Question

How can I, in Windows, use the output of a script/command as an argument for another script?
(A pipe | will not work here, since that other script doesn’t read from the standard input)

Too clarify: I have AnotherScript that needs an argument arg, e.g.:

AnotherScript 12

now I want the argument (12 in the example) to come from the output of a script, call it ScriptB. So I would like something along the lines of

AnotherScript (ScriptB)

The AnotherScript is actually a python script that requires an argument, and ScriptB is a cygwin bash script that produces some number, so the way I would like to use it is something like:

c:\Python26\python.exe AnotherScript (c:\cygwin|bin|bash --login -i ./ScriptB)

Thanks for the answers. However, given the laborious ‘for’ construct required, I’ve rewritten AnotherScript to read from the standard input. That seems like a better solution.

Answer 1

Note: All this requires the commands to be in a batch file. Hence the double % signs.

You can use the for command to capture the output of the command:

for /f "usebackq delims=" %%x in (`ScriptB`) do set args=%%x

then you can use that output in another command:

AnotherScript %args%

This will cause %args% to contain the last line from ScriptB‘s output, though. If it only returns a single line you can roll this into one line:

for /f "usebackq delims=" %%x in (`ScriptB`) do AnotherScript %%x

When used outside a batch file you have to use %x instead of %%x.

However, if ScriptB returns more than one line, AnotherScript runs for each of those lines. You can circumvent this—though only within a batch file—by breaking after the first loop iteration:

for /f "usebackq delims=" %%x in (`ScriptB`) do AnotherScript %%x & goto :eof