Question

I was trying my hand at Windows shell scripting using cscript and Javascript. The idea was to take a really long Python command that I was tired of typing into the command line over and over. What I wanted to do was write a script that is much shorter to write the whole Python command into a Windows script and just call the Windows script, which would be a lot less to type. I just don’t know how I would go about calling a “command within a command” if that makes sense.

This is probably an easy thing, but I’m an newbie at this so please bear with me!

The idea:

Example original command: python do <something really complicated with a long filepath>

Windows Script: cscript easycommand

 <package id = "easycommand">
      <job id = "main" >
          <script type="text/javascript">
               // WHAT GOES HERE TO CALL python do <something really complicated>
               WScript.Echo("Success!");
          </script>
      </job>
 </package>

Thanks for all your help!

Answer 1

Here’s what I use

function logMessage(msg) {
    if (typeof wantLogging != "undefined" && wantLogging) {
        WScript.Echo(msg);
    }
}

// http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d5fk67ky(VS.85).aspx
var windowStyle = {
    hidden    : 0,
    minimized : 1,
    maximized : 2
};

// http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a72y2t1c(v=VS.85).aspx
var specialFolders = {
    windowsFolder   : 0,
    systemFolder    : 1,
    temporaryFolder : 2
};

function runShellCmd(command, deleteOutput) {
    deleteOutput = deleteOutput || false;
    logMessage("RunAppCmd("+command+") ENTER");
    var shell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell"),
        fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"),
        tmpdir = fso.GetSpecialFolder(specialFolders.temporaryFolder),
        tmpFileName = fso.BuildPath(tmpdir, fso.GetTempName()),
        rc;

    logMessage("shell.Run("+command+")");

    // use cmd.exe to redirect the output
    rc = shell.Run("%comspec% /c " + command + "> " + tmpFileName,
                       windowStyle.Hidden, true);
    logMessage("shell.Run rc = "  + rc);

    if (deleteOutput) {
        fso.DeleteFile(tmpFileName);
    }
    return {
        rc : rc,
        outputfile : (deleteOutput) ? null : tmpFileName
    };
}

Here’s an example of how to use the above to list the Sites defined in IIS with Appcmd.exe:

var
fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject"),
windir = fso.GetSpecialFolder(specialFolders.WindowsFolder),
r = runShellCmd("%windir%\\system32\\inetsrv\\appcmd.exe list sites");
if (r.rc !== 0) {
    // 0x80004005 == E_FAIL
    throw {error: "ApplicationException",
           message: "shell.run returned nonzero rc ("+r.rc+")",
           code: 0x80004005};
}

// results are in r.outputfile

var
textStream = fso.OpenTextFile(r.outputfile, OpenMode.ForReading),
sites = [], item, 
re = new RegExp('^SITE "([^"]+)" \\((.+)\\) *$'),
parseOneLine = function(oneLine) {
    // each line is like this:  APP "kjsksj" (dkjsdkjd)
    var tokens = re.exec(oneLine), parts;

    if (tokens === null) {
        return null;
    }
    // return the object describing the website
    return {
        name : tokens[1]
    };
};

// Read from the file and parse the results.
while (!textStream.AtEndOfStream) {
    item = parseOneLine(textStream.ReadLine()); // you create this...
    logMessage("  site: " + item.name);
    sites.push(item);
}
textStream.Close();
fso.DeleteFile(r.outputfile);