Question

I don’t think this is possible, but I’d like to be able to do this, or possibly use an alternative method…

I have a batch file;

for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%a in (`wmic process get description, commandline`) do (
*Some Code*
)

I need to be able to take the two answers from each line, and use them individually (basically, use the description to check if a process is running, then after I’ve killed the process and done some file clean-up work, reload the original process including any command line parameters.

One example of the output for a process I may need to end/re-open might be;

"C:\some folder\some other folder\some_application" -cmd_parameter                process_name.exe

Note that the descrption is clearly defined by multiple spaces..

So is there a way of saying

for /f "tokens=* delims=  "    <--(The delims is TWO spaces, not space OR space)

Another way that may be better could be to replcae all instances of multiple spaces with a special character (i.e. one that is never used in a proces or path), and then use that as my delimeter… Though I don’t know if that is even possible..

I’m also open to any alternative methods, as long as I can get the process name (to check against a pre-defined list of processes, and the full path to the exe, plus any command line paramteres given.

Thanks all

Answer 1

In direct answer to you question: No, you cannot specify 2 spaces as a delimiter. You can use SET search and replace to change 2 spaces into some unique character, but determining a unique character that will never appear in your description or command line is easier said then done.

A better alternative is to change the output format of WMIC to LIST – one value per line in the form of propertyName=Value. Each propery value can be stored in a variable, and then when the last property for a process is recorded you can take action using the variable values. WMIC output uses Unicode, and that results in a CarriageReturn character being appended to the end of each variable assignment. The CarriageReturn must be stripped to get the correct results.

@echo off
setlocal
for /f "tokens=1* delims==" %%A in ('"wmic process get description, commandline /format:list"') do (
  if "%%A"=="CommandLine" (
    set "cmd=%%B"
  ) else if "%%A"=="Description" (
    set "desc=%%B"
    setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
    set "desc=!desc:~0,-1!"
    set "cmd=!cmd:~0,-1!"
    echo(
    echo Do whatever you need to do with the description and command line.
    echo description=!desc!
    echo command line=!cmd!
    endlocal
  )
)

There are a few things you need to be careful of.

1) You could have multiple processes for the same image name. If you kill a process via the image name (description), then you will delete all of them. If you also restart it it based on the command line, then it will be killed again when the next process with the same name is killed. It is probably better to kill the process via the process ID.

2) If you know the image name (description) of the process, then you can restrict your output using the WMIC WHERE clause.

3) The command line reported by WMIC is not always reliable. The process is able to modify the value that is reported as the command line.

Here is a solution that retrieves the process ID and command line for a specific description.
EDIT – I fixed the code below

@echo off
setlocal
for /f "tokens=1* delims==" %%A in ('"wmic process where description='MyApp.exe' get processId, commandline /format:list"') do (
  if "%%A"=="CommandLine" (
    set "cmd=%%B"
  ) else if "%%A"=="ProcessId" (
    set "id=%%B"
    setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
    set "id=!id:~0,-1!"
    set "cmd=!cmd:~0,-1!"
    echo(
    echo Do whatever you need to do with the process id and command line.
    echo process Id=!id!
    echo command line=!cmd!
    endlocal
  )
)

Note – the WMIC WHERE clause uses SQL syntax. It can be made complex using AND and OR conditions, and it supports the LIKE operator using % and _ as wildcards. I believe the entire expression needs to be enclosed in double quotes when it becomes complex.