How to prevent auto-closing of console after the execution of batch file

Question

What command can I put at the end of a batch file to prevent auto-closing of the console after the execution of the file?

Solution 1

In Windows/DOS batch files:

pause

This prints a nice "Press any key to continue . . . " message

Or, if you don't want the "Press any key to continue . . ." message, do this instead:

pause >nul

Solution 2

Depends on the exact question!

Normally pause does the job within a .bat file.

If you want cmd.exe not to close to be able to remain typing, use cmd /k command at the end of the file.

Solution 3

If you want cmd.exe to not close, and able to continue to type, use cmd /k

Just felt the need to clarify what /k does (from windows website):

/k : Carries out the command specified by string and continues.

So cmd /k without follow up command at the end of bat file will just keep cmd.exe window open for further use.

On the other hand pause at the end of a batch file will simply pause the process and terminate cmd.exe on first button press

Solution 4

If you are using Maven and you want to skip the typing and prevent the console from close to see the result you need to use the CALL command in the script, besides just the 'mvn clean install'.

Like this will close the console

ECHO This is the wrong exemple
mvn clean install
pause

Like this the console will stay open

ECHO This is the right exemple
CALL mvn clean install
pause

If you dont use the CALL command neither of the pasts exemples will work. Because for some reason the default behaviour of cmd when calling another batch file (which mvn is in this case) is to essentially replace the current process with it, unlike calling an .exe

Solution 5

The below way of having commands in a batch file will open new command prompt windows and the new windows will not exit automatically.

start "title" call abcd.exe param1 param2  
start "title" call xyz.exe param1 param2

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