#2599 Errorlevel=0 if input file(s) doesn't/don't exist

[miskox]

I am using 7za.exe 25.01.

7za.exe a archive.7z this_file_does_not_exist.txt

Returns errorlevel 0 (success). In both cases if target archive exists or not.

How can we know that command was successfull if input files don't exist?

I think it should return errorlevel that is not zero.

[Igor Pavlov]

check it again.

[miskox]

Thank you for the answer. But I received different errorlevels:

c:\>7za.exe a  \_arhiv\arhiv.zip some*.xxx

7-Zip (a) 25.01 (x86) : Copyright (c) 1999-2025 Igor Pavlov : 2025-08-03

Open archive: \_arhiv\arhiv.zip
--
Path = \_arhiv\arhiv.zip
Type = zip
Physical Size = 2128743713

Scanning the drive:
0 files, 0 bytes

Updating archive: \_arhiv\arhiv.zip

Keep old data in archive: 9 folders, 54 files, 3351837990 bytes (3197 MiB)
Add new data to archive: 0 files, 0 bytes


Files read from disk: 0
Archive size: 2128743713 bytes (2031 MiB)
Everything is Ok

c:\>echo %errorlevel%
0

and

s:\_arhiv>7za.exe a -bso0 -bsp0 -bse0 asfd.zip asdf

s:\_arhiv>echo %errorlevel%
1

s:\_arhiv>

and

c:>7za.exe a -bso0 -bsp0 -bse0 \_arhiv\arhiv.zip xxx

c:>echo %errorlevel%
1

c:>

Why does 7za.exe create new archive file if there are no files to add? (waste of time)

And I really receive different errorlevel values.

s:\_arhiv>7za.exe a asfd.zip asdf

7-Zip (a) 25.01 (x86) : Copyright (c) 1999-2025 Igor Pavlov : 2025-08-03

Scanning the drive:

WARNING: The system cannot find the file specified.
asdf

0 files, 0 bytes

Creating archive: asfd.zip

Add new data to archive: 0 files, 0 bytes


Files read from disk: 0
Archive size: 22 bytes (1 KiB)

Scan WARNINGS for files and folders:

asdf : The system cannot find the file specified.
----------------
Scan WARNINGS: 1

s:\_arhiv>echo %errorlevel%
1

s:\_arhiv>

Sometimes it even returns errorlevel=2

I really miss full documentation for command line 7za.exe (google can't find anything useful).
For example:

-bs{o|e|p}{0|1|2} : set output stream for output/error/progress line

What do values 0,1,2 represent?

Thank you.

[Igor Pavlov]

Look 7-zip.chm file.

[miskox]

Thank you. 7-zip.chm file is not included in the console version download package (https://www.7-zip.org/a/7z2501-extra.7z). Maybe you could add it?

I had to download https://www.7-zip.org/a/7z2501-x64.exe and extract it from there (I don't have a GUI version installed).

Thank you.