Redirect output of command in for loop of batch script

Question

...
for /F %%F in ('dir /B %* 2> nul') do (
...

What I'm attempting to do here is discard the err output of the command (and loop over the stdout output). However, it complains:

2> was unexpected at this time.

Is this some way to achieve this?

RGuggisberg · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-14 16:59:53Z

36

in this case you need to escape the > like this

for /F %%F in ('dir /B %* 2^> nul') do (

answered Jun 14, 2013 at 16:59

RGuggisberg

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2 Comments

bambams Over a year ago

Microsoft uses an intern to implement the command shell and we have to live with it for the rest of our lives...

Rolf Over a year ago

Saved my day, Mr. Guggisberg :). I'd like to add: If you want to redirect stderr to stdout, by using 2>&1, you need to escape the & too.

Howard · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-14 17:01:55Z

-6

I believe you need a delimiting space between the "2" and the ">". Without that delimiter my dir test output still displayed on the screen. Furthermore, I believe that by sending the output of the dir command to null will not provide any data back for the set to process.

answered Jun 14, 2013 at 17:01

Howard

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1 Comment

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

No. Changing 2> to 2 > would redirect STDOUT instead of STDERR, thus preventing the processing of the actual directory listing. As @RGuggisberg correctly pointed out, the redirection operator must be escaped in the nested command.

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