<operating system> (Or script) A text file containing
operating system commands which are executed automatically
by the command-line interpreter. In Unix, this is called
a "shell script" since it is the Unix shell which includes
the command-line interpreter. Batch files can be used as a
simple way to combine existing commands into new commands.
autoexec.bat is the best known example of an MS-DOS batch
file.
<programming> A system that takes a set (a "batch") of
commands or jobs, executes them and returns the results, all
without human intervention. This contrasts with an
interactive system where the user's commands and the
computer's responses are interleaved during a single run.
A batch system typically takes its commands from a disk file
(or a set of punched cards or magnetic tape in the old
days) and returns the results to a file (or prints them).
Often there is a queue of jobs which the system processes as
resources become available.
Since the advent of the personal computer, the term "batch"
has come to mean automating frequently performed tasks that
would otherwise be done interactively by storing those
commands in a "batch file" or "script". Usually this file
is read by some kind of command interpreter but batch
processing is sometimes used with GUI-based applications that
define script equivalents for menu selections and other mouse
actions. Such a recorded sequence of GUI actions is sometimes
called a "macro". This may only exist in memory and may not
be saved to disk whereas a batch normally implies something
stored on disk.
