Running all batch files in a folder from another batch file at once

Question

Got a folder which contains automatically generated batch scripts. For example - a cron job runs a script, grabs all new rows from a database, cURLs to my windows server, writes a batch file to the folder with the specific ID.

I then have a secondary batch file which I need to run all these batch files at once, not sequentially. The reason for this is at any one time, there can be 100 batch scripts in the folder, taking on average 3 minutes each, which is five hours, while testing shows that all 100 are fine running at once, and only takes 5 minutes.

So far I have:

FORFILES /S /P "./batch_files" /M *.bat /C "cmd /c call @file /Q "

Which does loop through all the files, however only runs them sequentially. I was thinking assigning each file name to a variable and using the "&" operator so it would basically be

FORFILES /S /P "./batch_files" /M *.bat /C "cmd /c variable = variable+"&"+@fname /Q "
call variable

But in proper batch file formatting (I suck at CMD).

Also I don't know whether "variable" would be global, as it runs a separate instance of cmd on every forfiles?

I have tried start, however it does not run the batch file.

rickyduck
– rickyduck

2011-07-28 11:31:52 +00:00
Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 11:31 — rickyduck
– rickyduck, Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 11:31

Hand-E-Food · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-28 11:57:13Z

1

Rather than:

Cmd /C Call @file /Q

use:

Start Cmd.exe /Q /C @file

Start begins a process and returns immediately.

answered Jul 28, 2011 at 11:57

Hand-E-Food

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2 Comments

rickyduck Over a year ago

Thanks for the response, unfortunately start didnt seem to run the file correctly when used in FORFILES. I went down the route of using Start in the batch that ran the FORFILES, so PHP inserted a new line for each batch file

Hand-E-Food Over a year ago

I've never tried ForFiles. I've always used the For command. I'm glad you've got it working!

Aacini · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-28 19:09:27Z

1

You can't. The START command start another process and returns immediately to execute the next line in a Batch file IF AND ONLY IF the executed process is a 32-bits Graphical Windows application. If not, that is the case of CMD.EXE, then START waits for the executed command to end.

answered Jul 28, 2011 at 19:09

Aacini

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1 Comment

rickyduck Over a year ago

Ah ok, well I sorted it by running all batch files at once with a huge list of start /path/to/batch.bat

j0k · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-10 08:52:19Z

1

A combination of the above answers should help.

Assuming you are wanting to search the contents of folder batch_files located in the root folder would give the following:

FORFILES /S /P "\batch_files" /M *.bat /C "cmd /C start call @file"
EXIT /B

This worked for me.

edited Jan 10, 2013 at 8:52

j0k

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answered Jan 10, 2013 at 8:34

Chris

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