Chapter 3: Command Line Scripting Essentials

---

Overview

In a world dominated by whiz-bang graphical user interfaces, you may wonder what command-line scripting has to offer that Microsoft Windows and point- and-click dialog boxes don’t. Well, to be honest, more than most people realize, especially considering that most people regard command-line scripts as glorified batch files—the kind you used on computers with 8088 processors and MS-DOS. Today’s command-line scripting environment is an extensive programming environment, which includes

• Variables

• Arithmetic expressions

• Conditional statements

• Control flow statements

• Procedures

You can use these programming elements to automate repetitive tasks, perform complex operations while you’re away from the computer, find resources that others may have misplaced, and perform many other time-saving activities that you would normally have to type in at the keyboard. Command-line scripts not only have complete access to the command line, they can also call any utilities that have command-line extensions, including the Windows Support Tools and the Windows Resource Kit tools.

---