Windows – Cmdline to get latest file on recursive dir command

cmd.exewindows

On my hard disk, I have hundreds subfolders created daily that may contain a specific text file (Tracker.txt).

I would like to create a cmdline or BAT file to get only one result, the latest tracker.txt file, with its full path !

I tried dir /s tracker.txt /OD but the result is not filtered by date.

Thank you!

Best Answer

You can pipe the DIR /B /S /OD "tracker.txt" command results to a temp log file but have it use the FOR loop substitutions to put the date time stamp of each file that matches the name followed by a comma and then the full explicit path and file name (i.e. YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm [AM/PM]).

You then use the SORT command against that file to sort all the lines in that file to a new sorted file but with the newest time stamp file at the bottom of the list.

Lastly, you'd run a final FOR loop through the final file list using the comma as the delimiter and then only setting the iterator variable in that loop to each full explicit path and when it get to the bottom of that list, this is the newest file that is SET last and then you can do something with that last set variable which is the newest file date stamp wise from within all the directories you specify recursively.

Batch Script Example

Be sure to set the value of the SET StartDir= variable to be the root folder where the DIR command starts for finding the files recursively.

@ECHO ON

SET StartDir=C:\Users\User\Desktop\Test

IF EXIST "%temp%\~dir1temp.dat" DEL /Q /F "%temp%\~dir1temp.dat"
FOR /F "TOKENS=*" %%A IN ('Dir /B /S /OD "%StartDir%\tracker.txt"') DO ECHO %%~TA, %%~FPNXA>>"%temp%\~dir1temp.dat"

IF EXIST "%temp%\~dirsorttemp.dat" DEL /Q /F "%temp%\~dirsorttemp.dat"
SORT "%temp%\~dir1temp.dat">>"%temp%\~dirsorttemp.dat"

FOR /F "TOKENS=2 DELIMS=," %%A IN (%temp%\~dirsorttemp.dat) DO (SET File=%%~A)

ECHO %File%
:::<command to do something with %file%>
PAUSE

Further Resources

Sort
For /F

FOR /? (batch substitutions)

In addition, substitution of FOR variable references has been enhanced.
You can now use the following optional syntax:

%~fI        - expands %I to a fully qualified path name
%~tI        - expands %I to date/time of file

Working Batch Example

FOR /F "USEBACKQ TOKENS=*" %%A IN ("c:\users\SCTMP000\server.txt") DO (ECHO %%~A)

Script Logic Explained

The USEBACKQ option used in the FOR loop will ensure the file list can still be read if the file list name or it's path has any spaces in it and you need to double quote the file list path

E.g. SET FileList=C:\Folder Name\File List.txt

Without the USEBACKQ the FOR loop would error out in a case like this

The TOKENS=* option used in the FOR loop will ensure the the entire value is returned as it's read from the file list even if that value has a space in it even though that should not be applicable to domains this is why you'd use it

E.g. File list has a value of "test my file.txt" so the value has a space on a line

Without the TOKENS=* the FOR loop would only return the value portion of that line before the first space and not the value as expected (i.e. "test")

Using these options even when not needed does not seem to cause any harm and should you ever introduce such a value or variable into the mix of the script, it'd already be able to handle such cases accordingly.

Further Resources

FOR /F
Troubleshooting Task Scheduler Tasks

FOR /?

    tokens=x,y,m-n  - specifies which tokens from each line are to
                      be passed to the for body for each iteration.
                      This will cause additional variable names to
                      be allocated.  The m-n form is a range,
                      specifying the mth through the nth tokens.  If
                      the last character in the tokens= string is an
                      asterisk, then an additional variable is
                      allocated and receives the remaining text on
                      the line after the last token parsed.
    usebackq        - specifies that the new semantics are in force,
                      where a back quoted string is executed as a
                      command and a single quoted string is a
                      literal string command and allows the use of
                      double quotes to quote file names in
                      file-set.

Best Answer

Batch Script Example

Further Resources

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