Trial #6: Relative Paths in Scripts

Problem:

I want to put a batch file in with a load of installation media on a server share, access it from a UNC path, and have it install a list of programs with given switches and parameters.

Solution:

Use Powershell, it can natively execute over UNC and has support for relative paths.

If you must use a .bat file you can map a UNC path as a drive for the period of the script using pushd/popd.

e.g.

pushd \\Server\Share\Dir
.\someApp.exe /Parameter1 /Parameter2
popd

This can be improved by using a special bat variable that passes in the location of the batch file. Give the following a try:

echo %~dp0
PAUSE

It will echo out the path of the bat files parent directory.

This can be used in a script as follows.

pushd %~dp0
.\someApp.exe /Parameter1 /Parameter2
popd

Pitfalls

• This works fine from MDT and if you navigate to the file and execute by double clicking. However, when I tried to use from PDQ deploy, I found that PDQ copies the .bat down to the target machine and “%~dp0” echos out a useless file path. This could be fixed by clicking “copy all files” but I’m trying to map a drive to avoid copying several gigabytes of installation media.