heredoc for Windows batch?

Question

Is there a way of specifying multiline strings in batch in a way similar to heredoc in unix shells. Something similar to:

cat <<EOF > out.txt
bla
bla
..
EOF

The idea is to create a customized file from a template file..

Answer 1

Not as far as I know.

The closest I know of is

> out.txt (
    @echo.bla
    @echo.bla
    ...
)

(@ prevents the command shell itself from printing the commands it's running, and echo. allows you to start a line with a space.)

Answer 2

Yes, very possible. ^ is the literal escape character, just put it before your newline. In this example, I put the additional newline in as well so that it is properly printed in the file:

@echo off
echo foo ^

this is ^

a multiline ^

echo > out.txt

Output:

E:\>type out.txt
foo
 this is
 a multiline
 echo

E:\>

Answer 3

This is even easier, and closely resembles cat << EOF > out.txt:

C:\>copy con out.txt
This is my first line of text.
This is my last line of text.
^Z
1 file(s) copied.

Output looks like this:

C:\>type out.txt
This is my first line of text.
This is my last line of text.

(copy con + out.txt, type your input, followed by Ctrl-Z and file is copied)

COPY CON means "copy from the console" (accept user input)