Selective deletion

[Dexahol]

Hi David, you actually got me pointed in the right direction.

I'm trying this batch file:

::test.bat
@echo off
MD deltemp
for %%x in (%1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9) do move *.%%x deltemp
del *.*
copy deltemp\*.*
deltree /Y deltemp

If I want to delete everything except .txt and .bat files, I type:

test txt bat

This almost works, but not quite. The del *.* line prompts for confirmation and the copy deltemp\*.* works from the command line, but not in a batch!

I've obviously got the syntax for moving a file back one step in the directory wrong, but I can't seem to get this right.

(Thanks again to Vernon for showing me how to use the for . . . in command!)

Dex

EDIT: Ok, this is a bit awkward, but it solves the "confirmation on delete" problem:

::test.bat
@echo off
md deltemp1
md deltemp2
for %%x in (%1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9) do move *.%%x deltemp1
move *.* deltemp2
copy deltemp1\*.*
deltree /y deltemp1
deltree /y deltemp2

But I still have the problem of the copy deltemp1\*.* line, works from the command line but not in a batch!!!

EDIT 2:

Ok, this works perfectly:

::test.bat
@echo off
md c:\temp\deltemp1
md c:\temp\deltemp2
for %%x in (%1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9) do move *.%%x c:\temp\deltemp1
move *.* c:\temp\deltemp2
copy c:\temp\deltemp1\*.*
deltree /y c:\temp\deltemp1
deltree /y c:\temp\deltemp2

I just hate having to use explicit paths, and it just seems cumbersome and awkward. It does, however, do the job.

If I want to delete everything from the current directory except .txt and .bat files, I can just type:

test txt bat

Dex

LAST EDIT: One little bauble: the move command protests the existence of sub-directories in the directory being worked on, but it doesn't actually prevent operation. Just doesn't have a "clean" look to it.