Read environment variables from file in Windows Batch (cmd.exe)
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04-07-2019 - |
Question
I'm trying to read variables from a batch file for later use in the batch script, which is a Java launcher. I'd ideally like to have the same format for the settings file on all platforms (Unix, Windows), and also be a valid Java Properties file. That is, it should look like this:
setting1=Value1
setting2=Value2
...
Is it possible to read such values like you would in a Unix shell script? The could should look something like this:
READ settingsfile.xy
java -Dsetting1=%setting1% ...
I know that this is probably possible with SET setting1=Value1
, but I'd really rather have the same file format for the settings on all platforms.
To clarify: I need to do this in the command line/batch environment as I also need to set parameters that cannot be altered from within the JVM, like -Xmx or -classpath.
Solution
You can do this in a batch file as follows:
setlocal
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%i in ('type Settings.txt') do SET %%i
java -Dsetting1=%setting1% ...
endlocal
This reads a text file containing strings like "SETTING1=VALUE1" and calls SET to set them as environment variables.
setlocal/endlocal are used to limit the scope of the environment variables to the execution of your batch file.
The CMD Command Processor is actually quite powerful, though with a rather byzantine syntax.
OTHER TIPS
You can pass the property file as a parameter to a Java program (that may launch the main program later on). And then benefit from the multi platform paradigm.
It may be wise to only import specific variables from a properties file (ones you know about ahead of time), in that case I recommend a function like the following:
:parsePropertiesFile
set PROPS_FILE=%1
shift
:propLoop
if "%1"=="" goto:eof
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%i in ('type %PROPS_FILE% ^| findStr.exe "%1="') do SET %%i
shift
GOTO propLoop
goto:eof
Which would be called by call:parsePropertiesFile props.properties setting1 setting2
to set the variables setting1 and setting2
You can also access the OS' environment variables from within a Java program:
import java.util.Map;
public class EnvMap {
public static void main (String[] args) {
Map<String, String> env = System.getenv();
for (String envName : env.keySet()) {
System.out.format("%s=%s%n", envName, env.get(envName));
}
}
}