NT Shell Scripts vs. Batch Scripts

Yesterday I posted a script in the F-Prot support forum. Many people think that .cmd files (such as DDKBUILD.CMD) are no more than renamed batch files. The trick employed in the posted script would not be possible using normal batch scripts. Only the advanced functionality of the NT command interpreter allows this script to perform its work. The problem was to extract the last part of a file/directory path, i.e. everything after the last backslash. Here is how it works.

Excerpt from the script in the forum:

:GetFilePart
:: Get the name of the variable we are working with
setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS & set VAR_NAME=%1
set VAR_TEMPRET2=%%%VAR_NAME%%%
:GetFilePartLoop
set VAR_TEMPRET1=%VAR_TEMPRET2%
set VAR_TEMPRET2=%VAR_TEMPRET1%
for /f "tokens=1,* delims=\" %%i in ('echo %VAR_TEMPRET1%') do (
  if not "%%j" == "" set VAR_TEMPRET2=%%j
)
if not "%VAR_TEMPRET1%" == "%VAR_TEMPRET2%" goto :GetFilePartLoop
:: Re-export the variable out of the local scope
endlocal & set %VAR_NAME%=%VAR_TEMPRET1%
goto :EOF

Any questions?

// Oliver