Windows command: Set exit code of chained commands based on first command

i have this case scenario (this is command that is executed on Azure Batch task):

cmd /c MainApp.exe & Util.exe

What i need is to exit this whole command with exit code from MainApp.exe as Util.exe exits always with 0 code.

I have tried something like this with different brackets positions and nothing have worked as needed.

cmd /c (MainApp.exe) & set taskExitCode=%ERRORLEVEL% & Util.exe & exit %taskExitCode%

Thank you for help

Solution

There are two problems:

Util.exe is actually not called in the context of the cmd instance you initiate, but I guess you want that; to resolve this, either escape the ampersand or quote the command line:
```
cmd /C MainApp.exe ^& Util.exe
```
or:
```
cmd /C "MainApp.exe & Util.exe"
```
Since you are trying to write and read a variable in the same command line/block, you need to enable and apply delayed expansion, which can be achieved by cmd /V, like this:
```
cmd /V /C MainApp.exe ^& set /A ERR=!ErrorLevel! ^& Util.exe ^& exit !ERR!
```
or:
```
cmd /V /C "MainApp.exe & set /A ERR=!ErrorLevel! & Util.exe & exit !ERR!"
```
This works only given that MainApp.exe also sets the ErrorLevel, which is not always the same as the exit code. If it does not, you could try this (the || operator forces ErrorLevel to equal the current exit code):
```
cmd /V /C MainApp.exe ^|^| rem/ ^& set /A ERR=!ErrorLevel! ^& Util.exe ^& exit !ERR!
```
or:
```
cmd /V /C "MainApp.exe || rem/ & set /A ERR=!ErrorLevel! & Util.exe & exit !ERR!"
```

In case Util.exe does not need to be executed in case MainApp.exe returns a non-zero exit code, do this (so the exit code of MainApp.exe survives):

cmd /C MainApp.exe ^&^& Util.exe

or:

cmd /C "MainApp.exe && Util.exe"

If MainApp.exe really does not set ErrorLevel, you could try the following:

cmd /C MainApp.exe ^&^& Util.exe || rem/

or:

cmd /C "MainApp.exe && Util.exe || rem/"