[sdw2003] At the Command Line

[Todd Walton]

Let's schedule a task with 'at':

at time 0130 /every:wednesday "D:\Program Files\Script\delete-temp-files.vbs"

Well that doesn't work.  It just spits out the help text and drops me
to the prompt again.  I built this command using the help text.
Well... what little exists of it:

          The AT command schedules commands and programs to run on a computer
          at a specified time and date. The Schedule service must be
running to use
          the AT command.

          AT [\\computername] [ [id] [/DELETE] | /DELETE [/YES]]
          AT [\\computername] time [/INTERACTIVE]
              [ /EVERY:date[,...] | /NEXT:date[,...]] "command"

          \\computername     Specifies a remote computer. Commands are scheduled
                             on the local computer if this parameter is omitted.
          id                 Is an identification number assigned to a scheduled
                             command.
          /delete            Cancels a scheduled command. If id is
omitted, all the
                             scheduled commands on the computer are canceled.
          /yes               Used with cancel all jobs command when no further
                             confirmation is desired.
          time               Specifies the time when command is to run.
          /interactive       Allows the job to interact with the
desktop of the user
                             who is logged on at the time the job runs.
          /every:date[,...]  Runs the command on each specified day(s)
of the week or
                             month. If date is omitted, the current
day of the month
                             is assumed.
          /next:date[,...]   Runs the specified command on the next
occurrence of the
                             day (for example, next Thursday).  If
date is omitted, the
                             current day of the month is assumed.
          "command"          Is the Windows NT command, or batch
program to be run.

(I'm sure the above will get screwed up formatting in someone's email
program.  Sorry.)

I had to guess at the format of time.  And /every, for that matter.
"Tues"? "Tuesday"? "d2"?  What?  Looks like I ain't gettin' no love
from the command line, so I take to the Internet.  I use Google to
search for "pos poorly documented microsoft command", figuring such a
thing must be a rarity, and the at command will be the top result.  No
go.

A more precise search for "microsoft at command" leads me to a
microsoft.com page.  Ah!  Now I see.  My time should be 24 hour
format, like I have it, but with a colon in there.  The /every needs
just a single letter (or "th" for Thursdays and "su" for Sundays).
But aagh, it still won't work.  Why??  Much searching later, I get it.
 I shouldn't say "time 01:30", I should just say "01:30".

Oh, and to delete a scheduled task it's "at 2 /delete".  "at /delete
2" does not work.

It's been a while since I've had a good rant about Microsoft crap,
because I'm getting used to it.  But god damnit it's these details
that matter.

--
Todd