batch script - read line by line

Question

I have a log file which I need to read in, line by line and pipe the line to a next loop.

Firstly I grep the logfile for the \"main\" word (like \"error\") in a sep

Answer 1

Try this:

@echo off
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (input.txt) do (
  echo line=%%a
)
pause

because of the tokens=* everything is captured into %a

edit: to reply to your comment, you would have to do that this way:

@echo off
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (input.txt) do call :processline %%a

pause
goto :eof

:processline
echo line=%*

goto :eof

:eof

Because of the spaces, you can't use %1, because that would only contain the part until the first space. And because the line contains quotes, you can also not use :processline "%%a" in combination with %~1. So you need to use %* which gets %1 %2 %3 ..., so the whole line.

Answer 2

For those with spaces in the path, you are going to want something like this: n.b. It expands out to an absolute path, rather than relative, so if your running directory path has spaces in, these count too.

set SOURCE=path\with spaces\to\my.log
FOR /F "usebackq delims=" %%A IN ("%SOURCE%") DO (
    ECHO %%A
)

To explain:

(path\with spaces\to\my.log)

Will not parse, because spaces. If it becomes:

("path\with spaces\to\my.log")

It will be handled as a string rather than a file path.

"usebackq delims=" 

See docs will allow the path to be used as a path (thanks to Stephan).

Answer 3

The "call" solution has some problems.

It fails with many different contents, as the parameters of a CALL are parsed twice by the parser.
These lines will produce more or less strange problems

one
two%222
three & 333
four=444
five"555"555"
six"&666
seven!777^!
the next line is empty

the end

Therefore you shouldn't use the value of %%a with a call, better move it to a variable and then call a function with only the name of the variable.

@echo off
SETLOCAL DisableDelayedExpansion
FOR /F "usebackq delims=" %%a in (`"findstr /n ^^ t.txt"`) do (
    set "myVar=%%a"
    call :processLine myVar
)
goto :eof

:processLine
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
set "line=!%1!"
set "line=!line:*:=!"
echo(!line!
ENDLOCAL
goto :eof

Answer 4

This has worked for me in the past and it will even expand environment variables in the file if it can.

for /F "delims=" %%a in (LogName.txt) do (
     echo %%a>>MyDestination.txt
)