How to source a file in Windows command prompt?

Question

Coming from a linux shell, I'm used to being able to source a file into the current environment. How can I do this in the Windows cmd command prompt?

eg in linux I can create an alias for a long complicated command:

alias shortcut="some super long command with lots of --options and arguments etc"
alias another="some other super long command with lots of --options and arguments etc"
alias again="yet another super long command with lots of --options and arguments etc"

then I can save that to a file and just source aliases.bash and even automatically load it when starting the shell such as when used in a .bashrc or .bash_profile file.

I know I can do something similar at runtime in the cmd prompt with doskey

doskey shortcut="some super long command with lots of --options and arguments etc"

But how can I save all these doskey entries into a master file that I can load into the current environment? Even better, how can I load them automatically when starting the cmd prompt?

Answer 1

Answered here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/21040825/3173271

You load up your commands into a bat, and then get them run into the command processor at logon by creating an AUTORUN entry in the registry pointing to the batch file.

Answer 2

You can add an AutoRun entry to your registry to automatically run a .cmd file when cmd starts.

Create a file C:\\Users\\Jeff\\autorun.cmd and add your doskey commands to it like so:

@echo off
doskey shortcut="some super long command with lots of --options and arguments etc"
doskey another="some other super long command with lots of --options and arguments etc"
doskey again="yet another super long command with lots of --options and arguments etc"

Then, edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Microsoft\\Command Processor in your registry to contain something like:

AutoRun=C:\\Users\\Jeff\\autorun.cmd

Based on information provided from https://superuser.com/a/144348/201002 .