Question

I have a batch file that’s calling the same executable over and over with different parameters. How do I make it terminate immediately if one of the calls returns an error code of any level?

Basically, I want the equivalent of MSBuild’s ContinueOnError=false.

Answer 1

Check the errorlevel in an if statement, and then exit /b (exit the batch file only, not the entire cmd.exe process) for values other than 0.

same-executable-over-and-over.exe /with different 'parameters' if %errorlevel% neq 0 exit /b %errorlevel% 

If you want the value of the errorlevel to propagate outside of your batch file

if %errorlevel% neq 0 exit /b %errorlevel% 

but if this is inside a for it gets a bit tricky. You’ll need something more like:

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion for %%f in (C:\Windows\*) do (     same-executable-over-and-over.exe /with different 'parameters'     if !errorlevel! neq 0 exit /b !errorlevel! ) 

Edit: You have to check the error after each command. There’s no global ‘on error goto’ type of construct in cmd.exe/command.com batch. I’ve also updated my code per CodeMonkey, although I’ve never encountered a negative errorlevel in any of my batch-hacking on XP or Vista.