Blog Post

Keeping cmd windows open with /K

I like using .BAT files to run common tasks like compiling Java code or starting my NodeJS server. It's very convenient to just execute a .BAT where you've already written out all the proper parameters rather than typing out an entire call every time you need it. This does cause a problem, though - if any of the programs that execute from the .BAT returns an error code, the command window will immediately close. This makes it impossible to debug those programs.

I tried adding the pause command at the end of each file, but to no avail - the command window exits immediately when a program returns an error and doesn't execute the rest of the file (which is responsible of it, admittedly).

The solution was to use a parameter to the cmd program itself:

cmd /K bat/mybat.bat

The /K parameter keeps the window open even if the .BAT stops executing. I simply copied all my .BATs to a subdirectory and created wrapper bats using this line.