Batch file : How to get current directory

Here’s a question from a blog reader.

“I need to write a batch script file which can traverse to different directories and do some operations on those directories. Once done, I need to come back to the original directory where the batch script started and do some more stuff. I need to get the initial starting directory and save it in a variable. My question is what’s the simple way to get the the directory from batch script. ”

Below is the answer for this question.

There is a very simple way to get the directory from a batch script file. CD environment variable stores the current directory of a command window session. Just run the command ‘echo %CD%’ and check it yourself.

Another way to do what the reader wanted would be to use the pushd and popd commands to traverse directories like a stack.

outputs blank empty line

If you traverse the flag of the 7th decimal variable. The channel of corresponding flag will stay static in the field of the command to enable what you need

How to create a batch file that can organise files into specific folders that have been downloaded from the internet.

Example; if I was to download a number of different file types such as a pdf, mp4,mp3, or an app, they would normally download into the download file by default. I would like to take the many different file types in the download folder and organise them into specific folders within my libraries by batching them. Can this be done?

You can download all the files into the default folder. Next, create a subfolder for each of the file type you have. Next, run the command below.

Get current batchfile directory

Firstly, I saw this topic but I couldn’t understand that.

Question :

There is a batch file in D:\path\to\file.bat with following content :

It must be D:\path\to

What am I doing wrong?

4 Answers 4

System read-only variable %CD% keeps the path of the caller of the batch, not the batch file location.

You can get the name of the batch script itself as typed by the user with %0 (e.g. scripts\mybatch.bat ). Parameter extensions can be applied to this so %

dp0 will return the Drive and Path to the batch script (e.g. W:\scripts\ ) and %

f0 will return the full pathname (e.g. W:\scripts\mybatch.cmd ).

You can refer to other files in the same folder as the batch script by using this syntax:

This can even be used in a subroutine, Echo %0 will give the call label but, echo «%

nx0″ will give you the filename of the batch script.

When the %0 variable is expanded, the result is enclosed in quotation marks.

dp0 will return path to batch location. echo %

f0 will return path to the batch with filename. – Stoleg Jun 12 ’13 at 12:03

dp0 ? – Ivailo Bardarov May 5 ’17 at 10:06

dp0 as first line of batch file and worked – mkb Oct 25 ’17 at 4:03

dp0″ rather than %

dp0 . Quotes will guarantee the path is taken as one token, even if there are spaces, and also protects against poison characters like & . – dbenham Dec 20 ’19 at 3:53

Within your .bat file:

You can now use the variable %mypath% to reference the file path to the .bat file. To verify the path is correct:

For example, a file called DIR.bat with the following contents

run from the directory g:\test\bat will echo that path in the DOS command window.

Here’s what I use at the top of all my batch files. I just copy/paste from my template folder.

Setting current batch file’s path to %batdir% allows you to call it in subsequent stmts in current batch file, regardless of where this batch file changes to. Using PUSHD allows you to use POPD to quickly set this batch file’s path to original %batdir%. Remember, if using %batdir%ExtraDir or %batdir%\ExtraDir (depending on which version used above, ending backslash or not) you will need to enclose the entire string in double quotes if path has spaces (i.e. «%batdir%ExtraDir»). You can always use PUSHD %

dp0. [https: // ss64.com/ nt/ syntax-args .html] has more on (%

Note that using (::) at beginning of a line makes it a comment line. More importantly, using :: allows you to include redirectors, pipes, special chars (i.e. | etc) in that comment.

Of course, Powershell does this and lots more.

Windows Batch Script Get Current Drive name

I have a batch file which is on a usb key. I need to know the drive name the batch is in.

Example, if it’s E:\mybatch.bat it should find E:\ same thing for F:\, G:\ etc.. when it’s opened.

How could I do that in batch script. (Windows)

8 Answers 8

%CD% is what you’re looking for. It prints the current working directory of the batch file or command running it. If your batch file is on the root of the drive, it will just print the drive letter, otherwise you’ll have to parse the first 2 characters.

on a flash drive mounted to E:.

Update: As Andriy said in the comments, if you are just looking for the first three characters of the path, then use this instead of %CD%:

This will result in E:\ , for example, anywhere on the drive.

0,2% evaluates just to the [current] drive letter and ‘:’. Accordingly, %CD:

0,3% additionally includes ‘\’. – Andriy M Apr 28 ’11 at 5:37

p0% for the batch file’s drive and location. – Nyerguds Jun 10 ’15 at 7:30

Description: Expands %0 to a drive letter.

If run from inside a .CMD/.BAT file, you can use %

dp0 to get the current/working directory. This one is a little safer as it is aware of UNC paths and such. Reference for the syntax of that variable is available here.

Beware

The existing answers to this question don’t acknowledge that the question is actually asking about two different things:

1. the drive of the current working directory (“Get Current Drive name”); and
2. the drive of the batch file (“I need to know the drive name the batch is in”).

These can be different when the batch file is started from a working directory other than its residing location. Readers should therefore be clear on the difference before determining which solution is relevant to their case.

Drive of the current working directory

This takes the full current working directory and trims it down to the first two characters, which will be a drive letter and a colon, e.g. C: .

Drive of the batch file itself

This trims the full path of the batch file (in %0 ) to just a drive letter and a colon, e.g. C: .

(this is an expanded version of my rejected edit to Kai K’s answer)

How to get the path of the batch script in Windows?

I know that %0 contains the full path of the batch script, e.g. c:\path\to\my\file\abc.bat

I would path to be equal to c:\path\to\my\file

How could I achieve that ?

dpf0″ would be more reliable for this case. – eckes Jan 14 ’17 at 17:59

8 Answers 8

To remove the final backslash, you can use the :n,m substring syntax, like so:

I don’t believe there’s a way to combine the %0 syntax with the :

n,m syntax, unfortunately.

0\.. — knew there had to be a better way! Also, you will probably want to enclose %

dp0 in double quotation marks ( «» ) in case there’s spaces in the directory name, etc. – Cameron Sep 30 ’10 at 3:56

dp0 contains the « at the end. Do you have an idea how to remove it ? – Misha Moroshko Sep 30 ’10 at 3:56

0,-1$ in it. Still—very nice answer. – Kyle Strand Sep 21 ’16 at 5:04

dp0 may be a relative path. To convert it to a full path, try something like this:

dp0 directly? – jpaugh Mar 28 ’16 at 19:04

dp0 can be relative, which may or may not be a problem depending on use case – Michael Mrozek Feb 6 ’17 at 19:52

dp0 can’t contain a relative path, d stands for drive and p for path, how a drive could be relative? – jeb Mar 31 ’17 at 15:30

dp0 will be an absolute path even when the script was run as a relative path. Thanks to jeb’s comment, I was not fooled by this answer. Why do people just make up stuff and go and start spreading their wild imagination to others. I have this colleague who does this, but I blamed his (young) age. I wish my down-vote would count. – bitoolean May 25 ’18 at 14:25

What is the current directory in a batch file?

I want to create a few batch files to automate a program.

My question is when I create the batch file, what is the current directory? Is it the directory where the file is located or is it the same directory that appears in the command prompt, or something else?

9 Answers 9

From within your batch file:

dp0 refers to the full path to the batch file’s directory (static)
%

f0 both refer to the full path to the batch directory and file name (static).

dp0 will always give the full path to the executing batch file. – dbenham Jun 12 ’13 at 11:19

dp0 gives the full path to the directory that the executing batch file is in. %

dpnx0 (which is equivalent to %

f0) gives the full path to the batch file. See robvanderwoude.com/parameters.php for more details. – deadlydog Jul 11 ’13 at 20:08

dp0 is the working directory not the batch files directory, Found this out the hard way. – trampster Jan 29 ’18 at 22:44

dp0 gives the batch file directory with trailing slash. – icc97 Feb 27 ’18 at 9:10

It usually is the directory from which the batch file is started, but if you start the batch file from a shortcut, a different starting directory could be given. Also, when you’r in cmd, and your current directory is c:\dir3 , you can still start the batch file using c:\dir1\dir2\batch.bat in which case, the current directory will be c:\dir3 .

In a batch file, %cd% is the most commonly used command for the current directory, although you can set your own variable:

So say you were wanting to open Myprog.exe. If it was in the same folder, you would use the command:

That would open Myprog from the current folder.

The other option is to make a directory in C: called AutomatePrograms. Then, you transfer your files to that folder then you can open them using the following command:

dp0 is more consistent. – icc97 Feb 27 ’18 at 9:14

Say you were opening a file in your current directory. The command would be:

I hope I answered your question.

It is the directory from where you run the command to execute your batch file.

As mentioned in the above answers you can add the below command to your script to verify:

It is the directory from where you start the batch file. E.g. if your batch is in c:\dir1\dir2 and you do cd c:\dir3 , then run the batch, the current directory will be c:\dir3 .

Just my 2 cents. The following command fails if called from batch file (Windows 7) placed on pendrive:

But this does the job:

dp0 – Ammar Mohammad Aug 3 ’19 at 12:49

%__CD__% , %CD% , %=C:%

There’s also another dynamic variable %__CD__% which points to the current directory but alike %CD% it has a backslash at the end. This can be useful if you want to append files to the current directory.

With %=C:% %=D:% you can access the last accessed directory for the corresponding drive. If the variable is not defined you haven’t accessed the drive on the current cmd session.