Batch delete : Access is denied

Question

As the title suggests, I'm having issues with the del command in a batch file. When it gets to the delete step I get the message "Access is denied". My batch command looks something like this.

set destPath=\\Public01\Appl\CompOps\Jobs\

robocopy . "%destPath%" *.dtsx *.dev *.prod *.ppro /IS

pushd "%destPath%"
del *.dtsConfig
ren *.dev .
popd

I can browse to the directory and delete the files without any problem in windows explorer

Update 1: Tried running as administrator, still the same issue

Answer 1

You may have to run the batch file as administrator. Right click on the file and click "Run as Administrator", and see if it runs successfully that way.

Edit: Apparently, a read-only file cannot normally be deleted by a batch file, although it can still be deleted through windows explorer. To check if your file is read-only, you can right click on the file and select properties, or enter attrib <filename> at the command prompt. This will show a series of letters corresponding to different file attributes.

R = Read-only file
A = Archive file
S = System file
H = Hidden file

You can then remove the read-only tag by unchecking the box in the properties window or running the command attrib <filename> -R.

To force a del command to delete read-only files, add the /F flag.

Answer 2

After experimenting with the options available to the "del" command I discovered that the files I was attempting to delete were read-only. To resolve the problem I could either edit the files to remove the read-only attribute, or specify the /F option.

Final script is

set destPath=\\Public01\Appl\CompOps\Jobs\

robocopy . "%destPath%" *.dtsx *.dev *.prod *.ppro /IS

pushd "%destPath%"
del /F *.dtsConfig
ren *.dev .
popd

Simple solution, but a misleading error message. Hopefully this helps someone else.