Why does @ECHO ON / OFF not work in an IF block of a block?

Question

@echo on and @echo off do not seem to affect execution in the if block in the batch file. Here is a simple demo:

 @echo off echo Test #1 if 1 == 1 ( @echo on echo Test #2 @echo off echo Test #3 ) @echo on echo Test #4 

The output from the above on the command line:

Test number 1
Test number 2
Test number 3
C: \ mybatchfilelocation> echo Test # 4
Test number 4

Can someone explain this and / or suggest a workaround? (Expect that it can probably be fixed by abundantly using goto and labels, but will prefer to continue using brackets if possible if ...)

Answer 1

As you have discovered, the changed ECHO state is not recognized by the parser until it reaches the instruction that is located after the code block that contains ECHO ON / OFF.

But there is one exception - commands after FOR ... DO accept a state change inside the same block :-)

Note that you only need @ to suppress the output of the command when ECHO is currently on. If it is off then there is no need for @ECHO ON . And if you turn it on and off in the same block of code, then you don't need that either.

Here is a demo that shows even test lines:

 @echo off echo Test #1 ( echo on for %%. in (.) do echo Test #2 echo off echo Test #3 echo on for %%. in (.) do echo Test #4 echo off echo Test #5 ) echo on echo Test #6 @echo off echo Test #7 

- OUTPUT -

 Test #1 C:\test>echo Test #2 Test #2 Test #3 C:\test>echo Test #4 Test #4 Test #5 C:\test>echo Test #6 Test #6 Test #7 

You may find it convenient to declare a simple echo_on macro. The result is the same result:

 @echo off setlocal set "echo_on=echo on&for %%. in (.) do" echo Test #1 ( %echo_on% echo Test #2 echo off echo Test #3 %echo_on% echo Test #4 echo off echo Test #5 ) echo on echo Test #6 @echo off echo Test #7 

Answer 2

You can do something similar to achieve the desired result:

 @echo off set "ExecuteCmd=echo Test #2" echo Test #1 if 1 == 1 ( echo %ExecuteCmd% %ExecuteCmd% echo Test #3 ) @echo on echo Test #4 

Answer 3

Just found out what causes this by turning the echo to the if block.

 @echo on if 1 == 1 ( echo Test #1 echo Test #2 ) 

It is output:

C: \ mybatchfilelocation> if 1 == 1 (
echo Test # 1
echo Test # 2
)
Test number 1
Test number 2

Thus, the expression that is reflected is the whole if block, and not every expression inside it. This answer explains this further and this answer gives a workaround - unfortunately, not what I wanted to hear, but it looks like a lot of goto and shortcuts may be the only workable solution.

Answer 4

How to add echo control commands to a subroutine?

 @echo off echo Test #1 if 1 == 1 ( CALL :DO_ECHO_ON echo Test #3 ) @echo on echo Test #4 @EXIT /B :DO_ECHO_ON @ECHO ON echo Test #2 @ECHO OFF @EXIT /B 

This will give the result that I expect from your description.

 Test #1 C:\secret>echo Test #2 Test #2 Test #3 C:\secret>echo Test #4 Test #4 

Based on one of your comments, I assume that you want to enable echo for arbitrary commands. This modified version does this.

 @echo off echo Test #1 if 1 == 1 ( CALL :DO_ECHO_ON_CMD echo Test #2 echo Test #3 CALL :DO_ECHO_ON_CMD dir /b "C:\Program Files" echo Test #3.1 CALL :DO_ECHO_ON_CMD attrib c:\Windows ) @echo on echo Test #4 EXIT /B :DO_ECHO_ON_CMD @ECHO ON %* @ECHO OFF @EXIT /B 0