in reply to No command window output when running script

`\"$tf\" labels /owner:theOwner \"$buildLabel\"`;

I think it's just that backticks returns the output, rather than prints the output ... and since you haven't collected what was returned, it just gets lost.
By way of demonstration: 
C:\_32\C>cd
C:\_32\C

C:\_32\C>perl -e "`cd`"

C:\_32\C>perl -e "$x=`cd`;print $x"
C:\_32\C

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Cheers,
Rob

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Re^2: No command window output when running script
by JennieInMI (Acolyte) on Dec 29, 2012 at 22:55 UTC

    Hi Rob,

    Thank you for this reply. It makes perfect sense. I wasn't storing what was returned and printing it, so nothing was output to the screen. Returning and outputting are not inherently equivalent.

    I just tried out your example. Cd doesn't return a value so nothing is output with this example, but when I used dir instead I got a nice screenful of info. :-D I'm not on my work computer right now so I can't try out my tf command yet, but I will give it a try later. Thank you again for the answer.

    Jennie

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      Cd doesn't return a value so nothing is output with this example

      Interesting ... and there's probably a good reason for that, but I don't know what it is.
      Certainly, the behaviour you're seeing doesn't conform to the documentation I get for cd, which begins with: 
      C:\_32\C>cd /?
Displays the name of or changes the current directory.

CHDIR [/D] [drive:][path]
CHDIR [..]
CD [/D] [drive:][path]
CD [..]

  ..   Specifies that you want to change to the parent directory.

Type CD drive: to display the current directory in the specified drive
+.
Type CD without parameters to display the current drive and directory.
.....

      [download]
      Perhaps you're running in a different shell (I use cmd.exe), or perhaps your cmd.exe shell finds a different 'cd' implementation to run.
      To force your cmd.exe shell to use its own implementation, I think you just need to involve a shell metacharacter in the command - eg: 
      cd <nul

      [download]
      Does that command print out the current directory for you ?

      (Admittedly this has nothing to do with the subject you initially raised ... but I find it a little bit interesting.)

      Cheers,
      Rob
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[d/l]
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        Hi Rob,

        I apologize. My error. I do run cmd.exe and just reran your code example. cd was, indeed, returning a value. However, since the returned value looked exactly like the command prompt only minus the > sign I just didn't realize that it wasn't the command prompt. I'm not generally dense. I don't know what's wrong with me here lately. Anyway, your example was fine. I just messed up reviewing the result. Thank you again for the answer.

        Jennie

        Update:

        After messing around with the syntax a little I did finally get it to work at the command line. Thanks again Rob.

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