I'm running a command line executable that sifts through data and puts it into a form that I want to use. However, it requires several inputs, and it's tedious to continuously type them in to the program, especially since several of the parameters are constant.

The natural solution to this, I thought, was a batch file. I've had experience with them before in game modding, and it seemed like the perfect solution. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be working, and Googling some questions proved... unenlightening. So I decided to come here.

When I open the EXE, the command prompt says thus:

Enter the input file:

Say I put in input.exe. It likes that, so it goes to the next line:

Enter the output file:

And so on. What I want the batch file to do is put in this stuff automatically. This code I have written so far is:

Code:

@echo off
aip2phs2
input.txt
output.txt

This opens the executable correctly when I run the batch file, but it doesn't input the lines, and it looks as though I've simply opened the executable itself. I know there are those on DLP much more tech savvy than I am, so I ask - how do I do this?

 

If the executable is coded to accept input file and output file as parameters, you could batch it as a single command:

aip2phs2 -i input.txt -o output.txt

or however those parameters are accepted; run the executable with the /help or -help or /? switch to find out what parameters it accepts.

If it doesn't allow for those parameters, you could repackage it using a tool called AutoIT. This is a simple batch-packaging tool that I've used several times over the years to fake user input for predictable interactions.

If you want a more modern approach, I think this is a job for PowerShell, but my skills aren't developed enough to explain how.

 

If the command accept arguments like wordhammer mentions, that's the way to go. If not, I would probably just use Python and pexpect. Something like:

Code:

import pexpect 

program = pexpect.spawn('input.exe') 

program.expect('Enter the input file:') 
program.sendline('input.txt') 

program.expect('Enter the output file:') 
program.sendline('output.txt')

 

I know little, but I would have expected that, if you want to give the filenames as arguments to the exe, they'd need to be directly behind it, i.e.
aip2phs2 input.txt output.txt
if the exe accepts the parameters as such, or with more information like Wordhammer wrote.

You can't however use batch to interact with a program that way.

 

As has been mentioned, batch files can't manipulate other software directly. Python or some scripting language is probably the way to go (VBS?)