It's not much right now, but it should be close to finnishing. I just ran into a problem where when I tried to backup a file, I only GET 1 line of text. This must be a really easy solution, I know that I know it, it's one of those tip of my tongue things. Here's the code.

Code: [Select]@echo off
title File Backup Program
:loop
Echo Backup which file? Include extension and path.
SET /p file=
if not exist %file% echo File not found! & Pause & Cls & Goto loop
set /p backup=<%file%
echo %backup%
pause
I only got this far, because I've been debugging as I go.well found one error:
Quote

Backup which file? Include extension and path.
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Just Basic Programs\sysstat.txt
'and' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Press any key to continue . . .

Backup which file? Include extension and path.
C:\Temp\list.txt
3 2 0 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Press any key to continue . . .

well found one error:
Quote

Backup which file? Include extension and path.
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Just Basic Programs\sysstat.txt
'and' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Press any key to continue . . .

but it doesnt happen all the time. i tried this next:
Quote

Backup which file? Include extension and path.
C:\Temp\list.txt
3 2 0 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Press any key to continue . . .

dont know if thats supposed to happen or just a bug.

but thats the bugs i found so far.

Hope this helped
,Nick(macdad-)

if the path has spaces the variable needs quotes...

Code: [Select]set /p file=
if not exist "%file%" echo File not found! & Pause & Cls & Goto loop
set backup=<"%file%"
echo %backup%

FB

I think i know what you mean now, for DOS to 'read' a file use the type command:

Code: [Select]set /p file=
if not exist "%file%" echo File not found! & Pause & Cls & Goto loop
type "%file%"
No. That will DISPLAY the contents of the file. My intentions were to
1. SET %backup% as the contents of the file
2. Echo %backup%>%file%.txt
FB

No. That will DISPLAY the contents of the file. My intentions were to
1. SET %backup% as the contents of the file
2. Echo %backup%>%file%.txt

Quote

No. That will DISPLAY the contents of the file. My intentions were to
1. SET %backup% as the contents of the file
2. Echo %backup%>%file%.txt

The premise to #1 is wrong. Any reason you cannot use the copy command to copy the file?

Note: By requesting the user to enter path and extension, be aware that %file%.txt will resolve to a file name with multiple dots.

I mean SET %backup% to be the contents of the file. And for 2, I did that for a reason.

Quote

I mean SET %backup% to be the contents of the file. And for 2, I did that for a reason.

Redirection can copy a single line from a file into a variable, not the entire contents of the file.

Concatenation will strip off the carriage returns/line feeds, resulting in an output file that is mis-aligned.

Why can't you use copy?



Note: Most Windows scripting languages have an instruction which can get the contents of a file into a variable. Have you considered VBScript as a solution?

I guess I could copy, then rename to a different extension, but I want to put more than one file into a single file.