Windows – Loop in a Windows batch file

batchscriptingwindows

I have a problem where I need to clone one virtual machine into several machines for production. The machines have names that is assigned by variables and a rdp port is also assigned by a variable. Both variables is increased by 1 at the end of the script. The problem I have is that I can't figure out how to loop the create machine and increase variable value code until the %M% value is at a defined number.

Here is my current code: 

SET VBoxManage="C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe"
SET M=1
SET P=25553

if %%M < 4 (

%VBoxManage% clonevm Win2012 --mode all --name M%M% --register
%VBoxManage% modifyvm M%M% --vrde on --vrdeauthtype null --vrdemulticon on --vrdeport %P%
SET /A M=%M%+1
SET /A P=%P%+1

ECHO Done
ECHO %M%
ECHO %P%
)

ECHO All cloning finished.

pause

I have tried with FOR, IF and WHILE but I can't figure out how to get it to work.

How FOR did look like: 

SET VBoxManage="C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe"
SET M=1
SET P=25553

FOR /L (if %%M IN (1,1,5)
(
%VBoxManage% clonevm Win2012 --mode all --name M%M% --register
%VBoxManage% modifyvm M%M% --vrde on --vrdeauthtype null --vrdemulticon on --vrdeport %P%
SET /A M=%M%+1
SET /A P=%P%+1

ECHO Done
ECHO %M%
ECHO %P%
)

ECHO All cloning finished.

pause

Best Answer

I think you just need to review the FOR /? help a bit. You've mixed a couple different things together which won't work. The cmd interpreter is limited compared to other scripting environments you may be familiar with.

I think all you're asking is "How do I use FOR in a batch file to count from 1 to 5 in increments of 1?" And that's simple enough:

FOR /L %%M IN (1, 1, 5) DO (
    ECHO %%M
)

The second part of your question is about incrementing another variable within the FOR loop. For that, you'll want to lookup SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion. Here's an example using your provided script.

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
SET VBoxManage="C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe"
SET P=25553

FOR /L %%M IN (1, 1, 5) DO (
    %VBoxManage% clonevm Win2012 --mode all --name M%%M --register
    %VBoxManage% modifyvm M%%M --vrde on --vrdeauthtype null --vrdemulticon on --vrdeport !P!
    SET /A P=P + 1

    ECHO Done
    ECHO %%M
    ECHO !P!
)

ECHO All cloning finished.
PAUSE
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