Hello ! Iam new to Dos Script.Iam struck with a problem,Plese help. I want to execute a dos command from batch file and on error condition want to display my custom message. Say I want to copy file c:\programs\test.txt to d:\application If the file is not present I want to display message that Installation failed. I dont to display the System error message. I tried like this. copy c:\programs\test.txt d:\application >nul 2>error_log if exist error_log echo Insatallation failed But to the surprise I find error file being created inspite of file being present and command executed successfully. The size of error_log is 0 bytes with no message. Why is the error_log file created on successful execution/ Is there any method to check if error occured for execution of a particular dos command. Please Help!!!!!!!! Regards Srihari

That issue of the system creating the file even if the output redirected to it is 0-byte is confusing, besides it depends on the operating system running. Instead of using files to detect errors, check the errorlevel. The default errorlevel a program returns when it runs fine is 0, and it returns an errorlevel equal or greater than 1 if an error occurs. So, this would do it: copy file1 file2 1>2> nul if errorlevel=1 goto error echo Installation successful. goto end :error echo Installation failed. goto end :end The statement "if errorlevel=1" will return a true value if the errorlevel is equal or greater than 1. -- Leonardo Pignataro - Secret_Doom -- secret_doom@hotmail.com www.batch.hpg.com.br