Shell Scripting

Shell Scripting RSS

Using Pipe in to rmdir command

Please support our Shell Scripting advertiser: Programming Forums - DaniWeb Sister Site

Thread Solved

•

Join Date: Jan 2007

Posts: 200

Reputation: shouvik.d is an unknown quantity at this point

Solved Threads: 6

shouvik.d

Offline

Posting Whiz in Training

Using Pipe in to rmdir command

Dec 16th, 2008

Hi,

I am using a scheduled task that runs every night to take backup of important files. This task creates a folder in the following format

Backup_DD_MM_YY

where DD_MM_YY denotes the date when the backup was taken.

Now everytime this scheduler runs I need to remove the older directory and create a new one with current date. In order to remove the directory I tried the following but it doesn't work.

for %%A in (C:\Backup*) do rmdir /s /q %%A
Can somebody please help

Last edited by shouvik.d; Dec 16th, 2008 at 2:17 am. Reason: used Inline Code

Regards
Shouvik

•

Join Date: Oct 2007

Posts: 399

Reputation: eggi will become famous soon enough

Solved Threads: 47

eggi

Offline

Posting Whiz

Re: Using Pipe in to rmdir command

Dec 17th, 2008

Hey There,

Unless it's a permissions issue (where you can't delete the folders as the user that runs the batch file) is it possible that you're trying this at the command line as proof-of-concept for the batch file.

If you're doing command line testing, although the variable MUST be %%A in your batch file, it has to be %A when run from the command line (why? I haven no idea

 Help with Code Tags 
 Shell Scripting Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
c:\cygwin\tmp\test>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is F08F-D325
 
 Directory of c:\cygwin\tmp\test
 
12/16/2008  10:15 PM    <DIR>          .
12/16/2008  10:15 PM    <DIR>          ..
12/16/2008  10:15 PM    <DIR>          test1
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               3 Dir(s)   4,743,143,424 bytes free
 
c:\cygwin\tmp\test>FOR /D %A IN (C:\cygwin\tmp\test\*) DO rmdir /s /q %A
 
c:\cygwin\tmp\test>rmdir /s /q C:\cygwin\tmp\test\test1
 
c:\cygwin\tmp\test>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is F08F-D325
 
 Directory of c:\cygwin\tmp\test
 
12/16/2008  10:16 PM    <DIR>          .
12/16/2008  10:16 PM    <DIR>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)   4,743,143,424 bytes free
 
c:\cygwin\tmp\test>
c:\cygwin\tmp\test>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is F08F-D325

 Directory of c:\cygwin\tmp\test

12/16/2008  10:15 PM    <DIR>          .
12/16/2008  10:15 PM    <DIR>          ..
12/16/2008  10:15 PM    <DIR>          test1
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               3 Dir(s)   4,743,143,424 bytes free

c:\cygwin\tmp\test>FOR /D %A IN (C:\cygwin\tmp\test\*) DO rmdir /s /q %A

c:\cygwin\tmp\test>rmdir /s /q C:\cygwin\tmp\test\test1

c:\cygwin\tmp\test>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is F08F-D325

 Directory of c:\cygwin\tmp\test

12/16/2008  10:16 PM    <DIR>          .
12/16/2008  10:16 PM    <DIR>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)   4,743,143,424 bytes free

c:\cygwin\tmp\test>

Best wishes,

Mike

Linux and Unix Tips, Tricks and Individual Advice - The Linux and Unix Menagerie!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The greatest viral marketing idea of all time, get your copy of this Free Report now!