Capturing output from date.exe

[jessPear]

Hi,

The following seems to work under CMD but not under TCC:

FOR /f "tokens=1,2,3" %%i in ('r:\gnu\bin\date.exe +"%%Y %%m %%d"') DO (
SET YY=%%i
SET MO=%%j
SET MD=%%k
)

I've been trying all sorts of variations, to no avail...
Also, is there a way to know if a script is being run from CMD or from TCC?

Thanks!

 

[Charles Dye]

I think, if you want to use FOR to parse the output of a command, you will need to use the USEBACKQ option:

for /f "usebackq tokens=1,2,3" %%i in ( `r:\gnu\bin\date.exe +"%%Y %%m %%d"` ) ....

However, that seems to me like an awfully Rube Goldberg way to get the information. TCC provides built-in variables for date information:

echo %_year :: %_month :: %_date

 

[Charles Dye]

Also, is there a way to know if a script is being run from CMD or from TCC?

To answer your second question: There are a lot of ways to test for TCC. Here's one that I like:

if 01 == 1 echo I'm running in TCC!

This is legal syntax in both shells. But in TCC, it's a numeric comparison and true; in CMD.EXE, it's a string comparison and false.

 

[jessPear]

Thanks Charles for both messages.

My problem is (was) that this is part of a small script that will be used, basically, to extract a file from a repository and rename it, including a time stamp.

It will be run in different client systems. Some of them might be using TCC by default, while others will be using CMD.

It is working now...

 

[vefatica]

I think, if you want to use FOR to parse the output of a command, you will need to use the USEBACKQ option

You can also use single quotes in both TCC and CMD.

v:\> ver

TCC  24.02.49   Windows 7 [Version 6.1.7601]

v:\> for /f "tokens=1,2,3" %i in ( 'echo a b c' ) do echo %i %j %k
a b c

v:\> cmd
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

v:\> for /f "tokens=1,2,3" %i in ( 'echo a b c' ) do echo %i %j %k

v:\> echo a b c
a b c

 

[rconn]

What's happening here is you're running into a TCC feature. TCC supports variable expansion in the FOR argument list; CMD does not. So the %Y %m %d are being expanded prematurely (before being passed to date.exe). 99.9% of the time this is desirable; this is the first time I've seen a construct that *doesn't* want the variables expanded.

You could kludge around this in TCC by enclosing the arguments in single back quotes:

FOR /f "tokens=1,2,3" %%i in ('r:\gnu\bin\date.exe +`"%%Y %%m %%d"'`) DO (

But you wouldn't want to. That FOR statement is a grotesque kludge to work around CMD limitations, and TCC has built-in variables to return those values.