Question

Lets say i want to copy a file from one location to another with this code:

@set FILE=%1
@set SCRDIR=C:\test dir
@set DSTDIR=%SCRDIR%\temp

for %%f in ("%SCRDIR%\%FILE%") do @(
    echo Copying "%%f" to "%DSTDIR%"
    copy "%%f" "%DSTDIR%"
)

The file exists:

 C:\test dir>dir /b copyme.txt
copyme.txt

First i call the script with the name of the file as argument i want to copy:

C:\test dir>test.bat rename.txt

C:\test dir>for %f in ("C:\test dir\rename.txt") do @(
echo Copying "%f" to "C:\test dir\temp"
 copy "%f" "C:\test dir\temp"
)
Copying ""C:\test dir\rename.txt"" to "C:\test dir\temp"
The system cannot find the file specified..

The above copy command fails, because of the extra quotes…

Now i call the script with the file name containing a wildcard * :

C:\test dir>test.bat copyme.*

C:\test dir>for %f in ("C:\test dir\copyme.*") do (
echo Copying "%f" to "C:\test dir\temp"
 copy "%f" "C:\test dir\temp"
)

C:\test dir>(
echo Copying "C:\test dir\copyme.txt" to "C:\test dir\temp"
 copy "C:\test dir\copyme.txt" "C:\test dir\temp"
)
Copying "C:\test dir\copyme.txt" to "C:\test dir\temp"
        1 file(s) copied.

In the above example, where im using a wildcard, it works perfectly fine.

Can anyone explain this behaviour? Why does windows add extra quotes when im not using wildcards? Or is it omitting the extra quotes, because im using wildcards?
I have to quote the path\filename for the FOR loop in order to handle paths, which contain blanks, so omitting those is not an option.

Answer 1

when there are no wildcards, for command doesn’t check if the file exists, so effectively treats its name as a string literal, quotes included.
Just use "%%~f" instead of "%%f"