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I want, with a batch file, to be able to search and display the files in a bunch of folders called "error" located in a bunch of different places.

The error folder is always at the same folder depth but the folder names befor them is different.

dir /A-d /b C:\Temp\*random_folder_name*\*random_folder_name*\error

So, can I create a line that displays all the files in all the error folders, two folders "below", in this example "C:\Temp"? or do I have to add one dir line for every error-folder?

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4 Answers 4

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Windows 7 and later have power shell:

You can try:

Get-ChildItem \*\*\*

This returns all items with a depth of two subfolders. Adding * adds an additional subfolder to search in.

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13249085/limit-get-childitem-recursion-depth

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3

Here is a relatively simple, but inefficient solution using FINDSTR with a regular expression. I use [\\] to match \ because of an inconsistency on Vista.

@echo off
dir /b /s c:\temp\*|findstr /rix "c:[\\]temp[\\][^\\]*[\\][^\\]*[\\]error[\\][^\\]*"

Here is a more complicated, but very efficient solution using multiple FOR statements.

@echo off
for /d %%A in (c:\temp\*) do for /d %%B in ("%%A\*") do for %%C in ("%%B\error\*") do echo %%C
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  • Isn't there a missing /d in the most inner loop?
    – miroxlav
    Nov 12, 2020 at 21:42
  • @miroxlav - Definitely not. The OP was looking for files three levels deep, so there should be no /d when listing the error folder contents. The question title is confusing, but the question body clearly asks for files within that folder.
    – dbenham
    Nov 12, 2020 at 23:55
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Windows has built-in alternatives to grep: find and findstr.

findstr will support a regular-expression (you can get more info by typing help findstr), but you will be somewhat limited by the output of dir which doesn't seem to support relative listings ...

dir /A-d /S /B | findstr /B /R /I /X "C:\\Temp\\[^\\]*\\[^\\]*\\error\\.*"
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  • That regex will not work because .* can match any number of \
    – dbenham
    Aug 27, 2014 at 2:09
  • sorry, that was a silly mistake by me, please review my update.
    – robert
    Aug 27, 2014 at 8:32
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You could install the GNU Win32 libraries and use grep for this:

dir /b /s *.*|grep "error\\[^\\]*$"

The suggested way to install them is with getgnuwin32.

BTW, if you just wanted to see text files it'd be like this:

dir /b /s *.txt|grep "error\\[^\\]*$"

If you would like to ensure that only folders at a certain depth are used then it's a little more complicated:

dir /b /s *.*|grep "^\([^\\]*\\\)\{7\}error\\[^\\]*$"

This will only display results where the error directory is seven directories deep (from the root directory).

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  • Are you sure? That last regex looks incorrect. Why are you escaping (, ), {, and }?
    – dbenham
    Aug 27, 2014 at 2:11
  • Yes I'm sure I've actually tested all of these on my system. Trust me, those characters need escaped. It won't work without it.
    – krowe
    Aug 27, 2014 at 2:55
  • Sorry, I'm used to using JavaScript regex. That is a very curious design choice for grep. Most meta characters are escaped if you want to treat them as a literal. But in grep, some literal characters are "escaped" to turn them into meta characters. That is crazy!
    – dbenham
    Aug 27, 2014 at 11:21
  • That gave me an idea: gist.github.com/krowe/da2a6b021ac891f8e3be
    – krowe
    Aug 27, 2014 at 12:58
  • Yes, hybrid scripting is a powerful way to extend batch capabilities. I have created a different but related JScript/batch utility called REPL.BAT. It has been incredibly useful for many problems that are difficult to solve with pure batch.
    – dbenham
    Aug 27, 2014 at 16:51

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