Hi All,
I use a batch file to start a FTP session. The command I am using looks like this

ftp -n -s:d:\ftp\data.txt ftp_server_name.com

This uses a text file called data.txt to get the commands for the FTP session. It looks like this…

user Username Password
put D:\Some_file.txt
Bye


All of this has been working fine. That is until they changed the file names to include the date. So I have gone from:

put D:\Some_file.txt
to
put D:\some_file20070117.txt

My problem is that I would have to edit the data.txt file each day to change the date in the file name. Does anyone have an idea as to how to change the file name each day with the current date?


Thanks!
An EASY way to do this would be to create a variable called something like current_date using the set command and the integrated date variable... i.e.

set current_date=%date%

then use the new variable in the filename.. i.e. change it from

put D:\some_file.txt
to
put D:\some_file%current_date%.txt

Good luck,
-darrylHehe, you're also going to have to format the date, apparently... the standard DOS format includes spaces and "/"s, which are no-nos for filenames... whoops...

here's how to get your date to yyyymmdd as you have it in your post

set current_date=%date:~10,4%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%

use that line instead of "set current_date=%date%"

what it does is cuts up %date% which returns something like "wed 01/17/2007" and puts it back together in an orderly fashion.

e.g. %date:~10,4% calls for the 11th character and the 3 characters after it (a 4-character string)

that should work a little better... sorry
-darrylQuote

An easy way to do this would be to create a variable called something like current_date using the set command and the integrated date variable... i.e.

set current_date=%date%

then use the new variable in the filename.. i.e. change it from

put D:\some_file.txt
to
put D:\some_file%current_date%.txt

Good luck,
-darryl

This happened to me recentl
I ended up using my batch to write the contents of the ftp script each time it was called, in which case, the batch expansion of the date variable will occur and the literal value will be written to the script file
Cheers
Graham

Hi,
I re-read the answer and I think I understand it now....ok I am a little slow.

I am going to give it a try.

Thanks for your help!!

...and I think I understand it now....

Ok...I must be doing something wrong. I copied the sample code above and added the set date from above and it worked fine. It wrote me a data.txt file and it had everything in it that I would need to use for a FTP session.

Than I made the changes to add the real stuff I wanted in the data.txt file and its not working any more.

Here is my bat file:

set current_date=%date:~10,4%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%

@echo off
echo user sm2thy joneser > data.txt
echo cd /cool/directory/OK.Now >> data.txt
echo put C:\FTP\TEMP\BOB.LCT%current_date%.DAT >> data.txt
echo put C:\FTP\TEMP\BOB.TCL%current_date%.DAT >> data.txt
echo put C:\FTP\TEMP\FEDWL.TXT >> data.txt
echo bye >> data.txt

pause

And here is the out put in the data.txt file.

user sm2thy joneser
cd /cool/directory/OK.Now
put C:\FTP\TEMP\BOB.LCT20070118 .DAT
put C:\FTP\TEMP\BOB.TCL20070118 .DAT
put C:\FTP\TEMP\FEDWL.TXT
bye

pause

I don't know how to get rid of the extra space after the date in the files name.

Also can someone tell me about the > in the bat file? Why is there only one of them in the first line but all the others need 2?

Thanks for your help!!