Good alternative to Windows batch scripts?

Question

What are some good alternatives to Windows batch scripts? We have a number of them and they are very "clunky" to work with. As our group is familiar with Java is Groovy a good option?

A lot of our scripts are used to prep dev databases so they involve a lot of cd mydir, hg fetch, sqlplus ..., etc..

[PowerShell](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx) — Kyle Alons, Feb 09 '11 at 14:20
Also, try using PowerGUI when writing scripts to get debugging, auto completion, etc. Makes the job a lot easier. — andypaxo, Feb 09 '11 at 14:26

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

If you are interested in developing scripts for Windows than a technology developed specifically for Windows, like the PowerShell, is a sensible choice.

While groovy will probably allow you achieve your goal I don't think there is a particular advantage that it could offer.

Saying that, you have to consider familiarity factor and learning curve. You say developers have experience with Java and Groovy in which case running ant tasks via the groovy DSL can prove easier than learning PowerShell.

Regardless, consider developing your scripts using the TDD approach. Groovy offers plenty of frameworks (try Spock for example) while there are also ways to achieve that for PowerShell.

TIP: Netbeans IDE has support for Groovy scripting. – djangofan Jan 10 '12 at 16:17 — djangofan, Jan 10 '12 at 16:17

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 09 '11 at 14:20

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Powershell, VBScript, Perl, Python. There are no shortages of good scripting languages that have a Windows implementation.

answered Feb 09 '11 at 14:20

tloach

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I tried Python. When starting a process you have to fiddle with streams, and as soon as you run into Unicode issues you'll find that Python is not the right tool for this job. Batteries not included. – Andreas Haferburg Nov 21 '18 at 20:31

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 27 '12 at 07:31

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PowerShell 2.0 onward is a good choice. It will come along with Windows Server 2008 R2 or windows 7 onward. you don't need to install anything on top of these O/S version.

answered May 27 '12 at 07:31

Teerakiat Chitawattanarat

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 09 '11 at 14:20

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It kind of depends on what you are looking to do with your scripts. BASH on windows via cygwin might be a good thing to try.

answered Feb 09 '11 at 14:20

user605331

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Cygwin is NEVER a good thing to try. :-O – JUST MY correct OPINION Feb 09 '11 at 14:43

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 09 '11 at 14:42

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You might also wanna look at good old Ant, it has targets for copying, executing shell commands, etc. Gradle might be even better, as it supports inline Groovy code, including easy loops and conditions, which Ant lacks.

answered Feb 09 '11 at 14:42

Tomasz Nurkiewicz

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I agree, that Gradle is a nice tool for this, but Groovy, using Grapes for dependencies is definetly also nice. – sbglasius May 27 '12 at 16:59

Good alternative to Windows batch scripts?

5 Answers5