Passing file paths to a batch file

Question

   

I'm calling a .bat file to XCOPY a folder. Is there anyway to pass the file name and the destination into the batch file?

My .bat file

    XCOPY %1 %2
    pause

The code I'm using to call the .bat is this:

String batch = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test\XCOPY.bat";
String src = copyFrom;
String dst = copyTo;
String batchCmd = String.Format("\"{0}\" \"{1}\" \"{2}\"", batch, src, dst);

process.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
process.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format("/k \"echo {0}\"", batchCmd);

process.Start();

And the output is:

So its not actually copying the folder, its just printing the paths its copying from and to.

Thanks

Answer 1

The echo commands prints the strings passed into it. It's designed so that they don't execute. Does it work if you don't use echo?

Answer 2

Hello, FileName should be .bat file. Try following code.

 String src = copyFrom;
            String dst = copyTo;
            Process process = new Process();
            process.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test";
            process.StartInfo.FileName = "XCOPY.bat";
            process.StartInfo.Arguments =  src +" "+dst;

            process.Start();

HTH

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Answer 3

no I get a invalid number of parameters error.

I'm going to try what Sachyn P posted below.

Answer 4

Hi,

That just starts a loop of the console printing, "XCOPY C:\Documets C:\Documents" and thankfully doesn't copy the contents of documents to documents, otherwise I'd have a bit of a mess on my hands :P

Answer 5

Hello, There might be issue in using XCopy Command. I think if you use XCOPY command outside of C# code. like going to command prompt and typing Xcopy with parameters, you might see same behavior.

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Answer 6

If I just put XCOPY in the cmd window, with the two folder paths in quotes it copies all the files correctly.

Answer 7

No, just just gives me the same but without the XCOPY.bat path.

Answer 8

Hello, Can you change the name of .bat file to XCOPY1.bat and try.

HTH

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Answer 9

The bits in the red box, what are they about? Its printing out d------- and the date, what could be causing that?

Edit

I got rid of the /k in my code and its still printing out the d----- and the date.

Answer 10

Hello, don't know the reason why path is coming like that .

but you can try to enclose the arguments in double quotes , following way

process.StartInfo.Arguments = "\"" + src + "\"" + " " + "\"" + dst + "\"";

Hope it helps

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Answer 11

Still get the same, but without the C:\k

Answer 12

may be some issue with path.. is it possible to try with smaller path and see if the process works. like file is copied from one folder to another.

Thanks

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Answer 13

Have tried that, get the same thing

Answer 14

Hi ElsheepO,

Welcome to the MSDN Forum.

I don't know why Sachyn's code is failed on your side.

And I try to correct your original code: Just remove the "echo " and keep the other unchanged as Jared said. It works for me. 

So would you like to try this way?

Best regards,

---

Mike Feng
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
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Answer 15

string copyFrom = TestDir + "\\" + testfolder;
string copyTo = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\ISODUMP";
//String batch = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test\XCOPY.bat";
String src = copyFrom;
String dst = copyTo;
String batchCmd = String.Format("\"{0}\" \"{1}\"", src, dst);
Process process = new Process();                          

process.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test";
process.StartInfo.FileName = "XCOPY1.bat";
process.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format("\" {0}\"", batchCmd);

process.Start();

Using that code I get that error, It seems to be printing out the location of the .bat file first and then the other two paths.

Why is it printing out the .bat location?

And using the line Sachyn provided the code is:

String src = copyFrom;
String dst = copyTo;
String batchCmd = String.Format("\"{0}\" \"{1}\"", src, dst);
Process process = new Process();                   process.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test";
process.StartInfo.FileName = "XCOPY1.bat";
process.StartInfo.Arguments = "\"" + src + "\"" + " " + "\"" + dst + "\"";

process.Start();

the output is this:

Answer 16

Hi Elsheep,

This is your original code:

String batch = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test\XCOPY.bat";
String src = copyFrom;
String dst = copyTo;
String batchCmd = String.Format("\"{0}\" \"{1}\" \"{2}\"", batch, src, dst);

process.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
process.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format("/k \"echo {0}\"", batchCmd);

process.Start();

Please try my above suggestion first. 

Thank you very very much.

Best regards,

---

Mike Feng
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
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Answer 17

I get this error with out the echo:

Answer 18

Hi Elsheepo,

What code does lead to this result? 

Best regards,

---

Mike Feng
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
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Answer 19

string copyFrom = TestDir + "\\" + testfolder;
string copyTo = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\ISODUMP";
Process process = new Process();
String batch = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test\XCOPY1.bat";
String src = copyFrom;
String dst = copyTo;
String batchCmd = String.Format("\"{0}\" \"{1}\" \"{2}\"", batch, src, dst);

process.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
process.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format("/k \" {0}\"", batchCmd);

process.Start();

Its the same code just without the echo

Answer 20

Hi ElsheepO,

Please note this:

In your code, the batch file name is "

C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test\XCOPY1.bat

"

But in your above screen shot, it said: 

C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test\XCOPY.bat  

So did you change something?

Best regards,

---

Mike Feng
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 21

Hello, Can you change the name of .bat file to XCOPY1.bat and try.

HTH

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I changed the name here, to check if the app was actually starting the .bat file, or it was just passing XCOPY to the app.

I must not have saved the code after I changed it, so that would explain that. Sorry

This is what i get with no echo, Heres the code I used to get that.

string copyFrom = TestDir + "\\" + testfolder;
string copyTo = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\ISODUMP";

Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = @"C:\Documents and Settings\cmolloy\My Documents\Test";
p.StartInfo.FileName = "XCOPY1.bat";
p.StartInfo.Arguments = "\"" + copyFrom + "\"" + " " + "\"" + copyTo + "\"";
p.Start();

Answer 22

Hi Elsheep,

Would you like to try just a const string?

I mean that don't use 

string copyFrom = TestDir + "\\" + testfolder;

Try this: string copyFrom = @"directory path here";

And change this 

p.StartInfo.Arguments = "\"" + copyFrom + "\"" + " " + "\"" + copyTo + "\"";

to this 

p.StartInfo.Arguments = " \"" + copyFrom + "\"" + " " + "\"" + copyTo + "\"";

I added a additional space in the beginning of the arguments.

Best regards,

---

Mike Feng
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
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Answer 23

I can't use a constant string for copyFrom as its a variable passed down from a method finding the newest folder.

I tried changing the code

so it looks like its just printing out the XCOPY path?

Answer 24

Hi Elsheep,

Obviously not, it doesn't just printing out the xcopy path. You can see there is an error message "Invalid number of parameters". It indicates that the xcopy executable has been executed. 

Now, you need to path the path in a double quotes. You can see the path parameters are not in a quote.

And now, I think I can tell the reason about above picture that you get a time string such as "29/06/2012"  in your path parameter is you didn't format the time correct. About how to format string: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string.format.aspx 

Best regards,

---

Mike Feng
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.