Brian Cryer's Web Resources

CryEcho: Frequently Asked Questions

CryEcho is a free command line utility which displays messages to standard-out, but without automatically adding a newline. It is intended for use in batch files.

This list of frequently asked questions will be extended over time.

See also CryEcho - Examples.

If you cannot see your question in the above list then you can email the author care of support@cryer.co.uk.

What is a batch file?

A batch file is a Windows/DOS script file.

Batch files are typically written by an individual for their own use or for use by collegues, and are used to automate certain tasks.

A batch file is a simple text file which contains DOS commands. Batch files are also known as command files. Command files use the file extension .cmd whereas batch files use the file extension .bat. Both batch files and command files can be created and edited using a text editor such as notepad.

See also information on the file extensions .bat (for batch files) and .cmd (for command files).

If you really did not know what a batch file was then CryEcho is not unlikely to be useful to you.

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Why might you use CryEcho instead of echo?

Most of the time the standard echo command is perfectly adequate, its one short coming is that you cannot display two items on the same line unless they are both displayed using the same echo statement.

So what sets CryEcho apart from echo is that you can do the following which you cannot do with echo:

To get a feel for what you can do with CryEcho please take a look at the examples of CryEcho.

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Can CryEcho be used as a straight replacement for echo?

CryEcho is almost a straight replacement for echo but not quite. There are two important differences:

  1. CryEcho is an application whereas echo is build into the command processor - this means that only echo can turn echoing of batch commands on and off.

    So, if you are used to putting:

    @echo off

    at the top of your scripts to stop commands from being displayed as they are executed, then you should continue to do so.

  2. CryEcho (unless you instruct it to) does not append a newline to its output, whereas echo does append a newline. So two separate calls to CryEcho will produce output on the same line, whereas two separate calls to echo will produce output on two lines.

If echo does what you want then there is no benefit in converting to CryEcho.

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Are there any terms and conditions associated with the use or distribution of CryEcho?

CryEcho is free and there is no charge associated with its use.

The only requirement is that the software be left unchanged. This means that if CryEcho is used with no arguments it will display a reference to the www.cryer.co.uk website.

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All the examples have CryEcho with a capital C and E, does this matter?

No, it is not significant. DOS and the Windows Command Prompt are not case sensitive. So the case of the letters does not matter.

All the examples and references to CryEcho have the C and the E capitalised to indicate that the name derives from two words - "Cry" a reference to the author and "Echo" a reference to the "echo" command which CryEcho can be used in place of.

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Can CryEcho be used to display a spinning wheel?


For details see the Examples.

This is only one example of how CryEcho might be used to provide feedback during a long running batch file. For other examples please see the examples.

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How do you uninstall CryEcho?

CryEcho is a command line utility, it does not come with either an install program or with an uninstall program. If you no longer require CryPing then simply delete it, nothing else is required.

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