Heredoc (Multilined Input) in Win BAT script

Question

Is there any way to achieve this without the need of external resources as Bash does?

I'd like to prompt user for input and copy the input into a variable in case it is multilined as well (for instance if he or she copy-pastes a text onto the prompt)

Perhaps using Powershell -command?

This is not a duplicate of the aforementioned, as solutions seem focused on the particular needs of the poster (outputing to a file) whereas mine is inputting from prompt — Whimusical, May 13 '14 at 13:13
In a Batch `set /P` command, if the user enters a multiline input just the first line is read. There is no way to detect if one keyboard input is comprised of several lines, and I think the same point is true no matter the shell/application/language involved. BTW note that your question is _not_ related to a "heredoc" document... — Aacini, May 13 '14 at 17:29

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 15 '14 at 08:37

As Aacini mentioned, it's not possible to use a single set /p.
You could use a loop of set /p, but you need a type of end marker to leave the loop.

Or you could use copy con input.tmp, but then you have to finish the input with CTRL-Z.

A sample with sep /p stopping at the first empty line.

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
SET LF=^


REM ** Two empty lines are required
call :input
echo !input!
exit /b


:input
set "input="
:inputLoop
set "line="
set /p "line=Enter text, stop with an empty line :"
if defined line (
    set "input=!input!!line!!LF!"
    goto :inputLoop
)
exit /b

Heredoc (Multilined Input) in Win BAT script

1 Answers1