Question

Delete the last line in a Text File using a Bat

Asked by: Raynovac

I have a number of users on my network who each have a text file(XML) that needs to have the last line of the file removed.

I want to use a batch file to get this done as quickly as possible.

Every users file last line contains "</profiles>" without the quotes.
Attached is a sample of a users XML file I will be working with.

Thanks

<profiles>
  <profile id="0000000003" showindexes="True">
    <name><![CDATA[Bi-Weekly IT Update Agendas]]></name>
    <drawer id="0000000006"><![CDATA[My Files]]></drawer>
    <idxs>
      <idx id="000000000T" mapping="0" listid="19" type="list"><![CDATA[WESLEY]]></idx>
      <idx id="000000000U" mapping="0" listid="154" type="list"><![CDATA[BI-WEEKLY IT UPDATE AGENDA]]></idx>
      <idx id="000000000V" mapping="3" listid="0" type="string"><![CDATA[IT UPDATE AGENDA]]></idx>
      <idx id="000000000W" mapping="4" listid="0" type="date"><![CDATA[]]></idx>
    </idxs>
  </profile>
</profiles>

                                  
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Asked On
2009-07-06 at 11:43:16ID24547467
Tags

bat

Topics

Miscellaneous Programming

,

MS DOS

,

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
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Answers

 

by: dragon-itPosted on 2009-07-06 at 12:13:41ID: 24788291

well the easiest way to remove a specific line when it can be uniquely identified like this is to use a find command:

del textfile.old 2>NUL
rename textfile.xml textfile.old
type textfile.old | find /v /c "/profiles" > textfile.xml
rem del textfile.old

Any other processing of xml type files line by line with dos is going to be "interesting" due to the use of the < and > chars.

Steve

 

by: dragon-itPosted on 2009-07-06 at 12:15:57ID: 24788315

Sorry remove the /c there... thats to count the number of lines.  It should have been /I (case insensitive).
Steve

 

by: RaynovacPosted on 2009-07-06 at 12:41:17ID: 24788531

I get an error stating the system cannot find the file specified.

Let me set back and explain more fully what I am trying to do.

I have 3 files.
UserProfiles.xml (Located in the users Documents and settings)
profileBuilder.bat (Located on the server and the bat that I am trying to create)
DefaultProfiles.txt (text contains more xml)

I want to removing the last line of the xml file I originally posted and appending the text in the attached code snippet which is more XML which includes the </profiles> closing tag.

I have the appending code correct and I have all the paths to make sure that the user running the script is the only one that will have their XML file changed.

Hope this clarifies what I am trying to do.


   <profile id="2147483646" showindexes="True">
    <name><![CDATA[Test to HOW TO]]></name>
    <drawer id="0000000003"><![CDATA[Library]]></drawer>
    <idxs>
      <idx id="000000000D" mapping="0" listid="10" type="list"><![CDATA[IT]]></idx>
      <idx id="000000000E" mapping="0" listid="68" type="list"><![CDATA[HARDWARE & SOFTWARE]]></idx>
      <idx id="000000000F" mapping="0" listid="88" type="list"><![CDATA[HOW TO]]></idx>
      <idx id="000000000H" mapping="2" listid="0" type="date"><![CDATA[]]></idx>
    </idxs>
  </profile>
</profiles>

                                              
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by: oBdAPosted on 2009-07-06 at 14:10:17ID: 24789268

That works actually just fine with for /f. Simply save the script below as "RemoveLastLine.cmd" or Whatever.cmd.
The script expects the file to be shortened as first argument (enclose in double quotes if the path contains a space).
If you want to hardcode the file, you can do so in line 3.
A backup file will be created.

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set File=%~1
if not exist "%File%" (
  echo Syntax: %~nx0 ^<Filename^>
  echo Removes the last line in ^<Filename^>
  goto :eof
)
for %%a in ("%File%") do (
  set BackupFile=%%~dpna.bak
  if exist "%%~dpna.bak" del "%%~dpna.bak"
  ren "%%~fa" "%%~na.bak"
)
set Line=
for /f "delims=" %%a in ('type "%BackupFile%"') do (
  if not "!Line!"=="" >>"%File%" echo !Line!
  set Line=%%a
)
                                              
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by: RaynovacPosted on 2009-07-06 at 14:28:51ID: 31600296

It worked fine, it didn't occur to me to adjust the file names.  I had to adjust it a little to suit my needs but this is what I was pretty much looking for.

Thanks

 

by: dragon-itPosted on 2009-07-06 at 15:14:13ID: 24789688

No problem, glad it helped... sorry wasn't around for a while there.

Steve

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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