Member Avatar for BigDork

I found some very helpful articles on this site, but I'm having trouble with this one...

Here is the applicable batch code:

@echo off > %AppData%\PROGRAM\NEW.INI
setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion

find "DESIRED STRING" < %AppData%\PROGRAM\EXISTING.INI > nul
if not errorlevel 1 goto :FOUND

for /f "tokens=1 delims=[] " %%a in ('find /n "[SERVERS]" ^< %AppData%\PROGRAM\EXISTING.INI') 

do (
set /a i=%%a
)

for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%a in (%AppData%\PROGRAM\EXISTING.INI) do (
set /a n+=1
echo %%a >> %AppData%\PROGRAM\NEW.INI
if !i! equ !n! echo DESIRED STRING >> %AppData%\PROGRAM\NEW.INI
)

REM --DEBUG NEW INI FILE
 edit %AppData%\PROGRAM\NEW.INI
goto :EOF

:FOUND
echo FOUND IN EXISTING.INI FILE - ABORTED!
pause
goto :EOF

:EOF

The EXISTING.INI file has blank lines in it that are not copied to a NEW.INI file, therefore when inserting new lines into the NEW.INI file they are inserted at the incorrect locations.

For example - A new string should be inserted at line 120 of the EXISTING.INI, however the NEW.INI is without the blank lines of the EXISTING.INI file and what was line 120 is now line 113 so the new string is inserted at the "new" line 120 ("old" line 127) of the NEW.INI file.

Does that make sense? Any idea how I can make this batch copy the blank lines to the NEW.INI file?

The plan is to distribute as a logon script that modifies that particular INI file on the client's machine. All our clients are Windows based, so if there is a better way to do this with VBS - I'm all ears!

Thanks in advance!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Salem
Member Avatar for Salem

Personally, I would suggest you learn some alternative approaches.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Script_Host

Even after 30 years, M$'s idea of a capable command line shell is woeful. The so-called 'extensions' only serve to highlight how truly awful command.com was, and how inadequate cmd.exe remains.

Most of your time will be spent working out what bizarre trick you need to do next, rather than getting on with solving the problem.

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