How to pass a command as a command line argument by Batch file

Question

I want to pass a command as a command line argument from one batch file to another.

e.g. :

first.bat:

call test.bat "echo hello world" "echo welcome "

test.bat:

set initialcommand=%1

set maincommand=%2

%maincommand%

%initialcommand%

Hema, you need to accept answers to some of the 6 questions you've asked before. Then you'll get a better response — shinynewbike
– shinynewbike, Commented May 21, 2010 at 5:59
OMG! Someone who's been here so long that they have 6 rep and 7 questions, and they haven't accepted any answers. Quick, bring out the noose :-) — paxdiablo
– paxdiablo, Commented May 21, 2010 at 6:07
@paxdiablo. All in good fun offcourse but who can honestly say they would be using SO if there was no reputation whatsoever involved. — Lieven Keersmaekers
– Lieven Keersmaekers, Commented May 21, 2010 at 8:02

paxdiablo · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-21 06:04:24Z

5

Here's what you need:

first.cmd:

@echo off
set maincommand=echo hello world!
call test.cmd %maincommand%

test.cmd:

@echo off
%*

In this case first.cmd passes the actual command (your example just passed the constant string "maincommand" rather than its value).

In addition, test.cmd executes a command made up of every parameter, not just the first.

When you create those two files and execute first.cmd, you get:

hello world!

as expected.

answered May 21, 2010 at 6:04

paxdiablo

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