Mapping a network drive without hardcoding a drive letter in a batch file

Question

I need to map a network drive with a batch file, but don\'t want to specify the drive letter.

The batch file is used as part of a deployment process; I call the batc

Answer 1

If you don't have multiple network shares connected simultaniously, you can make net use * assign a free drive letter for you. Afterwards you can use robocopy to access the share via its UNC path and release any connected share with net use * /delete.

Something like this:

@echo off
net use * \\192.168.0.1\Share\wwwroot\MyProject /user:mydomain\myuser MyP455w0rd
robocopy.exe "W:\wwwroot\MyProject" "\\192.168.0.1\Share\wwwroot\MyProject" *.* /E /XO /XD "App_Data/Search" "*.svn" /XF "sitefinity.log" "Thumbs.db" /NDL /NC /NP
net use * /delete /yes

EDIT:

As I learned from some researches, you can simply map the share without assigning a drive letter. It is then mapped anonymously, only by its remote UNC path. This way you can also remove the mapping by specifiying only its remote name.

This should work:

@echo off
net use \\192.168.0.1\Share\wwwroot\MyProject /user:mydomain\myuser MyP455w0rd
robocopy.exe "W:\wwwroot\MyProject" "\\192.168.0.1\Share\wwwroot\MyProject" *.* /E /XO /XD "App_Data/Search" "*.svn" /XF "sitefinity.log" "Thumbs.db" /NDL /NC /NP
net use \\192.168.0.1\Share\wwwroot\MyProject /delete