Adding a sub folder to multiple directories where the name of the directories contains punctuation

I would like to create the same sub-directory in each directory of a folder. I found the answer here:

Add a new folder to each subfolder

The command prompt was:

FOR /d %A IN (e:\donuts\*) DO mkdir "%A\big"

But perhaps because my director names contain spaces and commas, I end up with a bunch of directories based on the first word in each of the existing directories and a bunch of errors in the command prompt.

What variation can I use to allow for the fact that my directories have commas and spaces in the names?

3

2 Answers

You can use PowerShell!

Run this PowerShell command when you're in the folder whose subfolders should have the new folders added to them:

dir | ? {$_.PSIsContainer} | % {md ($_.FullName + '\New folder')}

This lists the entries in the current folder (with dir, an alias for Get-ChildItem), then filters them (?) down to the ones that are folders. For each folder found, a new folder is created (md) with the full path as the path of the found subfolder plus a constant string, in this case \New folder, but you can set that to whatever you want, including things that have spaces and commas.

In PowerShell 3 and higher, it can be condensed to this:

dir -Directory | % {md ($_.FullName + '\New folder')}

Here, dir takes an optional -Directory flag to only get folders.

To call this command from a batch script:

powershell -Command "dir | ? {$_.PSIsContainer} | % {md ($_.FullName + '\New folder')}"

3

You are just missing "" quotes on either end of the directory filename. So it would be:

FOR /d %A IN ("e:\donuts\*") DO mkdir "%A\big"

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