Directory Monitor, watchDirectory, automatically start command when folder contents change.

Using the GOTO statement

The GOTO statement is the most commonly used way to change the flow of control in a .bat file. In a previous topic, writing comments, we saw a very simple use to skip a block of comments.

The target label

GOTO.... Where are we going to? The GOTO statements needs a target label to jump to. A small example will help.

		 GOTO EndComment

		 All this is skipped
		 This won't be run
		 You can put anything here
		 
		 :EndComment

The target-label here is named ":EndComment". In your GOTO statement you do not have to add the colon, so you can use either GOTO :EndComment or GOTO EndComment

Special case, :EOF

On Windows NT based systems, Windows NT, 2000, XP and 2003, there is a special, predefined label you can use. This label is called :EOF. EOF is short for "End Of File", so executing the statement GOTO :EOF will quit your .bat file. You should not create this label yourself, if you want to avoid confusion.

GOTO %variable%

The label you jump to can also be a variable, as in the following example.

		 SET LAB=Target
		 SET RET=RetLabel
		 GOTO %LAB%
		 :RetLabel
		 Echo Back again
		 ...
		 :Target
		 Echo here we are
		 GOTO %RET%

In the above example, the flow of control is first passed to the "Target" label. After that, it passes control back to the "RetLabel" label. We created a simple sub-routine here. Note that this is not considered good style, it is better to use the call statement for this.

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