Shareware Grab Bag

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Shareware Grab Bag / Shareware Grab Bag.iso / 014 / dcwhere.arc / DCWHERE.DOC next >

Wrap

Text File | 1986-10-24 | 13.6 KB | 361 lines

DCWHERE Copyright 1986 David A. Craig 1 DCWHERE displays information about all occurrences of a filename regardless of which hard disk or directory the filename is located. Its main use is to find that file that you are sure you created but is not where it is supposed to be. This product is made available through the shareware concept. Please feel free to copy and pass it on to friends. Be sure to copy both the program and documentation. This program and documentation are copyrighted and modifications are forbidden. I plan to present several utility programs under the shareware concept. If you feel that this program is of value to you and would like to see more a five dollar contribution would be appreciated. David A Craig 3051 Bomar Rd. Douglasville, Ga. 30135 If you have ideas on how to improve this product or other utilities please send them to me. If I use them I will send you a copy of the new or improved utility. If you are an employee of the State of Georgia and are using this for state business use do not send in a contribution. This utility is a gift for your use. The proper syntax for using DCWHERE is DCWHERE (filename) (option). Filename is any valid DOS filename including the ? and * wildcards. A filename is composed of 1 to 8 characters which can be followed by a period and a one to three character extension. Option does not have to be entered. If you have more than one hard disk and want to search only one, enter -D followed by the drive letter that you want to search after the filename. The -D tells the program that the following character is the drive to be searched. For example DCWHERE TEST????.BAT -DC. A second option can be entered to tell the program that you want to see only those files that both match the filename specified and the attribute specified in the option. E.G. DCWHERE *.COM -AH will search for all com files that are hidden. The -A tells the program that the following character is the attribute to match. You can specify both a drive to be searched and an attribute to match. The options can be specified in any order but they must have a space between them. The attributes are as follows: H Hidden file. S System file R Read only file A Archived file If you have a color display the information will be displayed as yellow characters on a blue background. This color combination cannot be changed. The filename and options can be entered in upper or lower case letters. All filenames are converted to upper case before being checked for matches. The ? character is special in that it will match any one character in a filename. The following list illustrates how the ? wild card works. TEST?.DAT TEST4.dat match TEST?.dat TEST.dat match TEST?.EXE TEST12.EXE do not match 2 TEST.?AT TEST.BAT match TEST.?AT TEST.DAT match The * character is also a wildcard character. It matches all remaining characters in a filename or extension. The following list illustrates the use of the * wildcard *.* TEST.EXE match *.* FROG.DAT match *.dat MAIN.DAT match *.DAT MAIN.BAT do not match TEST* TEST23 match TEST.* TEST.BAT match TEST.* TEST.EXE match DCWHERE *.* matches all files. DCWHERE *.bat matches all files with an extension of BAT. DCWHERE TEST.* matches all files whose filename is TEST regardless of the extension. DCWHERE TEST????.dat will list all files whose extension is DAT and whose first four characters are TEST. The remaining four possible characters can either be absent or any character and still match. The screen is laid out in four columns as is shown below LOCATION DATE LAST MODIFIED SIZE ATTRIBUTE C:\IBMBIOS.COM 8/22/85 341256 RSHA C:\IBMDOS.COM 8/22/85 221945 RSHA C:\TEST.COM 7/12/86 451 A C:\DBASE\DBASE.COM 4/22/85 12334 A Column one is the location and name of the file that matches the filename specified. Its format is DRIVE:\DIRECTORY1\DIRECTORY2\FILENAME. Column two is the date the file was last modified. Column three is the size in bytes of the file. The date and size information is the same as the DIR command will give. Column four is the attribute bytes of the file. H means that the file is HIDDEN. It will not show up using a DIR command. S means SYSTEM. Files with the SYSTEM attribute set will not show up with a DIR command. R means READ ONLY. This file cannot be modified or deleted. The ATTRIBUTE command can be used to change this attribute. A means ARCHIVE. This means that the file has been modified since the last BACKUP command was used. It has no real significance outside of being used in the BACKUP command. A file can and often does have more that one attribute set. Line 23 of the screen shows the directories as they are being searched. Line 24 will show continuation and error messages. If there are 19 or more matches the program will pause and ask if you want to continue searching. Pressing any key but N or n will continue searching. ERROR MESSAGES Backslash in file name ---- The program will check in all directories. Since the backslash marks a directory it should not be included in a filename. Re-Enter the filename without the 3 directory information and backslash. DCWHERE \DOS\*.COM (wrong) DCWHERE *.COM (correct) Drive identifier in file name ---- The program will always search the all hard drives. Therefor the drive identifier should not be entered. DCWHERE c:*.bat (wrong) DCWHERE *.bat (correct) File name too long ---- DOS limits file names to eight characters optionally followed by a period and a three character extension. Re-Enter a valid file name. DCWHERE test1234b (wrong) DCWHERE test1234.b (correct) File extension too long ---- DOS limits the number of characters following the period in a file name to three. Re-Enter with a valid extension. DCWHERE *.test (wrong) DCWHERE *.tst (correct) Only two '*' characters allowed ---- DOS handles only one '*' wildcard before the period and one after the period. Re-Enter using only one '*' on either side of the period. DCWHERE *sd*.* (wrong) DCWHERE ?sd*.* (correct). Only one '*' character allowed after period ---- DOS handles only one '*' wildcard character after the period. The second one is ignored. Re-Enter using only one '*' after the period. DCWHERE dbase.** (wrong) DCWHERE dbase.* (correct) Both '*' characters appear before the period ---- There can be only one '*' wildcard character before the period. Re-Enter with only one '*' before the period. DCWHERE *123*.wks (wrong) DCWHERE ?123*.wks (correct) Invalid option specified --- You have forgotten to precede the option with a -, or are specifying a type of option other than A or D, or are specifying a drive not in the range of A through Z, or an attribute other than A,H,S,or R. Re-Enter with a valid option. Return code not found ---- Internal programming problem. Please send the example to me at the address in the first part of this documentation. No files found on disk ---- This is a newly formatted disk with no files on it to search through. Use the command on a disk with files already in place. Only 60 directories can be searched ---- There is an internal limit of 60 directories that can be searched by this program. No file specified to look for ---- You did not include the filename to be searched for, or placed the options before the filename. Re-Enter with a file name. DCWHERE (wrong) DCWHERE *.bat (correct) 4 No files are present that match (filename) ---- The program could not find any files that match the filename specified. It is not on the hard disk. All directories searched ---- The program has finished looking through all the directories on the hard disk. GLOSSARY Attribute -- Dos has four indicators that it saves for each file called Attributes. They tell whether the file is a System file, Hidden file, or Read Only file. The fourth indicator tells whether the file has been changed since it was last backed up. Backup -- The DOS command used to copy files to the floppy diskettes for backup purposes. This program turns off the Archive indicator for the files copied. Files copied using Backup can only be restored using the Restore command. Directory -- A collection of related files that usually are involved with one type of work. A directory can be thought of as a file drawer in a filing cabinet. The cabinet is the hard disk. Each area has its own drawer to keep its information separate from the other areas. This makes it easier to search through. Using the Tree command will display the directory structure. DOS -- Disk Operating System. This is a program that is the gateway into the computer. It loads and executes programs plus gives you a collection of utilities to manage your computer. You can tell its there when you see the C:> prompt. Extension -- A filename can have one to eight characters as a filename and optionally have a period and one to three characters as an extension. Generally extensions tell what type of file you are dealing with. Filename -- A filename can have one to eight characters as a name and optionally have a period and one to three characters as an extension. They are how we distinguish files from each other. Hidden -- The attribute that controls whether a file will display when the Dir is used. Also a file with the hidden attribute set cannot be deleted or copied using Dos commands. Read Only -- The attribute that controls the access to a file. If a file is Read Only it cannot be deleted or copied using Dos commands. It can be viewed and executed. System -- The attribute that specifies files that are part of DOS. Has also been used in some copy protection schemes. System files cannot be deleted or copied using Dos commands other than 5 Sys to transfer the system to a disk(ette) and Formatting with the \s option to transfer the system. Wildcard -- Either the '?' or '*' character in a filename. The '?' wildcard will match any one character in a filename to be matched with. It will also match the absence of a character in a filename. The '*' wildcard matched all remaining characters in a filename or extension in the same manner that the '?' matches a single character. Both types of wildcards can be used together in the same filename. 6