Question

How would one go best about checking for existence of all files before building?

Let me explain; I mostly build stuff from the command prompt. No problems there, just put the build command and all in one .bat /.cmd file, and run it. It works fine.

But, for the normal running of my program, for example, I need several source files for the build, and then an additional few data files, measured data and such.

Is there a way to test via a batch file whether a file exists, and if it exists just write OK?

file1.for OK
file2.for OK
datafile.txt OK
data.dat MISSING FROM DIRECTORY

How could this be accomplished?

Answer 1

As a slightly more advanced approach:

@Echo Off
SetLocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
Set FileList=file1.for file2.for "File with spaces" ...
Set Build=1
For %%f In (%FileList%) Do Call :FileExists %%f

If Not Defined Build (
    Echo.
    Echo Build aborted. Files were missing.
    GoTo :EOF
)

...

GoTo :EOF

:FileExists
Set FileName=%~1
If Exist "!FileName!" (
    Echo !FileName! OK
) Else (
    Echo !FileName! MISSING FROM DIRECTORY
    Set Build=
)
GoTo :EOF

You can put all files into the FileList variable. The Build variable controls whether to continue with the build. A single missing file causes it to cancel.