Windows – Create folder with batch but only if it doesn’t already exist

batch-filecmdwindows

Can anybody tell me how to do the following in in a Windows batch script? (*.bat):

Create a folder only if it doesn't already exist

In more detail, I want to create a folder named VTS on the C:\ drive, but only if that folder doesn't already exist. I don't want to overwrite the contents of the folder if it already exists and the batch is executed.

Best Answer

You just use this: if not exist "C:\VTS\" mkdir C:\VTS it wll create a directory only if the folder does not exist.

Note that this existence test will return true only if VTS exists and is a directory. If it is not there, or is there as a file, the mkdir command will run, and should cause an error. You might want to check for whether VTS exists as a file as well.

Related Solutions

Windows XP or later Windows: How to run a batch file in the background with no window displayed

Here is a possible solution:

From your first script, call your second script with the following line:

wscript.exe invis.vbs run.bat %*

Actually, you are calling a vbs script with:

the [path]\name of your script
all the other arguments needed by your script (%*)

Then, invis.vbs will call your script with the Windows Script Host Run() method, which takes:

intWindowStyle : 0 means "invisible windows"
bWaitOnReturn : false means your first script does not need to wait for your second script to finish

Here is invis.vbs:

set args = WScript.Arguments
num = args.Count

if num = 0 then
    WScript.Echo "Usage: [CScript | WScript] invis.vbs aScript.bat <some script arguments>"
    WScript.Quit 1
end if

sargs = ""
if num > 1 then
    sargs = " "
    for k = 1 to num - 1
        anArg = args.Item(k)
        sargs = sargs & anArg & " "
    next
end if

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

WshShell.Run """" & WScript.Arguments(0) & """" & sargs, 0, False

How to read file contents into a variable in a batch file

Read file contents into a variable:

for /f "delims=" %%x in (version.txt) do set Build=%%x

set /p Build=<version.txt

Both will act the same with only a single line in the file, for more lines the for variant will put the last line into the variable, while set /p will use the first.

Using the variable – just like any other environment variable – it is one, after all:

%Build%

So to check for existence:

if exist \\fileserver\myapp\releasedocs\%Build%.doc ...

Although it may well be that no UNC paths are allowed there. Can't test this right now but keep this in mind.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows XP or later Windows: How to run a batch file in the background with no window displayed

How to read file contents into a variable in a batch file

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