techniques  maybe it s too early or it doesn t lend itself well to block structures as the code is right now

User · Answer

To check for DIRECTORIES you should not use something like   if exist c  windows    To work properly use   if exist c  windows      note the     at the end

[if-statement] IF EXIST C:\directory\ goto a else goto b problems windows XP batch files

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