Making a text file with asking URL from user bat file, CMD keeps closing?

Question

I am trying to make 4 URLs by taking input from user and changing last few prefix:

@echo off
type bot.txt
set /p id="Enter the ip adress:"

And link will look like this:

https://live.star.com/hls/live/2004211/2020/hin/15mindvr1440006161q6nli0p96c19january2020

and complete URL should look like :

https://live.star.com/hls/live/2004211/2020/hin/15mindvr1440006161q6nli0p96c19january2020/master_1.m3u8|user-agent=KAIOS/2.0

where master_1 will be master_2, master_3 and master_4

I want this to happen and save in a text file! But, echo command is also not giving me a result!

set /p id="Enter the ip adress:"
echo Link 1 : %id%^
master_1.m3u8|user-agent=KAIOS/2.0

This keeps crashing the CMD

Is there any way to automate this?

Thanks!

The vertical bar, **`|`** is a character with a special use. In order to tell the parser to ignore that special use, you'll need to escape that character using a caret, **`^`**. For example, `master_1.m3u8^|user-agent=KAIOS/2.0` — Compo, Jan 21 '20 at 14:35

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 21 '20 at 18:26

So the user does not input an IP address as your prompt text set in advance, but an URL which can contain %, &, ?, | and other characters with a special meaning for the Windows command processor cmd.exe processing a batch file.

I suggest to use the following batch file:

@echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion

:UserPrompt
set "InputURL="
set /P "InputURL=Enter the URL: "
if not defined InputURL goto UserPrompt
set "InputURL=%InputURL:"=%"
if not defined InputURL goto UserPrompt

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
if not "!InputURL:~-1!" == "/" set "InputURL=!InputURL!/"
set "InputURL=!InputURL!master_1.m3u8|user-agent=KAIOS/2.0"
echo Link 1 : !InputURL!
endlocal

endlocal
echo/
pause

The environment variable InputURL is undefined explicitly before prompting the user.

The user can press just key RETURN or ENTER without entering anything at all. In this case the environment variable InputURL is still not defined as explicitly undefined before prompting the user. It would keep its current value if it would be defined before prompting the user.

The first IF condition just checks if the user typed a string at all and prompts the user again if nothing was input by the user.

Next all " are removed from the string input by the user. This action could result in execution of set "InputURL=" if the user entered just one or more " and nothing else and therefore the environment variable InputURL would be once again not defined anymore. For that reason the user is prompted once more on having just input one or more " intentionally or by mistake.

The double quote left to variable name InputURL and the double quote at end are very important here. It makes sure that the first (and only) argument string of command set is enclosed in double quotes. For that reason the Windows command processor interprets the characters like & and | inside the double quoted argument string as literal characters and not as operators.

Then delayed environment variable expansion is enabled which pushes the current states of command extensions (enabled) and delayed expansion (disabled) as well as the current directory and all environment variables on stack before enabling delayed expansion. All further commands are executed with a new set of environment variables until endlocal is executed by cmd.exe.

The usage of delayed expansion makes it possible to safely process the user input string further as the user input string does not anymore modify the command lines of the batch file before execution as it is done on using %InputURL% without modifying the file content of the batch file.

It is checked next in this temporary new environment if the user input string does not end with a / in which case the slash is appended to user input string.

Next is appended the fixed string containing the redirection operator | which is interpreted here as literal character because of being inside a double quoted argument string. So there is no need to escape the operator with ^ as it would be necessary in case of argument string of command set is not enclosed in double quotes exactly as done here with " left to variable name. A " between equal sign and string value assigned to the variable would not work here. For the reason see for example
How to set environment variables with spaces?

The command echo is used to output the modified URL with additional text using delayed expansion to be able to output the string without the usage of " because of echo would output also the double quotes.

See also: How does the Windows Command Interpreter (CMD.EXE) parse scripts?

The previous environment is restored with endlocal which does not only result in disabling delayed expansion as it was before setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion, but in restoring also state of command extensions (not modified), the current directory (not modified) and the previous list of environment variables with their values. This means the environment variable InputURL has again the string value without the one or two modifications made between setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion and endlocal.

The last endlocal just explicitly restores the environment before starting this batch file.

Last the user is prompted for pressing any key to see the output and leave batch file processing because of reaching end of the batch file.

Making a text file with asking URL from user bat file, CMD keeps closing?

1 Answers1