basic/easy question about batch files
 

Ok, I know it's 3AM, but even so, it's only a damn batch file - but it doesn't work!

What am I doing wrong?

blah
ping www.google.co.uk>d:\temp\pinging.log
blah

The file pinging.log is getting created, but there is nothing in it!

I'm using Win 2K.

FYI I'm trying to ping google and my website etc on a fairly frequent basis to keep a log of how good my connection is. Google is just a good site to have a a check that it's my connection, not my website that has gone down, or vice versa.

Cheers all - I know it'll be something stupid, but I thought I'd ask!

If I remember correctly (and that's a big if... this has been a while) you need ">>"

i.e. ping www.domainname.com >> yourfile.txt

Give it a try. If it doesn't work, I'll see if I have any old batch files lying around.

Still not working.

Here's the whole batch file. As you can see, I have tried variations on the theme, but none seem to work.


date/t>>d:\temp\pinging.log
time/t>d:\temp\pinging.log
ping www.broadcaster.org.uk >>d:\temp\pinging.log
ping www.daftmoo.co.uk >d:\temp\pinging.log
ping www.google.co.uk>d:\temp\pinging.log
echo line 1 >d:\temp\pinging.log
echo line 2 >d:\temp\pinging.log



Here's the creen output:
D:\Mytemp>date/t1>>d:\temp\pinging.log

D:\Mytemp>time/t1>d:\temp\pinging.log

D:\Mytemp>ping www.broadcaster.org.uk 1>>d:\temp\pinging.log

D:\Mytemp>ping www.daftmoo.co.uk 1>d:\temp\pinging.log

D:\Mytemp>ping www.google.co.uk 1>d:\temp\pinging.log

D:\Mytemp>echo line 1 1>d:\temp\pinging.log

D:\Mytemp>echo line 2 1>d:\temp\pinging.log



The time taken for the screen to go through the lines shows that the ping command is running, but I just can't seem to capture the output. The file created has "line 2" inside it, followed by a blank line, but nothing else.

I'm very confused. Help? :confused:

ok, I played with it some, and it worked for me with Win 2k.

As for your echo line # commands, that won't work, because DOS (I believe) doesn't define the lines that way. You are telling it to add the text string "Line 1" to the file.

And one clarification:

">" replaces the text in a file
">>" appends the text

hope this helps.

Yep! Thanks! Not sure what I was doing wrong, or why I forgot how to batch program, but that fixed it.
Cheers!

as for > vs >>

> rewrites the file to the4 enterd text, where as >> adds the text onto the end of the file


so
the file 1.txt would contain

where as

would contain

Thanks - I realised the main problem I had beofre was along those lines - it was working, but I wasn't appending. Thus, it was outputting to the file, but as I was leaving a few blank lines at the end (intending to run the file on a regular basis via task scheduler), it was writing the file correctly, the overwriting it with the blank lines. Duh... :)