GOTO – Windows CMD Command

Direct a batch program to jump to a labelled line

Syntax
      GOTO label

      GOTO:eof

Key
   label   A predefined label in the batch program.
           Each label must be defined on a line by itself, beginning with
           a colon and ending with either a space, a colon or a CR/LF.

   :eof    This predefined label will exit the current subroutine or script.

Each GOTO… command must be terminated by a newline.

Although undocumented, GOTO :MySubroutine generally has the same effect as GOTO MySubroutine
or GOTO:MySubroutine (a colon in place of the space)

EOF

The eof label is a special case – using GOTO:eof will always transfer execution to the end of the current batch file or the end of the current subroutine.
This can be written as GOTO:eof or GOTO :eof the space is optional.

GOTO EOF and GOTO :EOF are not the same.
if you create a label called eof, the command GOTO:eof will still exit the file/routine and not jump to the label.

The command goto eof (without a colon) will jump to a label called eof, but to avoid confusion it is better to use a different name goto nextsub

When exiting a subroutine, an alternative command is EXIT /b
EXIT /b has the option to set a specific errorlevel, 0 for success, 1 or greater for an error.
EXIT /b without an ExitCode acts the same as goto:eof and will not alter the %errorlevel%

Errorlevels

If the jump is successfully made %ERRORLEVEL% = unchanged, typically this will be 0 but if a previous command set an errorlevel, that will be preserved (this is a bug).

If the subroutine Label does not exist %ERRORLEVEL% = 1

Examples:

A simple goto jump:

GOTO sub_message
   Echo this wont display
goto:eof

:sub_message
   Echo this is a subroutine

Use the %1 parameter to jump:

IF %1==12 GOTO specialcase 
   Echo the input was NOT 12
goto:eof 
 
:specialcase
   Echo the input was  12
goto:eof

Use a variable as a label:
   
CHOICE /C:01 /m choose [Y]yes or [N]No 
   goto sub_%ERRORLEVEL% 
   
   :sub_0 
   Echo You typed Y for yes
goto:eof 

:sub_1
   Echo You typed N for no
goto:eof

Use a variable as a  comment

In this example the COPY command will only run if the parameter "Update" is supplied to the batch:
   
@Echo Off 
Setlocal
SET _skip=
IF /I NOT %1==Update SET _skip=:: 
   
%_skip% COPY x:\update.dat 
%_skip% echo Update applied 
 ...
Bugs
Using GOTO within parenthesis - including FOR and IF commands - will break their context:

@echo off
if A equ A (
       GOTO :EXAMPLE_LABEL
       :EXAMPLE_LABEL
    rem
) else (
   echo You didn't expected to see this,did you?
) 

An alternative is to replace the GOTO with a CALL to a subroutine. The subroutine can contain GOTO statements as they will be safely outside the parenthesis.

GOTO breaks the & and && redirection operators.

If GOTO a non existent label is used in conjunction with a negative conditional execution, the line containing the GOTO will be executed, but the rest of the Batch file is cancelled:

goto :non_existent_label || Echo This line will run anything except GOTO ,SHIFT ,SETLOCAL , ENDLOCAL , CALL
:SUBROUTINE echo This will be never displayed.

GOTO is an internal command. If Command Extensions are disabled GOTO will no longer recognize the: EOF label