How do I increment a value in a textfile using the regular Windows command-line?

I'd like to keep a "compile-counter" for one of my projects. I figured a quick and dirty way to do this would be to keep a textfile with a plain number in it, and then simply call upon a small script to increment this each time I compile.

How would I go about doing this using the the regular Windows command-line?

I don't really feel like installing some extra shell to do this but if you have any other super simple suggestions that would accomplish just this, they're naturally appreciated aswell.

From stackoverflow grapefrukt

• It would be an new shell (but I think it is worth it), but from PowerShell it would be

  [int](get-content counter.txt) + 1 | out-file counter.txt
  

  From Steven Murawski

• If you don't mind running a Microscoft Windows Based Script then this jscript will work OK. just save it as a .js file and run it from dos with "wscript c:/script.js".

  var fso, f, fileCount;
  var ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2;   
  var filename = "c:\\testfile.txt";
  fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
  
  //create file if its not found
  if (! fso.FileExists(filename))
  {
    f = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, ForWriting, true);
    f.Write("0");
    f.Close();
  }
  
  f = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, ForReading);
  fileCount = parseInt(f.ReadAll());
  
  //make sure the input is a whole number
  if (isNaN(fileCount))
  {
      fileCount = 0;  
  }
  
  fileCount = fileCount + 1;
  
  f = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, ForWriting, true);
  f.Write(fileCount);
  f.Close();
  

  From Re0sless

• You can try a plain old batchfile.

  @echo off
  for /f " delims==" %%i in (counter.txt) do set /A temp_counter= %%i+1
  echo %temp_counter% > counter.txt
  

  assuming the count.bat and counter.txt are located in the same directory.

  From crono

• I'd suggest just appending the current datetime of the build to a log file.

  date >> builddates.txt
  

  That way you get a build count via the # of lines, and you may also get some interesting statistics if you can be bothered analysing the dates and times later on.

  The extra size & time to count the number of lines in the file will be insignificant unless you are doing seriously fast project iterations!

  From Tom