batch commands

Learn some basic batch commands. Batch files run a series of DOS commands, so the commands that you can use are similar to DOS commands. Some of the more important ones include:

• ECHO - Displays text on the screen
• @ECHO OFF - Hides the text that is normally output
• START - Run a file with it's default application
• REM - Inserts a comment line in the program
• MKDIR/RMDIR - Create and remove directories
• DEL - Deletes a file or files
• COPY - Copy a file or files
• XCOPY - Allows you to copy files with extra options
• FOR/IN/DO - This command lets you specify files.
• TITLE - Edit's the title of the window. ^[1]  
• ^{Write the code to make a basic backup program. Batch files are great for running multiple commands, especially if you configure it to be able to run multiple times. With the XCOPY command, you can make a batch file that copies files from select folders to a backup folder, only overwriting files that have been updated since the last copy:}

  @ECHO OFF 
  XCOPY c:\original c:\backupfolder /m /e /y
  

• This copies over files from the folder "original" to the folder "backupfolder". You can replace these with the paths to the folders you want. /m specifies that only updated files will be copied, /e specifies that all subdirectories in the listed directory will be copied, and /y keeps the confirmation message appearing every time a file is overwritten.
•  Write a more advanced backup program. While simply copying the files from one folder to another is nice, what if you want to do a little sorting at the same time? That's where the FOR/IN/DO command comes in. You can use that command to tell a file where to go depending on the extension:

  @ECHO OFF 
  cd c:\source
  REM This is the location of the files that you want to sort
  FOR %%f IN (*.doc *.txt) DO XCOPY c:\source\"%%f" c:\text /m /y
  REM This moves any files with a .doc or 
  REM .txt extension from c:\source to c:\text
  REM %%f is a variable
  FOR %%f IN (*.jpg *.png *.bmp) DO XCOPY C:\source\"%%f" c:\images /m /y
  REM This moves any files with a .jpg, .png, 
  REM or .bmp extension from c:\source to c:\images