Executing multiple commands from a Windows cmd script

Question

I'm trying to write a Windows cmd script to perform several tasks in series. However, it always stops after the first command in the script.

The command it stops after is a maven build (not sure if that's relevant).

How do I make it carry on and run each task in turn please?

Installing any software or configuring the registry etc is completely out of the question - it has to work on a vanilla Windows XP installation I'm afraid.

Ideally I'd like the script to abort if any of the commands failed, but that's a "nice to have", not essential.

Thanks.

Answer 1

When you call another .bat file, I think you need "call" in front of the call:

call otherCommand.bat

Answer 2

You can use the && symbol between commands to execute the second command only if the first succeeds. More info here http://commandwindows.com/command1.htm

Answer 3

Not sure why the first command is stopping. If you can make it parallel, you can try something like

start cmd.exe /C 1.bat      
start cmd.exe /C 2.bat

Answer 4

I have just been doing the exact same(ish) task of creating a batch script to run maven test scripts. The problem is that calling maven scrips with mvn clean install ... is itself a script and so needs to be done with call mvn clean install.

Code that will work

rem run a maven clean install
cd C:\rbe-ui-test-suite 
call mvn clean install
rem now run through all the test scripts
call mvn clean install -Prun-integration-tests -Dpattern=tc-login
call mvn clean install -Prun-integration-tests -Dpattern=login-1

Note rather the use of call. This will allow the use of consecutive maven scripts in the batch file.

Answer 5

Using double ampersands will run the second command, only if the first one succeeds:

cd Desktop/project-directory && atom .

Where as, using only one ampersand will attempt to run both commands, even if the first fails:

cd Desktop/project-directory & atom .

Answer 6

If you are running in Windows you can use the following command.

Drive:

cd "Script location"
schtasks /run /tn "TASK1"
schtasks /run /tn "TASK2"
schtasks /run /tn "TASK3"
exit

Answer 7

I don't know the direct answer to your question, but if you do a lot of these scripts, it might be worth learning a more powerful language like perl. Free implementations exist for Windows (e.g. activestate, cygwin). I've found it worth the initial effort for my own tasks.

Edit:

As suggested by @Ferruccio, if you can't install extra software, consider vbscript and/or javascript. They're built into the Windows scripting host.

Answer 8

Note that you don't need semicolons in batch files. And the reason why you need to use call is that mvn itself is a batch file and batch files need to call each other with call, otherwise control does not return to the caller.