Filenames with ";"

[Charles G]

I want to replace filenames that contain ";" with "_". I can't even get plain DIR to find the files.

for %fn in ("*;*") ren "%fn" "%@replace[;,_,%fn]"

dir /a:-d /b /s "*;*"

Both do not work.

@vince - would this be a good char to have your fixnames plugin to work on?

 

[vefatica]

FIXNAMES plugin? Not one of mine!

 

[mikea]

I want to replace filenames that contain ";" with "_". I can't even get plain DIR to find the files.

for %fn in ("*;*") ren "%fn" "%@replace[;,_,%fn]"

dir /a:-d /b /s "*;*"

Both do not work.

Interesting. Both of the above work for me (under TCC 20.00.14 x64 — Windows 10 Pro). The renaming worked fine:

D:\temp> for %fn in ("*;*") ren "%fn" "%@replace[;,_,%fn]"
D:\temp\test2;hello.txt -> D:\temp\test2_hello.txt
1 file renamed
D:\temp\test3;goodbye.txt -> D:\temp\test3_goodbye.txt
1 file renamed

 

[vefatica]

It doesn't seem much different from the comma (except that I couldn't make one with TOUCH).

v:\> echo foo > "a;b.txt"

v:\> d "*;*"
2017-05-17  12:11               5  a;b.txt

v:\> do f in "*;*" (ren "%f" %@replace[;,_,%f])
V:\a;b.txt -> V:\a_b.txt
     1 file renamed

 

[Charles Dye]

Suggestion for a future version: Allow the vertical bar | as an include-list separator, behaving just the same as the semicolon. Then in some more-distant-future version, the semicolon could be deprecated.... Filespecs containing a vbar would need to be quoted, of course, just like spaces, ampersands, et cetera.

(The choice of semicolon for this function goes back to 4DOS. IIRC, semicolon was not a legal filename character in DOS, so it made sense at the time.)

 

[rconn]

Suggestion for a future version: Allow the vertical bar | as an include-list separator, behaving just the same as the semicolon.

And what would we do with pipes? And a jillion batch files and aliases using pipes?

 

[Charles Dye]

And what would we do with pipes? And a jillion batch files and aliases using pipes?

You already have that part implemented. A vertical bar between quotes has no special meaning.

C:\>dir "*.bat|*.cmd|*.btm"

 Volume in drive C is Hard Drive     Serial number is 6218:b594
TCC: (Sys) The system cannot find the file specified.
 "C:\*.bat|*.cmd|*.btm"
                   0 bytes in 0 files and 0 dirs
     156,308,537,344 bytes free

C:\>

 

[rconn]

You already have that part implemented. A vertical bar between quotes has no special meaning.

Not sure what you're getting at -- a semicolon between quotes has no special meaning either.

 

[vefatica]

Not sure what you're getting at -- a semicolon between quotes has no special meaning either.

Is that so? Why did my first attempt to create "a;b" fail?

v:\> touch /c "a;b"
2017-05-17 20:28:38.034  V:\b

And there seems to be a special meaning here also.

v:\> *dir /a /p /m /k /h /ne "a;b"
2017-05-17  20:28               0  b

 

[rconn]

And there seems to be a special meaning here also.

v:\> *dir /a /p /m /k /h /ne "a;b"
2017-05-17  20:28               0  b

WAD - since, like, forever.

TCC first tries for an exact match with an embedded semicolon, and then tries for an include list.

 

[vefatica]

What's going on with TOUCH? Below, it created only "b".

v:\> touch /c "a;b;c"
2017-05-17 21:52:14.842  V:\b

 

[vefatica]

What's going on with TOUCH? Below, it created only "b".

v:\> touch /c "a;b;c"
2017-05-17 21:52:14.842  V:\b

I didn't quite have that figured out. Using TOUCH /C "a;b;c", if any exist it'll touch (only) them; in none exist, it'll create only the last one specified.

 

[Charles Dye]

Not sure what you're getting at -- a semicolon between quotes has no special meaning either.

Difference being that the semicolon is a valid (if silly) filename character, and the vertical bar is not.

 

[felixkasza]

I want to replace filenames that contain ";" with "_".

ren "::^(.*);(.*)$" "::\1_\2" /n

If the output indicates that it will do what you want, remove the "/n".