periodically i am required to navigate to dozens of folders on several servers and rename a file I will call "file.exe" to "fileYYYYMMDD.exe" and replace the old with a new file.exe. file.exe is named such in all folders, and the rename will be to today's date. i was hoping to create a custom script on each server which gives paths to all the applicable subdirs where file.exe exists and would automate the rename old, copy new, paste new. any assistance would be much appreciated. thank you- Mike

I guess you're using XP. [You're in the DOS forum.] Is the script to be run on each server? ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Yes, using XP. the servers are all Server 2003. I'm looking for sort of a template for a .bat that I can customize for the subdirs of each server. So, yes I expect the script to run locally on each server as needed, but i dont expect it to be "one size fits all". the constants will be the name of the orig/old file.exe, new file.exe, and the format for renaming the old file.exe. the variables will be the names of the subdirs the old file.exe resides within. Apologies for posing to the wrong forum. Again, yr assistance is appreciated. Mike

As posted, this won't DO any REN or COPY but will preview what's to be done. To activate, edit out the 2 ECHOs in the lines after FOR. It finds and renmaes the file.exe files on the current drive. ======================== :: ren all file.exe and copy fresh @echo off & setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion call :YMD for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%a in ('dir/s/b/a-d \file.exe') do ( echo ren %%a !year!!month!!dat!%%~Na%%~Xa echo copy file.exe %%~Fa ) goto :eof ::=========================================== :YMD >> d.d echo E 0100 B4 2A CD 21 B4 4C CD 21 >> d.d echo N DAY.COM >> d.d echo RCX >> d.d echo 8 >> d.d echo W >> d.d echo E 0100 B4 2A CD 21 88 F0 B4 4C CD 21 >> d.d echo N MONTH.COM >> d.d echo RCX >> d.d echo A >> d.d echo W >> d.d echo E 0100 B4 2A CD 21 89 C8 B4 4C CD 21 >> d.d echo N YEAR.COM >> d.d echo RCX >> d.d echo A >> d.d echo W >> d.d echo E 0100 B4 2A CD 21 88 D0 B4 4C CD 21 >> d.d echo N DAT.COM >> d.d echo RCX >> d.d echo A >> d.d echo W >> d.d echo Q debug < d.d > nul del d.d dat for %%a in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ) do if errorlevel %%a set dat=0%%a for %%a in ( 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31) do if errorlevel %%a set dat=%%a echo Date %dat% day if errorlevel 0 set day=Sunday if errorlevel 1 set day=Monday if errorlevel 2 set day=Tuesday if errorlevel 3 set day=Wednesday if errorlevel 4 set day=Thursday if errorlevel 5 set day=Friday if errorlevel 6 set day=Saturday echo Day %day% month for %%a in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ) do if errorlevel %%a set month=0%%a for %%a in ( 10 11 12) do if errorlevel %%a set month=%%a echo Month %month% year if errorlevel 215 set Year=2007 if errorlevel 216 set Year=2008 if errorlevel 217 set Year=2009 if errorlevel 218 set Year=2010 echo Year %Year% del day.com del month.com del year.com del dat.com ::== DONE goto :eof ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2