[kdsprocket]

Hello
I'm trying to create a bat file that will del specific subfolders and there files.
I have a tree that looks like this
C:\CAD\Projects\projectname\
and I want to delete the subfolders
\out
\in
\pdf
\symb
\data
I have multiple Projectnames so I was trying to us a wildcard. There are sub folders I want to keep in each projectname
del c:\cad\projects\*\out
del c:\cad\projects\*\in
del c:\cad\projects\*\pdf
del c:\cad\projects\*\out
It didn't work
I also tried deltree ...no luck
anyone have a answer

[Squashman]

C:\>rd /?
Removes (deletes) a directory.

RMDIR [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path
RD [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path

    /S      Removes all directories and files in the specified directory
            in addition to the directory itself.  Used to remove a directory
            tree.

    /Q      Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to remove a directory tree with /S

[TheOutcaste]

And to avoid having to change the batch file when project names change:

for /D %%I in ("C:\CAD\Projects\*") do For %%J in (out in pdf symb data) do rmdir /s/q "%%I\%%J"

The quotes shown in blue are only needed if the path contains spaces
This won't work if any of the subfolders shown in red contain a space in their name.
If they do, create a file with the folder names listed one per line named for example DelThese.txt and use this instead:

for /D %%I in ("C:\CAD\Projects\*") do For /F "tokens=*"  %%J in (DelThese.txt) do rmdir /s/q "%%I\%%J"

if DelThese.txt is not in the same folder as the batch file, you must specify the path. If the path contains spaces you must add the usebackq option:

for /D %%I in ("C:\CAD\Projects\*") do For /F "usebackq tokens=*" %%J in ("C:\Some Path\DelThese.txt") do rmdir /s/q "%%I\%%J"

HTH

Jerry

[kdsprocket]

Rd only removes empty folders

I'm not familar with all the switches
/f deletes all the files in a specified directory
/s specified sub directories
/f forces read only

What is %% J
ANd what is %%I

Is the (delthese.txt) a separate file that list the folders to delete?

Thanks guys for your input

[Squashman]

Originally Posted by kdsprocket

What is %% J
ANd what is %%I
Thanks guys for your input

Variables used in the For Loops.

[Squashman]

Originally Posted by kdsprocket

Rd only removes empty folders

What version of Windows are you using. Using the /s switch to remove everything.

[kdsprocket]

Originally Posted by Squashman

What version of Windows are you using. Using the /s switch to remove everything.

WINDOWS XP PRO SP2

[TheOutcaste]

Originally Posted by kdsprocket

Rd only removes empty folders

I'm not familar with all the switches
/f deletes all the files in a specified directory
/s specified sub directories
/f forces read only

What is %% J
ANd what is %%I

Is the (delthese.txt) a separate file that list the folders to delete?

Thanks guys for your input

RD (rmdir) does not have a /f switch, but DEL does, to force deletion of read only files.
The /F in the batch is a switch for the FOR statement
/s removes all files:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>rd /?
Removes (deletes) a directory.

RMDIR [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path
RD [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path

    /S      Removes all directories and files in the specified directory
            in addition to the directory itself.  Used to remove a directory
            tree.

    /Q      Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to remove a directory tree with /S

The delthese.txt file only needs to be used if the name of a folder you want to delete contains a space -- it's a restriction of the way the FOR command works.

To step through what the command does:
assume you have this structure:
c:\CAD\Projects

Project1

data
in
out
pdf
symb

Project2

data
in
out
pdf
symb

for /D %%I in ("C:\CAD\Projects\*") do
This part reads the top level folder names one at a time under c:\CAD\Projects\ (Project1 and Project2) and assigns it to the %I variable.

In a batch file you have to use two % signs, so it has to be entered as %%I

First time through the FOR loop, %I=C:\CAD\Projects\Project1. This is passed to the second FOR command
For %%J in (out in pdf symb data) do
This loop assigns one of the values in red to the variable %J. First time through it is out.
The %I and %J values are now used in the RMDIR command.
rmdir /s/q "%%I\%%J"
When you expand the variables, this makes the rmdir command look like this:
rmdir /s/q "C:\CAD\Projects\Project1\out"
The /s switch tells it to remove all files and folders in C:\CAD\Projects\Project1\out, then to remove the out folder.
The blue quotes are only needed if the projectname contains a space, ie Project 1 instead of Project1. It doesn't hurt to include them just in case a future folder name contains a space.
The FOR loop then repeats with in, then pdf, then symb, then data
Once complete, control passes back to the first FOR loop, and %I is now assigned C:\CAD\Projects\Project2 and the second FOR loop repeats the process using this new value.

The second FOR loop uses the spaces to separate the folder names (out in pdf symb data), so if any of these folder names contain a space, you have to put the names in a file (delthese.txt) and tell the FOR loop to read lines from the file by using the /F switch. Without the /F switch, %J would be assigned the file NAME, not the contents.
You can use any name, and it doesn't have to have an extension, so @123## would work. It just has to be a text file with each folder name on a separate line.

In my original post I left out the tokens=* option on the 2nd and 3rd code blocks (I've edited the post to add it). The default delimiter is space and tab, so everything up to the first space would be assigned to %J. Adding tokens=* tacks on the rest of the line. This tells the FOR loop to assign the entire line to the %J variable. Using "delims=" also works as long as there is no space between the = and the ".

To test the file, you can insert @echo in front of rmdir /sq. This will just list the rmdir commands that will be created without deleting anything.

Entering FOR /? in a command prompt window will show the different options you can use with the FOR command.

HTH

Jerry