Content

MS DOS Command: CALL

Reference from Microsoft WinXP cmd help

Description

Calls one batch program from another.

Syntax

CALL [drive:][path]filename [batch-parameters]

Parameters

batch-parameters

Specifies any command-line information required by the batch program.

Remarks

If command Extensions are enabled CALL changes as follows:

CALL command now accepts labels as the target of the CALL. The syntax is:

CALL :label arguments

A new batch file context is created with the specified arguments and control is passed to the statement after the label specified. You must "exit" twice by reaching the end of the batch script file twice. The first time you read the end, control will return to just after the CALL statement. The second time will exit the batch script. Type GOTO /? for a description of the GOTO :EOF extension that will allow you to "return" from a batch script.

In addition, expansion of batch script argument references (%0, %1, etc.) have been changed as follow:

%* in a batch script refers to all the arguments (e.g. %1 %2 %3 %4 $5 ...)

Substitution of batch parameters (%n) has been enhanced. You can now use the following optional syntax:

%~1	expands %1 removing any surrounding quotes (")
%~f1	expands %1 to a fully qualified path name
%~d1	expands %1 to a drive letter only
%~p1	expands %1 to a path only
%~n1	expands %1 to a file name only
%~x1	expands %1 to a file extension only
%~s1	expanded path contains short names only
%~a1	expanded %1 to file attributes
%~t1	expands %1 to date/time of file
%~z1	expands %1 to size of file
%~$PATH:1	searches the directories listed in the PATH environment variable and expands %1 to the fully qualified name of the first one found. If the environment variable name is not defined or the file is not found by the search, then this modifier expands to the empty string.

The modifiers can be combined to get compound results:

%~dp1	expands %1 to a drive letter and path only
%~nx1	expands %1 to a file name and extension only
%~dp$PATH:1	searches the directories listed in the PATH environment
%~ftza1	expands %1 to a DIR like output line

In the above examples %1 and PATH can be replace by other valid values. The %~ syntax is terminated by a valid argument number. The %~ modifiers may not be used with %*.