One of the main problems in your logic is that you set the "import" variable once if something is true, but never reset it, or undefined it if it's not true anymore. So after the first time it's set, it will remain "defined" for the rest of the loop.
My preference is to set the variable specifically (true or false). Set it to false to start, then set it to true as wanted, but then also ensure you set it back to false when you need to. Then, at each iteration of the loop check if the variable is specifically set to True or False instead of checking if it's just defined.
This code works for me based on your info/goals:
@echo off setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion set buildlog=test.txt set import=false for /F "tokens=*" %%A in (%buildlog%) do ( if /i "%%A"=="Import:" ( set import=true ) if /i "%%A"=="View:" ( set import=false ) if !import!==true ( if not "%%A"=="Import:" ( for /F "tokens=1" %%B in ("%%A") do ( echo %%B ) ) ) ) We purposefully set the "Import" variable (flag) to false to start.
First For-loop goes through each line in the file (test.txt in this example, as specified by the "buildlog" variable; note: you need to remove the quotes around the file name in the variable for it to work in the For-loop).
The first IF sees if the current line is the "Import:" line, and if so, it flips the "import" flag to true.
The next IF sees if the current line is the "View:" line, and if so, it flips the "import" flag (back to) to false, so that it stops processing each line.
The 3rd IF checks if that "import" flag is true, and if so, it processes the line.
If it's true then the nested (4th) IF then checks if the line is the actual "import:" line, and if not, displays the line (keeps it from showing the "Import:" line in the output).
The second For-loop goes through the line we want displayed, and pulls only the first Token set which is (just) the path you want, leaving off the #head.
More/related info:
- Variable Expansion in FOR Loops
- How to split a string in a Windows batch file?
- Logical operators (“and”, “or”) in DOS batch
Edit after comments:
To deal with the "View:" line if it has a version number after it you could modify the code to something like:
@echo off setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion set buildlog=test.txt set import=false for /F "tokens=*" %%A in (%buildlog%) do ( for /F "tokens=1" %%B in ("%%A") do ( if /i "%%B"=="Import:" ( set import=true ) if /i "%%B"=="View:" ( set import=false ) if !import!==true ( if not "%%B"=="Import:" ( for /F "tokens=1" %%C in ("%%A") do ( echo %%C ) ) ) ) ) This added For-loop will pull the first token off the line to check if it's "View:" or "Import:" instead of checking the whole line. Effectively ignoring anything after the first space it encounters on the line to do the check.