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I& #39;m not saying windows batch programming is stupid, but if you want to insert a delay, your options are:
* commands only added in later versions of windows
* commands included in the SDK, but not the OS
* ping yourself N times
* pipe a comment into a DOS command asking a question
* commands only added in later versions of windows
* commands included in the SDK, but not the OS
* ping yourself N times
* pipe a comment into a DOS command asking a question
the PING one is amusing: if you tell PING to exit after 5 tries, it will run for about 4 seconds.
So you can do "ping localhost -n 6 >NUL" to get an about-5-seconds pause.
So you can do "ping localhost -n 6 >NUL" to get an about-5-seconds pause.
the problem is that this will fail if your computer doesn& #39;t have TCP/IP
and yeah, you can have a windows install without TCP/IP.
and yeah, you can have a windows install without TCP/IP.
so the other option is the DOS choice command, which presents the user with a simple question, defaulting to Y/N.
But it has an option to select one choice after a timeout...
so you can do "CHOICE /C:AB /T:A,10 >NUL" to get a 10 second pause
But it has an option to select one choice after a timeout...
so you can do "CHOICE /C:AB /T:A,10 >NUL" to get a 10 second pause
except of the problem of maybe the user is pushing something of the keyboard around then, and that& #39;ll ether make it end early or take longer
so you need to send nothing to it.
What& #39;s the easiest way to do that, in batch?
PIPE A COMMENT IN!
so you need to send nothing to it.
What& #39;s the easiest way to do that, in batch?
PIPE A COMMENT IN!
so to make a comment in a batch file you do
REM COMMENT HERE
but "REM" is effectively acting as a command that does nothing... so if you do REM | FOOBAR you& #39;re actually setting up a command pipe that sends nothing to FOOBAR as input.
REM COMMENT HERE
but "REM" is effectively acting as a command that does nothing... so if you do REM | FOOBAR you& #39;re actually setting up a command pipe that sends nothing to FOOBAR as input.
thus the correct way to do a choice-timeout is:
REM | CHOICE /C:AB /T:A,10 >NUL
REM | CHOICE /C:AB /T:A,10 >NUL
fun fact: the originally suggested way to do this was to do "REM | CHOICE /T:N,10 >NUL" which works on english installs of windows, but not some other languages.
Because the default for choice is to ask you a Yes/No question, or Y/N.
Because the default for choice is to ask you a Yes/No question, or Y/N.
