How to make a batch file delete itself?

Question

Is it possible to make a batch file delete itself?

I have tried to make it execute another file to delete it but this did not work.

Does any one know how I cou

Answer 1

del %0

As the last line of the file is the easiest way I've found. %0 returns the name of the currently executing .cmd file.

When I first tried it, I thought I would get a "file in use" error, but that hasn't happened so far.

Answer 2

In case someone else was trying to use user6811411's 3 run and then self destruct script and it was not working. I figured out the &'s were not being interpreted right. My solution was just to separate the commands like below.

@Echo off
Rem batch main purpose
Rem
Rem
Set Tok=###
For /f %%C in ('find /C "%Tok%" ^<"%~f0"') Do Set /A Cnt=%%C
Echo Run-%Cnt%
If %Cnt% Geq 3 (goto) 2>nul & del "%~f0"
Echo %Tok%>>"%~f0" & Goto :Eof

Answer 3

you can set the delay to avoid race conditions, here is 15 seconds :

START /B CMD.EXE /D /C "PING.EXE -n 15 127.0.0.1 && DEL prova.bat"

NOTES

• CMD.EXE /D is mandatory to avoid execution of auto-run crap-ware
• PING and DEL must be executed syncronous, so surrounded by quotes
• I let to the users how to pass the batch name using "%~f0"