Knowledge Base

Error Level 2 Returned on DELETE Command When No Files Found

Article ID: 158358

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition

This article was previously published under Q158358

SUMMARY

The DELETE command returns an error level of 0 for a successful operation. However, beginning with Windows NT 4.0, DELETE returns an error level of 2 if it finds no files to delete.

MORE INFORMATION

This change was made so that batch file designers can detect whether or not files are actually deleted. Batch files that expect 0 to be returned if no files are found to be deleted must be modified for the new return value.

All versions of MS-DOS, Windows 95, and earlier versions of Windows NT return 0 in this circumstance.

Additional query words: prodnt errorlevel

Keywords: KB158358