Question

I’m learning the ins and outs of batch programming, and I’ve hit a small snag. I’m trying to recursively loop through a directory (and subdirs) to find suitable .vob files. All is well, except my dir command is outputting File Not Found. In the command line, I can redirect the error to oblivion using:

dir /b *.vob 2>NUL

In the batch file, however, I get the blink of death.

for /R %%G IN (\) DO (
    pushd "%%G"
    for /F "usebackq" %%V in (`dir /b *.vob`) DO (
        echo: Found %%~nV in %%~dpV
    )
    popd
)

Changing it to

for /R %%G IN (\) DO (
    pushd "%%G"
    for /F "usebackq" %%V in (`dir /b *.vob 2>NUL`) DO (
        echo: Found %%~nV in %%~dpV
    )
    popd
)

My cmd window, I assume, crashes. Blinks on and off.

Debugging batches sucks, btw.

Answer 1

You need to escape the redirect 2^>NUL, then it should work as expected.

for /R %%G IN (\) DO (
    pushd "%%G"
    for /F "usebackq" %%V in (`dir /b *.vob 2^>NUL`) DO (
        echo: Found %%~nV in %%~dpV
    )
    popd
)