I have a text file (ip.txt) containing regex search parameters to serach for ip and host key-value pair separated by space/tab in Windows host file. Contents of ip.txt will be like below ip.txt --------- "^10.10.10.10 *abc.xyz.com" "^20.20.20.20 *efg.xyz.com" "^30.30.30.30 *thf.xyz.com" ------------------------- Now I have written a script which searches for those regex patterns and if not found add the pair in hosts file and the pair it writes is written in a report.txt file which will be used to write another batch file which will read the entries added and delete it (just a reverse scipt) When my script works it directly adds the regex pattern stored in %%a to hosts file. I want to add like 10.10.10.10 abc.xyz.com instead of the pattern. My script is not working properly. Plz help --------- @echo off set hf=%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts echo ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >> report.txt echo host entries added >> report.txt echo ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >> report.txt FOR /F "delims=^n tokens=*" %%a IN (ip.txt) DO (findstr /n /r %%a %hf% echo %%a echo error = %errorlevel% IF %errorlevel% equ 1 (goto :step1) else (goto :step0) :step1 echo %%a>>%hf% echo %var% >> report.txt :step0 echo found ) echo ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >> report.txt pause arin