Can I run two separate files in a bat file?

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So I am wondering if I can run 2 cmd prompts and execute my program completely. I need the seleniumServer.jar to run in the background before i run my pythonScriptTemplate.py.

here is my code for the .bat file:

start
cd C:\Users\Colton\Project
java -jar selenium-server.jar
pause

start
cd C:\Users\Colton\Project
python seleniumScriptTemplate.py
pause

this does not work, it opens two cmd prompts, and the first one runs selenium. however, the second one does nothing but change my path to the path in the .bat file... any suggestions?

Posted 10-Feb-11 21:15pm

clammers14

Updated 11-Feb-11 9:36am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

v2

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Feb-11 15:38pm

Type fixed in your title. Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9_kahA_wQo
:-)
--SA

3 solutions

Solution 3

An addition to my concrete answer: learn just a bit of batch programming, it will never hurt.
Use my way to get complete reference on the topic.

Run this batch to generate the documentation our of available help:

Help generator — batch file.

This is not my work. Sorry, cannot tell the author right now; should be somewhere on my records.

—SA

Posted 11-Feb-11 9:23am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Solution 1

going out on a limb...don't use start?

Posted 10-Feb-11 22:07pm

Steve Echols

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-11T08:16:00

Solution 2

No wonder!

Don't pause, it makes not sense. Don't use start in cd, use it on application:

cd C:\Users\Colton\Project
start java -jar selenium-server.jar

cd C:\Users\Colton\Project
start python seleniumScriptTemplate.py

More exactly, I don't know for sure if your applications are console or not. I would rather assume pytnon runs on a console. This is almost certain. Then do this:

cd C:\Users\Colton\Project
start java -jar selenium-server.jar

cd C:\Users\Colton\Project
python seleniumScriptTemplate.py

You will start one application and bring another on console.

That's it! See my other Answer on how to get more information.

—SA

Posted 11-Feb-11 8:16am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Updated 11-Feb-11 9:24am

v3

Comments

fjdiewornncalwe 11-Feb-11 14:27pm

Well explained. +5.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Feb-11 14:32pm

Thank you, Marcus.
--SA

#realJSOP 11-Feb-11 16:11pm

Proposed as answer

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Feb-11 23:34pm

Thank you. Accepted by OP.
--SA

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 11-Feb-11 23:34pm

Thanks for accepting my answer.
--SA

clammers14 12-Feb-11 15:49pm

Yeah I would think that would work..

However,

I need the seleniumScriptTemplate.bat to pause at the end so it does not close
since I need to display what is in the cmd prompt...

Also, without both of the starts in the code the second cmd prompt does not open up.

I am trying to run two cmd prompts with one .bat file.

- When doing this I need it to execute the the first command in the
first cmd prompt window and stay opened. (seleniumServer.bat)

- Next I need a second cmd prompt to open up and run the file
seleniumScriptTemplate.bat and when it is done running, I need the
the cmd prompt to stay opened (which is what the second pause is for).

Any new suggestions?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-11 20:50pm

OK, how would I know that? You need to open new console, then?
You do it via "start cmd /c <command>", if you need to wait for second console to finish, add "pause" after this line. However, it start looking like you're trying to solve something where batch file programming is inadequate. There is no way to detect automatically that a process is complete. (In Windows you can do it via CreateProcess API.) What you really need it to honestly integrate your programs in one. Do you have access the their source code? In not, you can write application which coordinate the run of the two using CreateProcess, but it would be dirty anyway.
--SA

clammers14 12-Feb-11 21:02pm

Okay... Thank you SA for all of your help. You help me understand batch file programming a little better.. I kind of figured that it would be difficult to multiprocess using a batch file but was going to check on here to see if anyone had any suggestions. Although I would have liked to have everything in one batch file, I think I will just keep them in two separate batch files so I do not have to get into the dirtyness of CreateProcess :-/

Thank you again for your help.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Feb-11 13:31pm

Your're welcome.
Thank you for accepting my answer.
CreateProcess, if you will, is much less dirty than multi-processing of batch. Again, batch approach does not allow you to track state of the process launched in the past.
--SA