command line equivalent of search...

B

Bill B

Im looking for a command line equivalent of the search for files button - or
the ability to dump the output of a windows search into a printable file.

Find doesnt seem to reallly be it.

I specifically want to search a large subset for all files modified on or
after date x. I can do it with the gui, but need the output in a form i can
print....
 
H

Herb Martin

The simplest answer is:

dir /s

But some "whereis" or "supersearch" from one of the download
sites will do more.

If you bug me to finish it, my new Whereis is just about ready for
prime time and I intend to share. (.NET machines only since I
wrote it in C#)
 
R

Ritchie

Bill B said:
Im looking for a command line equivalent of the search for files button - or
the ability to dump the output of a windows search into a printable file.
Find doesnt seem to reallly be it.

Take a look at the built-in FINDSTR command, it gives a good insight into
how a large software company evolves and in many ways it's far superior
to Explorer's search option.
 
G

Garry Deane

Im looking for a command line equivalent of the search for files button - or
the ability to dump the output of a windows search into a printable file.

Find doesnt seem to reallly be it.

I specifically want to search a large subset for all files modified on or
after date x. I can do it with the gui, but need the output in a form i can
print....

Findstr is a good choice but doesn't provide a direct mechanism to
specify a list of files matching some date or other criteria.

However you can combine this with a utility such as FORFILES (resource
kit), FI (http://home.pe.net/~fpw/freeware/), XXCOPY
(http://www.xxcopy.com/) or similar which can produce a list of files
that matches your selection criteria. XXCOPY is the most versatile in
terms of selections criteria (wild-wildcards, date, age, size,
attributes, exclusion lists and more) and is free for non-commercial
use.

You would then use the /F: option to pass this list of files (possibly
after some tidying up) to FINDSTR.

If all you need to do is capture the list of files that the GUI
produces, you can use PASTE (also from
http://home.pe.net/~fpw/freeware/). After the search, select all the
files found and press ^C. Then open a Cmd window and type:

Paste >> found.txt

The file list will be appended to found.txt

Garry
 
G

Gary Smith

Bill B said:
Im looking for a command line equivalent of the search for files button - or
the ability to dump the output of a windows search into a printable file.
Find doesnt seem to reallly be it.
I specifically want to search a large subset for all files modified on or
after date x. I can do it with the gui, but need the output in a form i can
print....

If you have the SendToX Power Toy installed (created for Win95, but works
just fine on Win2K), you can select a group of files in a search window
(or any other Explorer window), then right-click and select Send To >
Clipboard as Name. You can then paste the list of names into Notepad or
any other appropriate application.
 

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