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

@longneck, I use something like this:

for /f "tokens=2" %%i in ('net use * \\server\share') do (
    if defined netdrive goto :cont
    set netdrive=%%i
)

:cont
echo.%netdrive% has been mapped
pause

net use %netdrive% /d /y
pause

This avoids the second call to net piped through find.

You can also expand on this so that instead of calling set netdrive directly, you do it in a subroutine. This allows you to do more error checking or processing.

for /f "tokens=2" %%i in ('net use * \\server\share') do (
    if defined netdrive goto :cont
    call :parse %%i
)

:parse
if ~%1==%1~ goto :eof
if Z:==%1 (
    set netdrive=%1
)
goto :eof

:cont
echo.%netdrive% has been mapped
pause

net use %netdrive% /d /y
pause

The parse subroutine here isn't terribly useful and only illustrates the concept.