Hi,

I am new to batch programming. I have a requirement where in
I have to one map to a server and change the password for a product installed on that server
there are more then one product on that one server.

I need some basics to get clear

for /f %%I in (dctm5dev.INI) do call change_dctm_passwd.bat %%I %1 %2

can some help me to get some tutorials which has these commands
like

for /f ( i dont know the meaning of /f but i can guess from the code that its says for each line in the file ........ but i want to know the correct meaning .... no guesses)

similary

for /f "tokens=1,2" %%I in (%dctm_server%.ini) do call change_db_passwd.bat %%I %%J


i would like some one ot tell me how does token things work.

Any help would be appreciated

Raj

The FOR command can be used for parsing, running a command repetitvely or reading input or depending on how it's written any combination thereof. They can also be NESTED. Note: %% variables do not exist outside the scope of the FOR statement.

The /f switch indicates what data format the FOR statement will be acting on.

for /f %%a in (file-set)
for /f %%a in ('command')
for /f %%a in ("string")

Note the use of the quotes. (no quotes is a file-set; one quote is a command; two quotes are a string value)

The tokens are stranger animals. In general they are sequenced single letters (case sensitive, %%a is not the same as %%A). The first token is the one you use in the FOR statement, the others are relative to their sequence in the alphabet.

Example:

for /f "tokens=1-3" %%a

%%a is token 1
%%b is token 2
%%c is token 3

for /f "tokens=1-3" %%i

%%i is token 1
%%j is token 2
%%k is token 3

It gets even stranger if you skip a token:

Example:

for /f "tokens=2-3" %%c

The first value exists, but it's second value that is assigned to the %%c token.

Typing FOR /? might help, but the Microsoft EXPLANATION is more convoluted than mine. Depending on your OS, there are other switches (/D, /L, & /R) and then there is skip= and delims=.

Good LUCK. 8-)