Keep CMD open after BAT file executes

Question

I have a bat file like this:

ipconfig

That will print out the IP info to the screen, but before the user can read that info CMD closes itself.

I believe that CMD assumes the script has finished, so it closes.

How do I keep CMD open after the script is finished?

Answer 1

Depending on how you are running the command, you can put /k after cmd to keep the window open.

cmd /k my_script.bat

Simply adding cmd /k to the end of your batch file will work too. Credit to Luigi D'Amico who posted about this in the comments below.

Answer 2

Put pause at the end of your .BAT file.

Answer 3

Just add @pause at the end.

Example:

@echo off
ipconfig
@pause

Or you can also use:

cmd /k ipconfig

Answer 4

When the .bat file is started not from within the command line (e.g. double-clicking).

echo The echoed text
@pause

echo The echoed text
pause

echo The echoed text
cmd /k

echo The echoed text & pause

Answer 5

Adding pause in (Windows 7) to the end did not work for me
but adding the cmd /k in front of my command did work.

Example :

cmd /k gradlew cleanEclipse

Answer 6

start cmd /k did the magic for me. I actually used it for preparing cordova phonegap app it runs the command, shows the result and waits for the user to close it. Below is the simple example

start cmd /k echo Hello, World!

What I did use in my case

start cmd /k cordova prepare

Update

You could even have a title for this by using

start "My Title" echo Hello, World!

Answer 7

If you are starting the script within the command line, then add exit /b to keep CMD opened

Answer 8

In Windows add '& Pause' to the end of your command in the file.

Answer 9

I was also confused as to why we're adding a cmd at the beginning and I was wondering if I had to open the command prompt first. What you need to do is type the full command along with cmd /k. For example assume your batch file name is "my_command.bat" which runs the command javac my_code.java then the code in your batch file should be:

cmd /k javac my_code.java

So basically there is no need to open command prompt at the current folder and type the above command but you can save this code directly in your batch file and execute it directly.

Answer 10

javac -d C:\xxx\lib\ -classpath C:\xxx\lib\ *.java

cmd cd C:\xxx\yourbat.bat

the second command make your cmd window not be closed. The important thing is you still able to input new command

Answer 11

As a sidenote this also works when running a command directly from the search bar in windows.

e.g. directly running ipconfig will directly close the cmd window after the command has exited.

Using cmd \k <command> won't - which was what i was trying to do when i found this answer.

It has the added advantage of always recognizing the command you're trying to run. E.g. running echo hello world from the searchbar won't work because that is not a command, however cmd \k echo hello world works just fine.