I like to have a typical "usage:" line in my cmd.exe scripts — if a parameter is missing, user is given simple reminder of how the script is to be used.
The problem is that I can't safely predict whether potential user would use GUI or CLI. If somebody using GUI double-clicks this script in Explorer window, they won't have chance to read anything, unless I pause the window. If they use CLI, pause will bother them.
So I'm looking for a way to detect it.
@echo off
if _%1_==__ (
echo usage: %nx0: filename
rem now pause or not to pause?
)
Is there a nice solution on this?
You can check the value of %CMDCMDLINE% variable. It contains the command that was used to launch cmd.exe.
I prepared a test .bat file:
@Echo Off
echo %CMDCMDLINE%
pause
When run from inside of open cmd.exe window, the script prints "C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe".
When run by double-clicking, it prints cmd /c ""C:\Users\mbu\Desktop\test.bat" "
So to check if your script was launched by double-clicking you need to check if %cmdcmdline% contains the path to your script. The final solution would look like this:
@echo off
set interactive=1
echo %cmdcmdline% | find /i "%~0" >nul
if not errorlevel 1 set interactive=0
rem now I can use %interactive% anywhere
if _%1_==__ (
echo usage: %~nx0 filename
if _%interactive%_==_0_ pause
)
Edit: implemented fixes for issues changes discussed in comments; edited example to demonstrate them