How to set the working directory of a command in a Windows batch file?

Question

Let's say I have these commands:

Prog1.exe
D:\SomeDir\Prog2.exe
Prog3.exe

Now, say for the second line, I would like the working directory to be D:\SomeDir, but in Prog1.exe and Prog3.exe I want the default working directory (normally, where my .bat file is). If I try this

Prog1.exe
cd D:\SomeDir
D:\SomeDir\Prog2.exe
Prog3.exe

Apparently Prog3 will be executed in SomeDir, which is not what I want.

score 78 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '12 at 09:03

78

You could use the pushd/popd commands (help with pushd /?)

Prog1.exe
Pushd D:\SomeDir
Prog2.exe
popd
Prog3.exe

answered Mar 07 '12 at 09:03

jeb

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score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 21 '19 at 19:02

13

You could use the cd command (help with cd /?) with the %~dp0, batch file path, variable.

Prog1.exe
cd D:\SomeDir
Prog2.exe
cd %~dp0
Prog3.exe

For a complete list of %~ modifiers see call /? or for /? help.

However, I only add this as to provide a more complete answer on Stack Overflow. I would RECOMMEND using jeb's solution above.

edited Jul 21 '19 at 19:02

72er

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answered Dec 06 '12 at 18:20

David Ruhmann

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score 13 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

13

What worked for me is adding a /d:

cd /d C:\nginx
ECHO Stopping nginx...
start nginx -s quit

(When I didn't have the /d, it didn't work.)

https://stackoverflow.com/a/18310141/470749 tries to explain it.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered May 11 '14 at 01:34

Ryan

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what does /d mean? – Maksym Semenykhin Nov 09 '16 at 05:50
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@СеменихинМаксим, From the documentation: "Use the /D switch to change current drive in addition to changing current directory for a drive." Basically, you always want to specify it when changing dir to arbitrary absolute paths. – Mikhail Dec 31 '16 at 12:23

How to set the working directory of a command in a Windows batch file?

3 Answers3

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