DOS: create filename based on date? Closed

Question

Hello,

I need to be able to automatically generate a DOS .txt filename that is the 'date' of when it is created.

Any ideas?  My DOS is rather rusty and have run out of ideas.

sandbeha · Accepted Answer

You might try something like this...


set filea=MyBigFile%date:~10%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%.sav
copy MyData.dat %filea%

Since the date is Thu 07/30/2009 and the time is 14:07:00.00,
For today this would give a file named
MyBigFile200907301407.sav

good luck

mildman · Answer

Try this:

copy con %DATE%.txt

the press Ctrl-Z.

This will create a zero-length file named 24-Jul-2009.txt (or whatever).

mildman · Answer

Sorry, that won't work from a batch file!  If you don't mind what is in the file then this will work:

echo >%DATE%.txt

And if a zero-length file is important to you then create one manually as described before, then use:

copy yourZeroLengthFile %DATE%.txt

Raj · Answer

copy nul %date:~10%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%.txt

Richard.Williams · Answer

It is better to use biterscripting for these kinds of things. DOS only has a subset of biterscripting commands.

This simple command will create the file <timestamp>.txt.

echo > { echo (gettime()+".txt") }

ebley · Answer

Small Business Server is NOT R2 - so you have to schedule it with a bat file. 

Here is a script inspired by this page. I put it as a scheduled task. It writes to a log file, then does the backup to that log file and makes an end to the log.  

It adds a time stamp to each backup. 

rem  
rem 
rem get the date and time without the slashes and colons. Note if I echo date and echo time I get dd/mm/yyyy and time is hh:ss:mm.ms 
set filea=%date:~6,4%-%date:~3,2%-%date:~0,2%_%time:~1,1%%time:~3,2%%time:~6,2% 
rem now start the log file 
echo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  >> E:\GeekCentral\scriptsesults\backuplog_%filea%.log 
echo %date% %time% %username% start >> E:\GeekCentral\scriptsesults\backuplog_%filea%.log 
rem 
rem - make a place to put the new backups 
rem - note that I have a drive mapped to a shared folder "GeekCentral" so if I went to \sbs-server\GeekCentral I have a folder there 
rem     that has the drive mapped here - and to my f: disk. 
rem    - see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/cc753321(v=ws.11)?redirectedfrom=MSDN 
mkdir "e:\GeekCEntral\BackupMount\Backup_%filea%" 
rem 
rem - now start the backup - see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2008-R2-and-2008/cc742083(v=ws.10)?redirectedfrom=MSDN and 
rem       webpage https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/1ab34447-4e81-4589-8aa1-8275cff132fc/quotno-disks-are-available-for-use-a-backup-destinationquot?forum=windowsbackup 
rem 
Wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:\sbs-server\geekcentral\BackupMount\Backup_%filea% -include:C:,E: -vssFull -quiet >>E:\GeekCentral\scriptsesults\backuplog_%filea%.log 
rem 
rem - end the log file 
echo %date% %time% %username% end >> E:\GeekCentral\scriptsesults\backuplog_%filea%.log 
echo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end >> E:\GeekCentral\scriptsesults\backuplog_%filea%.log

DOS: create filename based on date?

7 responses

Similar discussions

Subscribe To Our Newsletter!