Batch File Recursive Search "File Not Found" error on Empty Folder

Question

When I run a recursive directory search for files it outputs "File Not Found" if the folder is empty but echo %count% is outputting 0 like it should.

setlocal
set /a count=0
for /F %%N in ('dir/s/b/aa "folder\name\*.txt"^| find /c "::"') do set count=%%N
echo %count%

All I want is a batch file to count the number of text files recursively in a directory and output the result like 999 and show 0 if the folder is empty. I have tried many variations of >nul and tons of batch search scripts. I am out of unvisited Google links to look at anymore.

Magoo · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-13 06:04:04Z

2

for /F %%N in ('dir/s/b/a-d "folder\name\*.txt" 2^>nul ^| find /v /c ""') do set count=%%N

There should be a caret(^) before the > to escape the redirector.

answered Jan 13, 2014 at 6:04

Magoo

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Steve Barnes · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-13 05:45:34Z

1

I know it is maybe not what you are looking at but have you tried:

dir/s/c folder\name\*.txt

I think it does almost exactly what you are looking for.

answered Jan 13, 2014 at 5:45

Steve Barnes

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4 Comments

SuperMar1o Over a year ago

This looks like almost exactly what I would of preferred to have lol. The only issue is it does not output plain numbers. Mine outputs a ton of information. Any idea on how to make it smaller? I added /b but then it output the full file name.

Steve Barnes Over a year ago

Which exact OS? /c should just output the directory name and count - can't try it myself at the moment on windows/dos as I am on Linux.

SuperMar1o Over a year ago

Fair enough, I am on Win7 x64. imageshack.com/a/img163/5475/318c.png no big deal, I am going to look into it some more but yeah, not quite working.

SuperMar1o Over a year ago

Due to not wanting to spent a ton of time on this, I am just going to go with Joey's idea and Magoo's fix. But I appreciate it, it was very close to perfect if it had worked!

Joey · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-13 09:32:15Z

1

File not found is emitted to the standard error stream. You can silence that by redirecting it with 2>nul:

for /F %%N in ('dir/s/b/aa "folder\name\*.txt" 2^>nul ^| find /v /c ""') do set count=%%N

edited Jan 13, 2014 at 9:32

answered Jan 13, 2014 at 5:37

Joey

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1 Comment

SuperMar1o Over a year ago

This seemed like a good idea, but the one you gave me makes errors and crashes. "2> Was unexpected at this time"

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