Command to auto-exit a batch if left idle?

Question

I was wondering if there was a command to automatically exit a batch file if it is left alone for a certain number of seconds.

I made a little program similar to the one found here. Most of the coding I used is displayed on the page, but it basically asks you what website you want to visit, and selecting one of the options opens a browser window with the desired page. however, after selecting one of the listed sites, the program displays the options to either exit or return to the top. This is where I usually forget about it until I close whatever I was looking at, and the batch is still open in the background.

So is there anyway to set a auto-exit timer without it interrupting the user, and without restricting the ability to go back and select another option?

Thanks!

http://stackoverflow.com/a/4340058/548036 answer by @daniel11 could have the answer (TIMEOUT /T 3600 /NOBREAK) — Mo Patel, Sep 01 '14 at 19:45
No you don't want `timeout`, you want `choice`.: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12331428/how-to-ask-for-batch-file-user-input-with-a-timeout — indiv, Sep 01 '14 at 19:47
You could also multi-thread and force terminate. But that would be for a complicated task — Monacraft, Sep 02 '14 at 00:00

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 01 '14 at 21:00

2

You can use choice command, instead set /p

Where z is an automatic option, you can use another letter.

/D is the default option if time is passed. /T is the time to wait (this case, 5 seconds).

choice /n /c:zbe /T 5 /D x /M "Make your selection"

Then use it on your code:

choice /n /c:xbe /T 5 /D x  /M "Make your selection"
if errorlevel 1 exit
if errorlevel 2 goto :option_b
if errorlevel 3 goto :option_e

More info type in cmd: choice /?

answered Sep 01 '14 at 21:00

Honguito98

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hey @Honguito98 nice to see you here. – npocmaka Sep 01 '14 at 21:09
I found out through experimentation that the order of the "if errorlevel" statements does matter. After some trial and error, I got it to work beautifully. Thanks again. – Mark Gamez Sep 02 '14 at 07:28

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '14 at 19:56

Please take a look here

set /p udefine=

this line is waiting for b or e

Since you only want to exit the batch file after selecting one website, you can just wipe these lines

echo Type [e] to exit or [b] to go back and select another site.
echo.
set /p udefine=
echo.
echo ***************************************************************
if %udefine%==b goto top
if %udefine%==e goto exit
:exit
cls
echo ***************************************************************

and also this line (before the last one)

pause

Command to auto-exit a batch if left idle?

2 Answers2