What's wrong with my batch script that moves the newest file from one folder to another?

Question

I'm trying to put together a Windows batch script that moves the most recent file to a different directory. Here's my batch script mostly stolen from here:

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('dir /b *.*') DO move %%G C:\Users\jrobinson\Desktop\ & exit /b

When I run this it moves every file in the folder. Interestingly, when I replace the MOVE command with a COPY command, the script copies only one file:

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('dir /b *.*') DO copy %%G C:\Users\jrobinson\Desktop\ & exit /b
REM ---------------------------------------^^^^

Why is the move script moving every file while the copy script is only copying one file? Is it possibly because my script file is also in that folder and because of my edits, it is the most recent file?

Edit: Here are the contents of my source folder:

• myBatchFile.bat
• newest.txt
• oldest.txt
• second.txt

Of the *.txt files, newest.txt has the most recent modified date. Of all of the files regardless of extension, myBatchFile.bat has the most recent modified date given that I keep making edits to it to try to get it to work.

Edit #2: Here's a screenshot of my command window after running the first command above. This shows that all of the files in my source folder are copied when I only expect the newest file to be copied.

Answer 1

I'd use dir /b /o:-d /a:-d *.*, so the items are sorted by date (newest first) and directories are excluded. Otherwise the sort order is not clear, and directories like . (current) or .. (parent) might be returned unintentionally.

Instead of %%G I recommend using "%%~fG" to provide the full path, surrounded by doublequotes. Also the destination path should be enclosed in "" to avoid troubles with whitespaces.

The FOR /F should be changed to "delims=" in case the file name starts with a space (which I think is valid in Windows). "tokens=*" removed them.

Furthermore, I'd put parenthesis () around the code after do (so it is guaranteed and obvious that both commands move and exit /b are part of the loop context).

So all in all this leads to the following code:

FOR /F "delims=" %%G IN ('dir /b /o:-d /a:-d *.*') DO (move "%%~fG" "C:\Users\jrobinson\Desktop\" & exit /b)

Since the newest file is enumerated first and the for body contains exit /b (exit batch file), only that file is moved.
If you need to execute some other code after this line, replace exit /b by goto :SKIP (or any other valid label), and state the label (:SKIP) immediately after the FOR command block.

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If the batch script containing the code herein is located in its working directory, moving it (in case it is the newest file) most likely results in unexpected behaviour. You can exclude the batch script itself by filtering it out using find like this:

FOR /F "delims=" %%G IN ('dir /b /o:-d /a:-d *.* ^| find /v /i "%~nx0"') DO (move "%%~fG" "C:\Users\jrobinson\Desktop\" & exit /b)

%~nx0 therein expands to the file name and extension of this script (see call /?).

Answer 2

I'm not sure I believe what you say. Because when I type the same command, is a file that I see first followed by the PAUSE command (or exit)

FOR /F "tokens=*" %G IN ('dir /b *.*') DO @echo  %G & pause

So it always goes first action on the first file and the script will stop.

See this 5 secs gifv: http://i.imgur.com/kyHdN1Y.gifv with the following code:

@echo off

if exist ..\destination-test-folder\nul rd /s /q ..\destination-test-folder
if not exist ..\destination-test-folder\nul md ..\destination-test-folder

copy nul newest.txt>nul
copy nul oldest.txt>nul
copy nul second.txt>nul
dir /b .
pause>nul

echo: &echo For loop command: &echo:
for /f "tokens=*" %%g in ('dir /b "*.*"') do if "%%g" neq "%~nx0" move %%g ..\destination-test-folder>nul & echo pause is stated after each iteration & echo         1 file(s) moved. &pause>nul

echo: &echo list destination:
dir /b "..\destination-test-folder" &echo: &echo list source: &echo: 
dir /b . 

Answer 3

Just wanted to say thanks person: aschipfl You are my hero.

here is the command I used to move all read only files to a sub folder "temp"

md temp
FOR /F "delims=" %%G IN ('dir /b /o:-d /a:R *.*') DO (move "%%~fG" "temp" )