I saw a couple similar questions but could quite cobble together what I want. This was close because it gives me the name of the most recent batch file:
for /f "delims=" %%x in ('dir /od /b c:\maps\*.bat') do set recent=%%x
echo %recent%
But the batch file that contains this is in, say, c:\start, so I need to get back a full pathname, not just the filename. I can then use "call" to run the batch file.
(I'm doing this on xp, incidently.)
if you use
for /f "delims=" %%x in ('dir /od /b c:\maps\*.bat') do set recent=%%x
you positively know that the full path of the file will be c:\maps\%%x
Alternatively, if you use dir /s instead, it will iterate over all the existing subdirectories
for /f "delims=" %%x in ('dir /od /b /s c:\maps\*.bat') do set recent=%%x
but with the interesting side effect of returning the full path, that will be %%x.
try to use :
for /f "delims=" %%x in ('dir /od /b /s c:\maps\*.bat') do set recent=%%x
echo %recent%
This worked better for me than /s, which had poor performance:
for /f "delims=" %%x in ('dir /od /b c:\maps\*.bat') do set recent=%%~fx
dircommand??