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I am taking backups of my files everyday and I am using a batch file to do this. Currently it is being copied to the same folder and gets overwritten. I don't want this to get overwritten and want to be able to create folders with the current date appended to it and store these for a period of time, for example folder test_20031105. Is this possible to do in the DOS batch file? Also I would like to zip the backup files, how can I do this in the batch file?
To create a directory with the current date use the following (based upon the system XP variable %Date%)
MD TEST_%Date:~-4,4%%Date:~-10,2%%Date:~-7,2%
I assume you use the US date format (MMDDYYYY) otherwise change the relative Date element position (%Date:....%).
To zip the files is possible, but the exact format of the command is related to the software you currently use to compress (WinZip, PowerArchiver and so on...)
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Hi jasmine
Try Sometime like this
@echo off
Rem Get Day,Mth & Year from %Date%
set Day=%Date:~0,2%
set Mth=%Date:~3,2%
set Yr=%Date:~6,4%
md test_%Yr%%Mth%%Day%
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Thanks so much! IVO's solution worked. I tried using dtech10's code into a batch file and it was not successful.
IVO,I use Winzip for compression. Can you let me know what command I should use?
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Hi Jasmine
I pasted the text from the above item into notepad and saved it as a batch file and it worked ok for me. I'm using WinXP Pro
but I would'nt have throught take would make a difference.
Anyway IVO's solution is much neater.
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IVO,
Could you explain what ~-(number) represents in the string?
TEST_%Date:~-4,4%%Date:~-10,2%%Date:~-7,2%
Thanks Kemet
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Hi Kernet,
the :~ means you want to refer to the substring embedded in the source variable, according to the syntax %Var:~Off,Lgt% where Off is the offset starting from 0 and Lgt the size of the substring you want to extract.
If the offset is negative (-), the offset is computed from the end of the string. So the first %Date:... means select the substring in Date that is located at the last four positions (in other words the last four characters). I leave you to interpret the other two substrings.
Why did I process the %Date% backward? To get compatibility between NT/2K and XP Date format, as XP omits to return the day of week. Parsing as I do gives invariance respect to the operating environment.Anyway to know more type Set /? at command prompt (Win NT/2K/XP required).
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