Batch file or VB Script- accepting user input for a 7zip command line tool.

just have the user pass the password as a command line option to your batch. If the attached sudo code was in zip.bat

zip.bat password

set pass=%1
zip.exe %pass% c:\temp.zip c:\temp\file.xxx

                                              

1:
2:

Theres a number of methods to do this.  The easiest of which is the set /p command in DOS.

set /p passwd=Enter your password here:

That would prompt the user to enter a password.  That pass would be stored in the passwd variable which is callable with %passwd%.

t0t0. Thanks for the quick reply. After reading the other comments I understand how yours works, but yours reads from the file first and then asks for a password if one is not found. Is that correct? I'm needing a password that will change every time hence I need the user input.

jwarnken, I'm thinking you are using the same method as TakedaT. I'm not sure what the %1 means, but it looks like you placed that there to just mean "some password"?

In any case, thanks TakedaT. I tried your method, and I should have figured it out before, but it seems to work perfectly. I'll simply prompt the user in that way to enter her password.

I'll give any of you a chance to reply if you want/need to and then I'll close the question in a while. Thanks again!

Ok, I just did a little test file and I think I understand what you're saying.

So basically the user would have to manually run "zip.bat password" in the run command or somewhere to put in her own password.

Just for clarity, would it still work if she just ran "zip.bat password" and instead of using the set pass=%1, I could just run "zip.exe %1 c:\temp.zip c:\temp\file.xxx" in the batch file? This would save a step of taking a variable and setting it to another variable.

Thanks very much for the clarity. I was actually completely unaware that you could run a batch file with a set of parameters behind it like this. That could be very helpful one day. Do you know of a website that explains more command line functions very well?

So, you want the user to supply a DIFFERENT password every time he or she runs 7zip then? Is that right?

I can't understand WHY you would want someone to enter a DIFFERENT password EVERY TIME they fire up the SAME program....

Please explain this to me.


OR, do you intend the batch file to be used by different people and that THAT is the reason why you need the ability to prompt for different passwords. Because..... if that is the case then you need to be aware of a morte efficient method of doing this.

Please respond ASAP !!

Using command-line parameters directly with your command as in the following example:

   7zip %1 ..... etc

is all very well if the user doesn't mind going through the following steps:

   1) start a DOS box
   2) type in the command (your batch file name AND a pssword etc..)

providing of course she CAN remember what the command is AND what the passwrod is....

If you want the user to double-click an icon on the desktop to start the batch file then %1 will not work.... which is why you will need to use SET /P instead.

Please report back stating which is it to be.

Also, CAN YOU PLEASE CLARIFY,  is the password you're asking for to zip up documents OR, to unzip documents?

I believe he wants all of this to make a "create passworded zip" shortcut batch file.  Thats why he wants to have the ability to supply a different password each run.

I actually created something similar to this, but for a dir listing of directorys outputed to a txt file.  I added it into the registry so that a right click on a folder showed that option.  Something could be done similar to this for this case.  You could make your batch file, drop it into your windir, then add the context option so it prompts to zip ..and voila.

Sorry TakedaT.

that doesn't help my understanding at all.

if somebody wouldlike to break that down to me in simple logical steps then please do so.

afterall, if the asker is to get the best service from us then we need to be certain of what he wants to do.

I apologize for the delay. I went to a long lunch.

t0t0 What I was looking for was exactly what TakedaT said.

I have a single user that will be exporting some documents to PDF. She will then need to ZIP these PDFs with encryption. After which she will burn the ZIP to a CD and mail it to a company who will review it with the password she created and sent to them through email. This is why each password will need to be different. These are medical records and have to be thoroughly encrypted. I have no idea why the company wants everything on CD rather than VPN, or SFTP, but I'm just trying to make them happy.

Here is my final batch file. Basically, it deletes any previous ZIP files first that she would have already burned, then it asks her for the new password. Grabs all the files in the folder and adds them to the ZIP. She checks a log for errors and then it moves the PDF files to a backup folder leaving only the ZIP file which she would then burn to CD. There are a few Y or N choices that help guide her into making sure she has completed everything before she deletes or moves her files by accident.

If I should change anything or there are more suggestions I'd love to hear it. I love learning things like this.....Sometimes I wonder if I should learn a real programming language because I always have something new to try to automate.

@ ECHO OFF
ECHO.
ECHO. > 						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO Running 7zip to zip PDF documents.
ECHO Documents will be in C:\RACS\RACS.zip with password protection.
ECHO Documents will be in C:\RACS\RACS.zip with password protection. >> "%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO We need to delete the old zip file first.
ECHO.
ECHO This is the zip file from your previous RACS incident.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO ***************************************************************
ECHO  IF YOU HAVE A PENDING ZIP FILE TO BURN PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE
ECHO ***************************************************************
ECHO.
ECHO.
:DELZIPIF
set /p DESTROY="Please Y for Yes or N for No.   "
IF %DESTROY%==N GOTO EXIT1
IF %DESTROY%==n GOTO EXIT1
IF %DESTROY%==Y GOTO DESTROYZIP
IF %DESTROY%==y GOTO DESTROYZIP
IF NOT %DESTROY%==N GOTO DELZIPIF
IF NOT %DESTROY%==n GOTO DELZIPIF
IF NOT %DESTROY%==Y GOTO DELZIPIF
IF NOT %DESTROY%==y GOTO DELZIPIF
 
:DESTROYZIP
DEL C:\RACS\*.zip /Q
ECHO.
ECHO ZIP file deleted.
 
pause
CLS
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Please enter a password to encrypt the zipped files.
ECHO.
ECHO DO NOT forget this password.
ECHO.
set /p pwd="Please enter a password.   "
c:\7z\7z.exe a c:\RACS\RACS.zip c:\RACS\ -p%pwd% >> 	"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Check the report and see if any errors occurred.
ECHO.
ECHO Be certain that the correct files have been added to the zip.
ECHO.
ECHO Check for the message "Everything is OK".
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Close the log file to continue.
ECHO.
notepad %userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt
ECHO Moving uploaded files if yes is selected. >> 	"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO Original files will be moved to stroage if you select YES
ECHO.
ECHO If an error occurred during the zip process select NO
ECHO.
 
:MOVEIF
set /p MOVE="Please Y for Yes or N for No.   "
IF %MOVE%==N GOTO EXIT1
IF %MOVE%==n GOTO EXIT1
IF %MOVE%==Y GOTO MOVE
IF %MOVE%==y GOTO MOVE
IF NOT %MOVE%==N GOTO MOVEIF
IF NOT %MOVE%==n GOTO MOVEIF
IF NOT %MOVE%==Y GOTO MOVEIF
IF NOT %MOVE%==y GOTO MOVEIF
 
:MOVE
move c:\RACS\*.PDF H:\RACSBACKUP			
ECHO.
ECHO.
GOTO EXIT2
 
:EXIT1
cls
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Files were NOT zipped or moved to storage successfully
ECHO.
ECHO Please contact the IT dept.
ECHO.
pause
exit
 
:EXIT2
cls
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Files were zipped and moved to storage successfully.
ECHO.
pause
Exit

                                              

1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:
44:
45:
46:
47:
48:
49:
50:
51:
52:
53:
54:
55:
56:
57:
58:
59:
60:
61:
62:
63:
64:
65:
66:
67:
68:
69:
70:
71:
72:
73:
74:
75:
76:
77:
78:
79:
80:
81:
82:
83:
84:
85:
86:
87:
88:
89:
90:
91:
92:
93:
94:
95:
96:
97:
98:
99:
100:
101:
102:
103:
104:
105:
106:
107:
108:
109:
110:
111:
112:

Ok..I see what you mean. Thanks for the tip on the "/I" I assumed when I said IF NOT == n or y that the 'enter' key would be counted in there. But I tested and when hitting enter the script closed, so I modified what you sent a little and came up with this. I feel like I'm missing something because I had to put IF twice without ELSE, but I guess that's ok? If I did ELSE IF all the way through it didn't work at all, so I did two IFs in a row.

:DELZIPIF
set /p DEL="Please Y for Yes or N for No.   "
IF /i "%DEL%"=="" (
      GOTO DELZIPIF
)
IF /i "%DEL%"=="n" GOTO EXIT1
      ) else (
            IF /i "%DEL%"=="y" GOTO DELZIP
            ) else (
                  GOTO DELZIPIF
            )

This checks for blanks and starts over if blank, then checks for N and exits with error if N is hit, then for Y and moves forward to delete if Y is hit, and if any other key is hit at it starts over again.

The reason I did it this way is because if she accidentally hits any other key (or leaves it blank) I don't want her script to close. I'd rather it just ask her again. Everything look ok with this piece?

I also fixed the other IF phrases in the MOVE section to do the same thing, and added an IF phrase and a PASSWORD header at the point where a password is requested to force the user to put in a password she she can't leave it blank by entering through.

Please allow me to comment later (I can't just now because I'm removing some asbestos from a bathroom and toilet ceiling) before you decide to close this question as there are a few things I'd like to add....

Please be patient...

As long as everything works for you, it doesnt matter how you organize it.  I always design my batches/vbscripts differently than most, just because I understand my own logic.  Whichever way YOU understand best is what you should do.  Remember, you are the one who will be finding the problems.

One thing with if statements in batches that always got me was the fact that there is no "then" like in vbscript.  And you always need to pay close attention to where your parenthesis() are .  They will cause your batch to end prematurely, leaving you wondering what is wrong.

And just on a side note.  I would be happy with an even 3 way split of points.  t0t0 and jwarnken both answered your question and helped in your understanding of what you are trying to do.

Ok t0t0. Don't breathe any of that junk. I'll wait on your response.

You have a good point Takeda. I think the parenthesis was breaking it earlier which is why I went to two IF statements. Not having a "then" does make it a little tricky, but I don't know well VB either. I've only taken a class on Pseudo code (which is stupid because you have to learn a fake language. I don't know why they don't just give you a basic REAL language to learn), and a class on Java which I've forgotten most of by now.

Also, thanks for the good sportsmanship on splitting the points. I was trying to decide how to do that.

t0t0. Thanks for the very detailed reply. That's quite a bit of information to take in and a lot to think about. For starters, I'd like to say I definitely like the ideas that you've got. The reason I haven't thought of them myself is because honestly I just don't understand the batch language enough to really know what all it can do. For instance, that first bit of code you wrote me about generating passwords/sentinel files; I really don't understand it at all. I get lost when I see things like:

   copy nul sentinel>nul
and
   start cmd /c %~dpnx0

I like the idea of generating a password for the user and even keeping a log of those passwords, or perhaps placing the single password in a text on her desktop so she can easily access it until she starts a new batch which would then delete the old file/password.

The process I'm trying to accomplish is as follows so that might help you better understand why I'm doing what I'm doing: The user will take a medical record and save it to PDF. She will then ZIP the PDF and encrypt it. Then she'll burn the encrypted ZIP to a CD and mail it to a company called RACS. She will then EMAIL them the password so when they receive the CD they can open the file. As far as I know, at this point she can discard the password from her personal records as RACS will have what they need. That is why I've let her make up the password and why it can change every time, but it would be great to have it force her to use a secure method of creating passwords and not having to memorize them.

Thanks for the code rearrangement yet again on the IF statements. What you gave me was much shorter and works just as well, and I should have seen that to start with. One thing I don't understand why we need is:

set option=                                                    <-- must always clear previous option first

I believe you are saying this sets the variable back to NUL every time, but I tested the code with and without it and it acts the same way, so it seems unnecessary.

I'm reattaching my latest code so you can see the changes I've made to it (changed the names of some of the variables/sections) and incorporated yours and Takeda's ideas. I used == instead of equ just because I'm used to it.

Also, the reason I used:
   ECHO. >>                                                            "%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
was simply to line up all the log entries to make it easier to understand what was going to log and what wasn't. I understand that it doesn't need the spaces, but also that the spaces don't cause any problems, so it was just for me to see and edit more easily. Thanks again for all the ideas and I'd like to try the password generator idea, and even the sentinel file would be cool. Because this really is overkill for this small task this lady will be doing, I might be limited on the amount of time my boss will let me keep playing with the file, but I'd like to learn what you have to show me for my personal knowledge base as well. If it would be better to start emailing back and forth we can do that, but coming here does keep everything together and I can publish it to my knowledge base when we are finished.

Thanks.

@ ECHO OFF
ECHO.
ECHO. > 						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO Running 7zip to zip PDF documents.
ECHO Documents will be in C:\RACS\RACS.zip with password protection.
ECHO Documents will be in C:\RACS\RACS.zip with password protection. >> "%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO We need to delete the old zip file first.
ECHO.
ECHO This is the zip file from your previous RACS incident.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO ***************************************************************
ECHO  IF YOU HAVE A PENDING ZIP FILE TO BURN PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE
ECHO ***************************************************************
ECHO.
ECHO.
:DELZIPIF
set /p DEL=Please press Y for Yes or N for No.   
IF /i "%DEL%"=="y" GOTO DELZIP
IF /i "%DEL%"=="n" GOTO EXIT1
GOTO DELZIPIF
 
pause
:DELZIP
DEL C:\RACS\*.zip /Q
ECHO.
ECHO ZIP file deleted.
 
pause
CLS
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Please enter a password to encrypt the zipped files.
ECHO.
ECHO DO NOT forget this password.
ECHO.
:PASSWORD
set /p PWD=Please enter a password.   
IF /i "%PWD%"=="" GOTO PASSWORD
c:\7z\7za.exe a c:\RACS\RACS.zip c:\RACS\ -p%PWD% >> 	"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO. >>						"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.***********************************************************************
ECHO.
ECHO Check the report and see if any errors occurred.
ECHO.
ECHO Be certain that the correct files have been added to the zip.
ECHO.
ECHO Check for the message "Everything is OK".
ECHO.
ECHO.***********************************************************************
ECHO.
ECHO Close the log file to continue.
ECHO.
notepad %userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt
ECHO Moving uploaded files if yes is selected. >> 	"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
ECHO Original files will be moved to storage if you select YES
ECHO.
ECHO If an error occurred during the zip process select NO
ECHO.
 
 
:MOVEIF
set /p MOVE=Please press Y for Yes or N for No.   
IF /i "%MOVE%"=="y" GOTO MOVEPDF
IF /i "%MOVE%"=="n" GOTO EXIT1
GOTO MOVEIF
 
:MOVEPDF
move c:\RACS\*.PDF H:\RACSBACKUP			
ECHO.
ECHO.
GOTO EXIT2
 
:EXIT1
cls
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Files either were NOT zipped or moved to storage successfully
ECHO.
ECHO Please contact the IT dept.
ECHO.
pause
exit
 
:EXIT2
cls
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Files were zipped and moved to storage successfully.
ECHO.
pause
Exit

                                              

1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:
44:
45:
46:
47:
48:
49:
50:
51:
52:
53:
54:
55:
56:
57:
58:
59:
60:
61:
62:
63:
64:
65:
66:
67:
68:
69:
70:
71:
72:
73:
74:
75:
76:
77:
78:
79:
80:
81:
82:
83:
84:
85:
86:
87:
88:
89:
90:
91:
92:
93:
94:
95:
96:
97:
98:
99:
100:
101:
102:
103:
104:
105:
106:

Sorry, will reply later today...

Just checking to see if you still plan to reply or if you want me to just close the question. I understand you are busy. I've got enough to do what I need but if you still want to try to help me further that's fine. If it would be easier for you to email me at a later date we could do something like that. Thanks.

Just had my internet connetction repaired (faulty cable modem knocked me out for 3 days)... will respond tonight

Thank you for your patience

I understand that. EE is asking that I close the question, so I was just checking back with you.

sjl198

I understand.... I've looked at your code above and I have noted improvements where changes have been made.

If the following lines are merely to line up the output log file in your batch file for easier reading:

   c:\7z\7za.exe a c:\RACS\RACS.zip c:\RACS\ -p%PWD% >> "%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
   ECHO. >>                                                                                       "%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
   ECHO. >>                                                                                       "%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
   ECHO. >>                                                                                       "%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
   ECHO. >>                                                                                       "%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"

then please consider the following code instead:

   >>"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt" c:\7z\7za.exe a c:\RACS\RACS.zip c:\RACS\ -p%PWD%
   >>"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt" ECHO.
   >>"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt" ECHO.
   >>"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt" ECHO.
   >>"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt" ECHO.

or better still, this code instead:

   set racslog="%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
   :
   :: etc...
   :
   >>racslog c:\7z\7za.exe a c:\RACS\RACS.zip c:\RACS\ -p%PWD%
   >>racslog ECHO.
   >>racslog ECHO.
   >>racslog ECHO.
   >>racslog ECHO.

Here's yet another method:

   set racslog="%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"
   :
   :: etc...
   :
   (
       c:\7z\7za.exe a c:\RACS\RACS.zip c:\RACS\ -p%PWD%
       ECHO.
       ECHO.
       ECHO.
       ECHO.
   ) >>racslog

or just:

   (
       c:\7z\7za.exe a c:\RACS\RACS.zip c:\RACS\ -p%PWD%
       ECHO.
       ECHO.
       ECHO.
       ECHO.
   ) >>"%userprofile%\desktop\racslog.txt"

As you can see, there's no single method however, you should choose one you're comfortable with and be consistent in your code.

Another area which merits a mention is the following section of code:

   :DELZIPIF
   set /p DEL=Please press Y for Yes or N for No.  
   IF /i "%DEL%"=="y" GOTO DELZIP
   IF /i "%DEL%"=="n" GOTO EXIT1
   GOTO DELZIPIF

For now, I'll stick to using '==' instead of 'EQU'. The formal way to write this code is something like this:

   :delzipif
       SET yn=
       SET /P yn=Would you like continue [Y/N]:    
       IF /I "%yn%"=="y" (
          GOTO delzip
       ) ELSE (
          IF /I "%yn%"=="n" (
             GOTO exit1
          ) ELSE (
             GOTO delzipif
          )
       )

You could even consider the following instead:

   :delzipif
      SET yn=
      SET /P yn=Would you like continue [Y/N]:    
      IF DEFINED yn (
         IF /I %yn%==y (
            GOTO delzip
         ) ELSE (
            IF /I %yn%==n (
               GOTO exit1
            ) ELSE (
               GOTO delzipif
            )
         )
      ) ELSE (
         GOTO delzipif
      )

Admittedly, the following is shorter, easier to read and works just as well:

   :delzipif
      SET /P yn=
      SET /P yn=Would you like to continue [Y/N]:
      IF /I "%yn%"=="y" GOTO delzip
      IF /I "%yn%"=="n" GOTO exit1
   GOTO delzipif

The reason for using 'SET yn=' before using 'SET /P yn=Enter [Y/N]: ' (or whatever) is, if the variable 'yn' has been previously set by an earlier section of code, then merely pressing the ENTER key without actually typing anything would set 'yn' to whatever it's previous value was - so, if the cureent value of 'yn' is 'Y' then simply pressing the ENTER key at 'SET /P yn=Enter [Y/N]: ' would fool the logic of your code into believing the user had entered a 'Y'.

Hey t0t0. Thanks for very useful information. I was unaware that you can send text to a log file in so many ways. Several of those ways are much easier than the one I was using with all the tabs. I will be sure to remember that.

Also, thanks for the explanation on the reason for setting the variable back to nul blank before re-using it. That makes sense.

Do you still want to work on the sentinel file and automatic password generation that you spoke to me about before? It isn't absolutely necessary for this project, but it would be a nice addition and I'd love the knowledge just for future reference. This is definitely a knowledge base article already.