Batch processing Pandoc conversions in Windows

Question

I am trying to convert a large number of HTML files into Markdown using Pandoc in Windows, and have found an answer on how to do this on a Mac, but receive errors when attempting to run the following in Windows PowerShell.

find . -name \*.md -type f -exec pandoc -o {}.txt {} \;

Can someone help me translate this to work in Windows?

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 17 '13 at 22:25

9

to convert files in folders recursively try this (Windows prompt command line):

for /r "startfolder" %i in (*.htm *.html) do pandoc -f html -t markdown "%~fi" -o "%~dpni.txt"

For use in a batch file double the %.

answered Jun 17 '13 at 22:25

Endoro

37,015
8
50
63

Thanks for your answer! I received a similar error to what I received with the Mac code: Missing opening '(' after keyword 'for'. – christopherritter Jun 18 '13 at 00:10
This might have been a noob problem, but I've noticed a difference in how the code runs on Command Prompt vs. PowerShell. Here's the line of code that worked for me in Command Prompt: `for %i in (*.html) do pandoc -f html -t markdown %~ni.html > md/%~ni.md` – christopherritter Jun 18 '13 at 01:04
For converting all md files in current folder to html use below command. ````for /r "." %i in (*.md) do pandoc -o "%~i.html" "%~i"```` – Nilay Mehta May 09 '17 at 16:42

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 10 '20 at 16:52

Most of the answers here (for ... solutions) are for cmd.exe, not PowerShell.
mb21's answer is on the right track, but has a bug with respect to targeting each input file; also, it is hard to parse visually.

The functionally equivalent PowerShell command is:

Get-ChildItem -File -Recurse -Filter *.md | ForEach-Object {
  pandoc -o ($_.FullName + '.txt') $_.FullName
}

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 13 '16 at 11:19

0

Endoro's answer is great, don't get confused by the parameters added to %i.

For helping others, I needed to convert from RST (restructured text) to dokuwiki syntax, so I created a convert.bat with:

FOR /r "startfolder" %%i IN (*.rst) DO pandoc -f rst -t dokuwiki "%%~fi" -o "%%~dpni.txt"

Works for all rst files in folders and subfolders.

answered May 13 '16 at 11:19

Avatar

14,622
9
119
198

You said don't get confuse by Endoro's parameters, but didn't offer any clarification for what those parameters do and used similar parameters in your answer. This command doesn't work. Can you clarify? – Eric Hepperle - CodeSlayer2010 May 26 '18 at 13:29

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 18 '18 at 23:31

If you want to go recursively through a directory and its subdirectories to compile all the files of type, say, *.md, then you can use the batch file I wrote in answer to another question How can I use pandoc for all files in the folder in Windows? . I call it pancompile.bat and the usage is below. Go to the other answer for the code.

Usage: pancompile DIRECTORY FILENAME [filemask] ["options"]
Uses pandoc to compile all documents in specified directory and subdirectories to a single output document

DIRECTORY         the directory/folder to parse recursively (passed to pandoc -s);
                  use quotation marks if there are spaces in the directory name
FILENAME          the output file (passed to pandoc -o); use quotation marks if spaces
filemask          an optional file mask/filter, e.g. *.md; leave blank for all files
"options"         optional list of pandoc commands (must be in quotation marks)

Minimal example: pancompile docs complete_book.docx
Typical example: pancompile "My Documents" "Complete Book.docx" *.md "-f markdown -t docx --standalone --toc"

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 05 '19 at 07:19

0

Using the powershell built-in gci:

gci -r -i *.md |foreach{$docx=$_.directoryname+"\"+$_.basename+".docx";pandoc $_.name -o $docx}

from https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/5429

answered Apr 05 '19 at 07:19

mb21

34,845
8
116
142

Batch processing Pandoc conversions in Windows

5 Answers5

Linked