Batch File Success and Error logging

Question

Is there a way, within a batch file, to log the error and success of the batch file?

I am trying to copy a file from my computer to 200 machines (works great) but wa

Answer 1

First, don't use

if [%1]==[] goto usage

because the square brackets don't have any special meaning here. Better is using

if "%~1"=="" goto usage

The double quote character has a special meaning because it makes it possible to compare strings containing 1 or more spaces or 1 or more of the characters &()[]{}^=;!'+,`~.

%~1 means first argument with surrounding double quotes removed. See help output by running in a command prompt window call /? for more details.

Second, read the Microsoft articles about Using command redirection operators and Testing for a Specific Error Level in Batch Files to understand the batch code below.

@echo off
if "%~1"=="" goto usage
%SystemRoot%\System32\net.exe use L: /delete /y 2>nul
(
    echo Mapping L: to %~1\c$ ...
    %SystemRoot%\System32\net.exe use L: "\\%~1\c$" password /user:%~1\administrator /persistent:no
    if not errorlevel 1 (
        echo Copying the file X ...
        rem copy X L:\
        echo Disconnecting network drive L: ...
        %SystemRoot%\System32\net.exe use L: /delete /y
    )
) >command.txt 2>&1
goto :EOF

:usage
echo Call this batch file with name of computer as parameter.
echo.
pause

Error messages written to stderr are appended to stdout by 2>&1 to which standard messages are written by default. And everything written to stdout is redirected to file command.txt in current directory and therefore the text file contains standard and error messages in right output order.

If you want the commands also written to the text file to easier determine from which command which error or standard message comes, echo additionally the commands, too.