Question

The following mostly works. ‘Mostly’, because the use of the SOMETHING..\tasks\ pathname confuses Spring when a context XML file tries to include another by relative pathname. So, what I seem to need is a way, in a BAT file, of setting a variable to the parent directory of a pathname.

set ROOT=%~dp0
java -Xmx1g -jar %ROOT%\..\lib\ajar.jar %ROOT%\..\tasks\fas-model.xml tasks

Answer 1

To resolve a relative path name you can utilize a sub routine call.
At the end of your batch file place the following lines:

GOTO :EOF

:RESOLVE
SET %2=%~f1 
GOTO :EOF

This is a sub routine that resolves its first parameter to a full path (%~f1) and stores the result to the (global) variable named by the 2nd parameter

You can use the routine like this:

CALL :RESOLVE "%ROOT%\.." PARENT_ROOT

After the call you can use the variable %PARENT_ROOT% that contains the parent path name contained in the %ROOT% variable.

Your complete batch file should look like this:

SET ROOT=%~dp0

CALL :RESOLVE "%ROOT%\.." PARENT_ROOT

java -Xmx1g -jar "%PARENT_ROOT%\lib\ajar.jar" "%PARENT_ROOT%\tasks\fas-model.xml" tasks

GOTO :EOF

:RESOLVE
SET %2=%~f1 
GOTO :EOF