Batch file include external file for variables

Question

I have a batch file and I want to include an external file containing some variables  say configuration variables   Is it possible

User · Answer

If the external configuration file is also valid batch file, you can just use:

call externalconfig.bat

inside your script. Try creating following a.bat:

@echo off
call b.bat
echo %MYVAR%

and b.bat:

set MYVAR=test

Running a.bat should generate output:

test

User · Answer

So you just have to do this right     echo off echo text shizzle echo  echo pause  gt nul  press enter  pause gt nul  REM writing to file   echo XD echo LOL   gt settings cdb cls  REM setting the variables out of the file   set  p input  set  p input2    lt settings cdb cls  REM echo ing the variables echo variables  echo  input  echo  input2  pause gt nul  if  input   XD goto newecho DEL settings cdb exit   newecho cls echo If you can see this  good job  DEL settings cdb pause gt nul exit

User · Answer

The best option according to me is to have key value pairs file as it could be read from other scripting languages  Other thing is I would prefer to have an option for comments in the values file - which can be easy achieved with eol option in for  f command  Here s the example values file         file with example values              Will be processed by a  bat file        can be used for commenting a line  First Value value001    Do not let spaces arround the equal sign    As this makes the processing much easier    and reliable  Second Value  First Value  test    as call set will be used in reading script    refering another variables will be possible   Third Value Something      end  Reading script   echo off                                set  quot VALUES FILE E  scripts example values quot                                 FOR  F  quot usebackq eol   tokens   delims  quot      in        quot  VALUES FILE  quot    do       call set  quot     quot     echo  First Value  --  Second Value  --  Third Value

User · Answer

Batch uses the less than and greater than brackets as input and output pipes    gt file ext   Using only one output bracket like above will overwrite all the information in that file    gt  gt file ext   Using the double right bracket will add the next line to the file     echo echo   lt file ext   This will execute the parameters based on the lines of the file  In this case  we are using two lines that will be typed using  echo   The left bracket touching the right parenthesis bracket means that the information from that file will be piped into those lines    I have compiled an example-only read write file  Below is the file broken down into sections to explain what each part does    echo off echo TEST R W set SRU 0   SRU can be anything in this example  We re actually setting it to prevent a crash if you press Enter too fast   set  p SRU Skip Save   y    if  SRU   y goto read set input 1 set input2 2 set  p input INPUT   set  p input2 INPUT2     Now  we need to write the variables to a file    echo  input   gt  settings cdb  echo  input2   gt  gt  settings cdb pause   I use  cdb as a short form for  Command Database   You can use any extension  The next section is to test the code from scratch  We don t want to use the set variables that were run at the beginning of the file  we actually want them to load FROM the settings cdb we just wrote    read   set  p input  set  p input2    lt settings cdb   So  we just piped the first two lines of information that you wrote at the beginning of the file  which you have the option to skip setting the lines to check to make sure it s working  to set the variables of input and input2   echo  input  echo  input2  pause if  input   1 goto newecho pause exit   newecho echo If you can see this  good job  pause exit   This displays the information that was set while settings cdb was piped into the parenthesis  As an extra good-job motivator  pressing enter and setting the default values which we set earlier as  1  will return a good job message  Using the bracket pipes goes both ways  and is much easier than setting the  FOR  stuff

User · Answer

Kinda old subject but I had same question a few days ago and I came up with another idea  maybe someone will still find it usefull   For example you can make a config bat with different subjects  family  size  color  animals  and apply them individually in any order anywhere you want in your batch scripts    echo off rem Empty the variable to be ready for label config all set config all selected   rem Go to the label with the parameter you selected goto  config  1  REM This next line is just to go to end of file  REM in case that the parameter  1 is not set goto  end  REM next label is to jump here and get all variables to be set  config all set config all selected 1    config family set mother Mary set father John set sister Anna rem This next line is to skip going to end if config all label was selected as parameter if not   config all selected     1  goto  end   config test set  test parameter all 2nd set  The  all  parameter WAS used before this echo  if not   config all selected     1  goto  end   config size set width 20 set height 40 if not   config all selected     1  goto  end    config color set first color blue set second color green if not   config all selected     1  goto  end    config animals set dog Max set cat Miau if not   config all selected     1  goto  end    end   After that  you can use it anywhere by calling fully with  call config bat all  or calling only parts of it  see example bellow  The idea in here is that sometimes is more handy when you have the option not to call everything at once  Some variables maybe you don t want to be called yet so you can call them later   Example test bat   echo off  rem This is added just to test the all parameter set  test parameter all 1st set  The  all  parameter was NOT used before this echo   call config bat size  echo My birthday present had a width of  width  and a height of  height   call config bat family call config bat animals  echo Yesterday  father  and  mother  surprised  sister  with a cat named  cat  echo Her brother wanted the dog  dog   rem This shows you if the  all  parameter was or not used  just for testing  echo  test parameter all   call config bat color  echo His lucky color is  first color  even if  second color  is also nice   echo  pause   Hope it helps the way others help me in here with their answers   A short version of the above   config bat   echo off set config all selected  goto  config  1 goto  end   config all set config all selected 1   config family set mother Mary set father John set daughter Anna if not   config all selected     1  goto  end   config size set width 20 set height 40 if not   config all selected     1  goto  end   end   test bat   echo off  call config bat size echo My birthday present had a width of  width  and a height of  height   call config bat family echo  father  and  mother  have a daughter named  daughter   echo  pause   Good day

User · Answer

savevars bat    Use   to prefix any important variable to save it for future runs    ECHO OFF SETLOCAL  REM Load variables IF EXIST config txt FOR  F  delims     A IN  config txt  DO SET    A   REM Change variables IF NOT DEFINED  RunCount       SET  RunCount 1   ELSE SET  A  RunCount  1  REM Display variables SET    REM Save variables SET   gt config txt  ENDLOCAL PAUSE EXIT  B   Output    RunCount 1   RunCount 2   RunCount 3  The technique outlined above can also be used to share variables among multiple batch files    Source  http   www incodesystems com products batchfi1 htm

User · Answer

Let s not forget good old parameters   When starting your   bat or   cmd file you can add up to nine parameters after the command file name   call myscript bat   path to my file ext type call myscript bat   path to my file ext  Del  F    Example script  The myscript bat could be something like this    Echo Off Echo The path of this scriptfile   0 Echo The name of this scriptfile   n0 Echo The extension of this scriptfile   x0 Echo  If    2           Echo Parameter missing  quitting     GoTo  EOF   If Not Exist    1       Echo File does not exist  quitting     GoTo  EOF   Echo Going to   2 this file    1   2    1  If  errorlevel   NEQ 0      Echo Failed to   2 the   1     Echo On   Example output  c   gt c  bats myscript bat   server path x txt type The path of this scriptfile c  bats myscript bat The name of this scriptfile myscript The extension of this scriptfile  bat  Going to type this file    server path x txt This is the content of the file  Some alphabets  ABCDEFG abcdefg Some numbers  1234567890  c   gt c  bats myscript bat   server path x txt  del  f   The path of this scriptfile c  bats myscript bat The name of this scriptfile myscript The extension of this scriptfile  bat  Going to del  f  this file    server path x txt  c   gt

User · Answer

While trying to use the method with excutable configuration  I noticed that it may work or may NOT work  depending on where in the script is located the call   call config cmd  I know it doesn t make any sens  but for me it s  a fact  When  call config cmd  is located at the top of the  script  it works  but if further in the script it doesn t   By doesn t work  I mean the variable are not set un the calling script   Very very strange

User · Answer

Note  I m assuming Windows batch files as most people seem to be unaware that there are significant differences and just blindly call everything with grey text on black background DOS  Nevertheless  the first variant should work in DOS as well  Executable configuration The easiest way to do this is to just put the variables in a batch file themselves  each with its own set statement  set var1 value1 set var2 value2      and in your main batch  call config cmd  Of course  that also enables variables to be created conditionally or depending on aspects of the system  so it s pretty versatile  However  arbitrary code can run there and if there is a syntax error  then your main batch will exit too  In the UNIX world this seems to be fairly common  especially for shells  And if you think about it  autoexec bat is nothing else  Key value pairs Another way would be some kind of var value pairs in the configuration file  var1 value1 var2 value2      You can then use the following snippet to load them  for  f  quot delims  quot    x in  config txt  do  set  quot   x quot    This utilizes a similar trick as before  namely just using set on each line  The quotes are there to escape things like  lt    gt    amp      However  they will themselves break when quotes are used in the input  Also you always need to be careful when further processing data in variables stored with such characters  Generally  automatically escaping arbitrary input to cause no headaches or problems in batch files seems pretty impossible to me  At least I didn t find a way to do so yet  Of course  with the first solution you re pushing that responsibility to the one writing the config file

[batch-file] Batch file include external file for variables

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