How to read from a text file being hosted on a website in a batch file

Question

I want to read the contents of a text file line by line being hosted on a website with a batch file. Ex: from example.com/text.txt

I had tried

@echo off
for /f "tokens=*" %%A in (http://example.com/text.txt) do (echo%%A)

But it looks for a file named that not the url.

Answer 1

You need to download the file first.

Assuming you are on a Windows that supports powershell and you are using batch (otherwise just use Powershell and directly use the command in quotes):

@echo off
powershell -Command "(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://www.example.com/text.txt', 'txtfile.txt')"
for /f "tokens=*" %%A in (txtfile.txt) do (echo%%A)

The 2nd line will download the text.txt file from the specified link and save it as txtfile.txt in the same directory.

EDIT: If you have a newer Windows version that supports PowerShell 3.0 and up, check @rahuldottech's answer, it's simpler and faster.

Answer 2

You can use the following code:

powershell wget http://example.com/file.txt -OutFile file.txt
for /f "tokens=*" %%A in (file.txt) do (echo%%A)

We use powershell to download the file, and then process it in batch. Using wget is simpler than creating an object and then downloading the file.

Answer 3

you need first to download it.For this you can use winhttpjs.bat:

call winhhtpjs.bat http://example.com/text.txt -saveTo c:\text.txt
for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%A in ("c:\text.txt") do (echo%%A)

More on how you can download a file with a batch file

Answer 4

You can download and read file contents using Certutil command line like this batch script :

@echo off
Color 0A
Title Download and read file contents with Certutil line command by Hackoo 2018
set "URL=http://www.example.com/text.txt"
for %%a in (%URL%) do Set "File=%%~nxa"
Set "DownloadFolder=%Temp%"
Call :Download "%URL%" "%DownloadFolder%\%File%"
Rem To read the contents of the text file downloaded in temp folder
for /f "tokens=*" %%A in ('Type "%DownloadFolder%\%File%"') do (echo %%A)
pause>nul & Exit
::--------------------------------------------
:Download <Url> <File>
certutil.exe -urlcache -split -f %1 %2 >nul
exit /b
::-------------------------------------------