From: address@is.invalid   
      
   Herbert,   
      
   >> Would it make a difference if I told you that the exact "first" line is   
   >> "if   
   >> exist %1.ext goto DoExt" ?   
   >   
   > Yes.   
      
   Ah.  And what would that difference be ?   
      
   Mind you, your "call :%*" was quite nifty, but /very/ limited in its usage.   
      
   > If there are no poisoned characters like %^!& in the arguments,   
   > this should work:   
      
   Thats why I called batch'es string-handling finicky.  :-|   
      
   Its even worse worse : "^" and "%" collapse on the commandline, but only "^"   
   seems to collapse in each loop-step (I didn't really try the others).  And   
   both solutions you provided respond differently to the usage of the "^"   
   escape character.   
      
   > set p=&for %%i in (%*) do if defined p (call set p=%%p%% %%i) else (set   
   > p= )   
   > echo %p%   
      
   Thanks.  I never saw that "if defined p" before, so I've learned something   
   new. :-)   
      
   I think I have to conclude that removing the first argument (or more) from a   
   commandline isn't possible.  Not in a dependable way.   
      
   Regards,   
   Rudy Wieser   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)