So first of all what is batch file? Its a file with a list of commands that are executed by command prompt(CMD) to open your cmd window go to start > run > cmd

Basic Commands

1. [batch]@echo off[/batch]
   This removes the "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>" part
2. [batch]cls[/batch]
   This clears all writing off the CMD window
3. [batch]color backgroundcolor-textcolor[/batch]
   This allows you to change the color of the text

   0 = Black       8 = Gray
   1 = Blue        9 = Light Blue
   2 = Green       A = Light Green
   3 = Aqua        B = Light Aqua
   4 = Red         C = Light Red
   5 = Purple      D = Light Purple
   6 = Yellow      E = Light Yellow
   7 = White       F = Bright White

   Example command:
   [batch]color 04[/batch]
   This example would give you red text on a black background

4. [batch]goto TEXT[/batch]
   This will cause the script to go to a particular section of the script it will be explained more later on in this tutorial
5. [batch]pause[/batch]
   This Pauses the command prompt and displays the message press any key to continue...

Your first batch script

For this example we will make a simple hello world script.

To get started open up notepad start > all programs > accessories > notepad
[batch]@echo off
color 64
echo hello world
pause[/batch]
Save it with a .bat extension and then double click on it to run it. It should print the text "hello world" in red font on a yellow background and then pause

The goto command

The goto command tells the script to go to a certain part of it
[batch]goto bush[/batch]
this will cause the script to go to the line that starts with
[batch]:bush[/batch]
Example:
[batch]@echo off
echo Hello, this script will repeat the message "you will see this over and over again" to cancel it press ctrl+c
pause
:bush
echo you will see this over and over again
goto bush[/batch]
The message was repeated because after it was printed the goto command made the script start again from :bush

Launching programs from a batch script

Using the start command we can start programs

Example:
[batch]@echo off
color f1
echo this script will open google.com in your default internet browser
pause
start http://www.google.com[/batch]

Starting and Stopping

Mounting and unmounting

1. fdisk -l gives a list of all drives
2. mount /dev/hdd /mnt would mount the hard drive in /mnt
3. umount /dev/hdd would unmount the hard drive

Moving, copying, deleting & viewing files

1. ls will output all the files in the current directory
2. rm filename will remove the file
3. rm -r dir will remove the dir
4. cp filename /home/dirname this will copy the file to /home/dirname
5. mv filname /home/dirname this will move the file to /home/dirname
6. cat filetoview this will display the file called filetoview
7. man -k keyboard this will display man pages containing
8. tail filetoview this will display the last 10lines of the file called filetoview

User Administration

1. adduser accountname this will create a new users called accountname
2. password accountname this will give accountname a new password
3. su this will allow you to login as root from your current login

Misc

1. ifconfig this will list ip addresses for all devices on the machine
2. tail -f /var/log/messages this displays the last 10 lines of the system log
3. /etc/init.d/daemon-name-here start this will start the specified daemon