Fun with FOR

[billieT]

All I want to do is verify what users are valid in our domain. I have a nice list of usernames in a text file. So I thought a nice single-liner would do the job.

for /f %i in (c:\test.txt) do net user %i /domain >nul 2>&1 | if %errorlevel%==0 echo %i >> c:\valid.txt

Unfortunately, it seemed that all my users were valid! (They aren't)

So, running individual lines:

for %i in (invalid_user) do net user %i /domain >nul 2>&1 | echo %errorlevel%

Output is 0 - oops.

However, if I run the commands separately:

for %i in (invalid_user) do net user %i /domain >nul 2>&1

{Error message}

echo %errorlevel%

Output is 2. Which is correct.

If I run the same sequence with the two separate commands and a valid user, I get the expected output of 0.

So, why is my single-liner spuriously returning 0 even when the command result should have an errorlevel of 2? This is driving me crackers.

I have to say that it's been over 8 years since I wrote a batch job, but I did think this would be a no-brainer - I'm sure it is for some!

 

[EBGreen]

The batch pipe is notorious for losing things. Have you ever considered moving to Powershell? Microsoft is.

[red]"... isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway?! I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you are good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" - The Tick[/red]