Need help SET /P variable=[promptString]

[brh56]

Good day.

I've been trying to load the DOS prompt with the following Linux command using echo, set /p and clip in a DOS prompt session.

Here is the Linux one-liner to check the uptime for 14 blades on a server:

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for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b | tr -s ' ' | tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime"; done"

The result is as follows:

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C:\Utils>echo|set /p="for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b | tr -s ' ' | tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime"; done"clip
'tr' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

If I omit the 'tr' command, it works, however, I would like to use the 'tr' command on the Linux session. I did try using quotes around the 'tr' commands but the results are not correct.

Any ideas?

Bjoern

[penpen]

The pipe character '|' has a special meaning (the same as in linux) and has to be escaped (using '^'), if you want to use it as a simple text (outside of doublequotes).
Because you redirect the output of a command to clip (using the pipe) the command line interpreter processes the command twice:
1. Process "command|clip" to create the pipe.
2. Process "command" and "clip" to execute the left and right command.

So you have to escape the "text pipes" in the left command twice:

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echo|set /p "=for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b ^^^| tr -s ' ' ^^^| tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime"; done" | clip

Beside this you could remove "echo|" and assign input from the nul device to "set/p":

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<nul set /p "=for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b ^^^| tr -s ' ' ^^^| tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime"; done" | clip

penpen

[aGerman]

If the quotation mark next to done belongs to your command line you have to add it also with three carets escaped (because it's an unbalanced quotation mark).

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<nul set /p "=for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b ^^^| tr -s ' ' ^^^| tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime"; done"^^^" | clip

Steffen

[brh56]

The pipe character '|' has a special meaning (the same as in linux) and has to be escaped (using '^'), if you want to use it as a simple text (outside of doublequotes).
Because you redirect the output of a command to clip (using the pipe) the command line interpreter processes the command twice:
1. Process "command|clip" to create the pipe.
2. Process "command" and "clip" to execute the left and right command.

So you have to escape the "text pipes" in the left command twice:

Code: Select all

echo|set /p "=for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b ^^^| tr -s ' ' ^^^| tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime"; done" | clip

Beside this you could remove "echo|" and assign input from the nul device to "set/p":

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<nul set /p "=for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b ^^^| tr -s ' ' ^^^| tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime"; done" | clip

penpen

Thank you, penpen, both solutions work perfectly.

Bjoern

[brh56]

If the quotation mark next to done belongs to your command line you have to add it also with three carets escaped (because it's an unbalanced quotation mark).

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<nul set /p "=for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b ^^^| tr -s ' ' ^^^| tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime"; done"^^^" | clip

Steffen

Oops, thanks Steffen. I cut off the first quotation mark by accident.

Bjoern

[brh56]

Now I find the above a bit confusing because in the next command, there is no problem with the pipe to egrep.

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echo|set /p="clear;echo Hub7;ssh -q 169.254.64.112 ethtool eth2|egrep 'Speed|Duplex|Auto-neg|Link';echo Hub8;ssh -q 169.254.64.128 ethtool eth2|egrep 'Speed|Duplex|Auto-neg|Link'"|clip

Bjoern

[penpen]

Characters outside doublequotes might be operators or normal text depending on the characters themselves;
examples (without surrounding single quotes):
- operators: '&&' '&', '||', '|', '(', '^', '>', ...
- normal text: 'a', 'b', 'c', ..., '0', '1', '2', ... , 'ABC', ...

Text inside doublequotes ('"') or after circumflex accent ('^') always is treated as normal text
(except the exclamation mark ('!'), when using delayed expansion, which is treated as an operator during the delayed expansion);
example (without surrounding single quotes):
normal text: 'abc"&& & > < "012'

Now mark the text inside doublequotes with green, the text outside of doublequotes with red, and the doublequotes itselves with black:
1) echo|set /p="for b in 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14; do echo;echo "BLADE ${b}";ssh -q `hostname | cut -d "-" -f 1`-s00c${b}h0 "echo -n 'BOOT TIME: ';who -b | tr -s ' ' | tr -d '\n';echo -en '\nUPTIME: ';uptime
"; done"clip

2) echo|set /p="clear;echo Hub7;ssh -q 169.254.64.112 ethtool eth2|egrep 'Speed|Duplex|Auto-neg|Link';echo Hub8;ssh -q 169.254.64.128 ethtool eth2|egrep 'Speed|Duplex|Auto-neg|Link'"|clip

You have to escape all operator characters in the red sections (twice for the above given reason), that are not meant to be interpreted as operators by the batch command.


penpen