Is there a way to log all output from a script in Task Scheduler?

Question

I am scheduling a DOS batch script to run through Task Scheduler. Is there a way to configure the task/job to write all output (producing output using ECHO commands) to a log file? Can logging be configured within Task Scheduler (appears v1.0 is installed).

Answer 1

Use a starter batch that does the logging

You could either edit the script to output all to a file instead of the screen or you could just create a batch file to run the batch file and schedule the other batch file... (sorry, sounds confusing, I know).

Basically, assuming the batch file you run is called myscript.cmd create a batch file called myscript-logging.cmd. In that batch file put one command as follows:

myscript > c:\myscript.%date:~-4%%date:~4,2%%date:~7,2%.%time::=%.log 2>&1

The above should create a log file in the root of the C: drive with a name based on the date and time it was executed (so it never overwrites it and you have a log for each time the script is run).

Example

The example above, if the script were run at 10pm on June 22, 2010, should end up with a file name that looks like this:

myscript.20100622.220000.00.log

Format is this :

myscript.YYYYMMDD.HHMMSS.hundredths of a second.log

Caution: Watch your disk space!

CAUTION: this has the potential of filling up your hard drive as it never deletes a single log file and keeps on adding files.

So if you plan on using this for a long time you should invest additional effort into monitoring and maybe auto-cleaning your disk space.