batch files

[newme]

hello
was wondering about batch files i did look at the link dr.z had on another thread.i was wondering in what situation you can use this if someone has an example of how they use it.i could not figure out from that sight what to do or what situation you could use a batch file.what do you wrire it in notepad?sorry this is coming from a complete newbie on any languages.

[ktkendall]

You could write one in notepad and save it as XXXXXXXX.BAT, or use the built in windows editor, from command line type edit XXXXXXXX.bat and make your file. You use them when you want a series of commands executed one after another automatically. It's not really programming like actually writing a program, but it just a way to execute multipule commands automatically. EX. One of the voice mail machines we sell uses a batch file every night for its nightly maintenence routines. I go in to that file and can just add a line for backing up the machine to whatever nights batch file I want the machine to execute backups as part of its nightly routine. This one uses a seperate BAT file for each night. monday.bat, tuesday.bat etc.
You still need the actual program to call up the BAT file though if you want it to be automatic, just like Windows 9.X will look automatically for autoexec.bat upon startup and execute anything in there for your dos programs to work.

[HackinCowboy]

I have a batch file here that creates the host file for every machine logging on. If a machine logs on here and doesn't have this host file we often have many interesting problems. Everytime a user logs on the batch file is executed.