CMD: Search for program and variable directory

Question

Hello, i want to search for a program, like this:

cd "C:\"
for /f "delims=" %%f in ('dir /b /s myprogram.exe') do (
)

First problem: i want to let it search trough all hard drives (like 'cd My Computer' or something like that?)

After that, it should make a variable of the directory in which that program is.

How to do that in batch/cmd?

Answer 1

There is a problem with "cd C:\", it works only when you are on drive C:, but not if you're on another drive. The solution to that is to write the drive's letter first The simpliest way would be to do it this way:

for %%D in (c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,o) do (
    %%D:
    cd %%D:\
        for /f "delims=" %%f in ('dir /b /s myprogram.exe') do (
        )
)

then it searches for all drives. You could also use

for %%D in (c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,o) do (
    If exist %%D:\ do (
        %%D:
        cd %%D:\
        for /f "delims=" %%f in ('dir /b /s myprogram.exe') do (
        )
    )
)

Hope it helps.

Answer 2

This script will print out the full paths where a file is found:

@echo OFF

for %%D in (c,d,e) do (    
    If exist %%D:\ (        
        for /f "delims=" %%f in ('dir /b /s %%D:\%1 2^> NUL') do (
            @echo %1 found: %%~dpf
        )
    )
)

%%~dpf will have the path to the file for each occurrence found (there may be more than one). If you need to act on these paths you have several options:

1. Add your file processing commands after the @echo %1 found: %%~dpf line, using %%~dpf as the variable that contains the full path to the file.

2. Write the path out to a temp text file (@echo %%~dpf >> temp.out), then read that back in another for loop to process.

3. Concatenate the path to a local environment variable (set FILE_PATHS=!FILE_PATHS!;%%~dpf), then parse that var in another for loop to process.