Comparing output to string

Question

Need a little more assistance here please I am just a little way from completing my script but can't seem to figure this last piece out.

Background:

I need to compare a command output \\\\%%A\\%B to a preset "exclusion list" to compare whether or not the process is already running on a different script. I have a file that stores logs of files locations that had errors copying over. This log file is parsed and all the file locations are stored (on the fly) into %%A and %%B . The exclusion list says which files are already being copied manually based on known issues. This script needs to skip these files and copy the rest.

Requirement:

I need to compare the results of %%A\\%%B to \\root\\path and see if the string matches (before the file). If it does then I need to flag it.

Code:

This is what I have so far:

cd C:\logs
for /f "tokens=2* delims=\" %%A in (err.log) do (
    if not \\%%A\%%B==%BACKUPDIR% (
        if not \\%%A\%%B==%TEMPLATEPATH%\* (        
            for %%I in %PSTNAMES% do (
                if not "\\%%A\%%B"=="%NASDIR%\%%I PST\"* (
                    echo %NASDIR%\%%I PST\*
                    @echo \\%%A\%%B
                ) else (
                    echo false
                )
            )
        )
    )

This should give you an idea of what needs to happen I am also trying to fit in the comparison code:

If NOT "%somepath%"=="%somepath:some_exclusion=%" (
    echo continue
) else (
    echo don't continue
)

EXTRA:

Now the first set of code would work if I just had the paths to work with but because it includes file names the comparison doesn't match up. So to get this working I guess there are two avenues.

1. Try get the "%somepath%"=="%somepath:some_exclusion=%" working
2. Try strip the file name

The issues I am coming across are:

1. %somepath% won't work because I can't seem to store %%A as a variable like %var%
2. I can't seem to stop the path name before the file name.

Please help

Answer 1

if you try to use wildcards with if : this won't work.

but instead of

if mouse==mouse*

you can use

echo mousetail | find "mouse" && echo yes || echo no

(showed just the basic principle; findstr has some useful features, like "start of string": findstr "^mouse" - see findstr /?` for more)