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Questions tagged [forfiles]

forfiles is a cmd command that selects a file (or a set of files) and executes a given piece of code for each of them. It is useful for batch processing. Use this tag for batch file problems related to the command.

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How do I write a Windows batch script to copy the newest file from a directory?

I need to copy the newest file in a directory to a new location. So far I've found resources on the forfiles command, a date-related question here, and another related question. I'm just having a bit of trouble putting the pieces together! How do I…
Devrin
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Forfiles Batch Script (Escaping @ character)

I'm working on a batch script that will let me delete files older then a set period using forfiles. For now, I'm aiming at printing the files that will be deleted. The forfiles invocation I'm using works flawlessly from a cmd.exe shell, but as soon…
Paradox
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How to get the most recent file using a batch file?

I have a list of zip files with date and time appended like yyyymmdd_hhmmss_Demos.zip. Now how to get the most recently added zip file in the source dir. I need to copy this file in the target using copy command. I found some info about forfiles,…
azzaxp
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forfiles with UNC path

I am trying to use forfiles to delete files that are older than 7 days. The files are in a UNC path. Below is the script that I am using. Forfiles -p \\devexpress\C$\FULL\ -s -m *.* -d -7 -c "cmd /c del /q @path" But I get an error mentioning that…
kla
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forfiles without cmd /c

I can run a forfiles command with cmd /c, as expected C:\>forfiles /c "cmd /c ping /a" IP address must be specified. However if I remove the cmd /c, it no longer recognizes any arguments, only the base command C:\>forfiles /c "ping /a" Usage:…
Zombo
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How to delete *.* excluding some extensions?

I'm trying to make a batch file on Windows for deleting all the files in the current directory but excluding 4 file extensions (log, sdb, SDK, bat). I have tried the Forfiles command on Windows but this delete everything on my current folder (even…
Francisco Chavez
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How to use multiple commands in batch using forfiles command?

@ECHO OFF SET backdir=backup SET snapshotdir=snapshots SET worldprefix=world_ SET itdate=%date:~10,4%-%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2% SET hour=%time:~0,2% IF "%hour:~0,1%" == " " SET hour=0%hour:~1,1% echo Current date: %itdate%. Current hour: %hour%.…
Brandon
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How to tell forfiles to execute command in PATH?

I'm missing something (obvious?) about escaping my strings or spaces in the following Windows Server 2k3 batch command. FORFILES -m *.wsp -c "CMD /C C:\Program^ Files\Common^ Files\Microsoft^ Shared\web^ server^ extensions\12\bin\stsadm.exe^ -o^…
Noel
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FORFILES date -after- (date calc in cmd file)

I'd like to use FORFILES in a cmd file, to act on all files after a given date thru "today". I can use something like forfiles /d +07/10/2013 /c "cmd /c echo @fname" to act on everything after 7/10/13, but what I want is to just be able to…
Debra
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Why can't we use a CALL :label command in the FORFILES script?

This snippet of code forfiles /P %pathname% /M *.log /c "cmd /c echo @file" will happily list out a bunch of files. We could replace the ECHO with RENAME or MOVE or many other combinations of internal commands: the exception being a CALL to a label…
ilinkcs
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Use forfiles to delete a folder and its contents

I am attempting to purge a public directory, so when an item is older than 30 days it should be deleted. I have a batch file setup with the following command: forfiles /p "C:\PATH\USERS\PATH\" /s /m *.* /c "cmd /c Del @path /q" /d -30 This works…
Wally
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Forfiles - spaces in folder path

I am running a batch file and I have one forfiles command in it FORFILES -p%spinputarchrootpath% -m*.csv -d-365 -c"CMD /C DEL @FILE" %spinputarchrootpath% variable maps to a folder location (Y:\Temp Documents\testfolder). Now the above command is…
Sahil
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How do you run a command with a full path from the Windows forfiles command?

I am trying to run the following command: forfiles /p ..\Schemas /m *.xsd /c "cmd /c ""C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.6.1 Tools\xsd.exe @path /classes""" However, it fails with: ERROR: Invalid argument/option -…
Sam Rueby
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How to get ERRORLEVEL of a command in forfiles?

I need to handle files older than a day. Thereforw I use this: forfiles -m %%~nxf /C "cmd /c start /wait /MIN 7z.exe t %%f" /d +1 Now I'd like to check if the progress of 7z.exe succeeded. How can I get the errorlevel of the command inside the…
mediii
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How to escape the `@` variable replacement in `forfiles`?

I am using a forfiles command line like this (Windows 7 x64): forfiles /P "C:\root" /M "*.txt" /C "cmd /C echo @relpath" How can I escape the replacement of @relpath (relative path to currently iterated item) to get @relpath output literally?…
aschipfl
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