How use DIR to find directories

[David Marcus]

The Help says that FFIND is soon to be deprecated. I've been using FFIND to find files and directories. Apparently, I should use DIR instead. But, I can't get DIR to show a directory unless there is something in it. See below. Also, neither won

C:\Junk>ffind /b /s Bar
C:\Junk\Foo\Bar

C:\Junk>dir /b /s /a:d Bar

C:\Junk>ver

TCC 32.10.21 x64 Windows 10 [Version 10.0.19045.4291]

 

[Charles Dye]

The Help says that FFIND is soon to be deprecated. I've been using FFIND to find files and directories. Apparently, I should use DIR instead. But, I can't get DIR to show a directory unless there is something in it. See below. Also, neither won

C:\Junk>ffind /b /s Bar
C:\Junk\Foo\Bar

C:\Junk>dir /b /s /a:d Bar

C:\Junk>ver

TCC 32.10.21 x64 Windows 10 [Version 10.0.19045.4291]

If you want to find subdirectories by name, I think you have to use a wildcard. If you want to find that one specific name — BAR — then you'll need a wildspec which matches only that one name:

dir /b /s /ad Ba[r]

 

[David Marcus]

So, you can find files by name, but not directories? That seems unintuitive.

 

[rconn]

FSEARCH is for text file search. If you're looking for filenames, use EVERYTHING -- which has already indexed all the filenames so it only has to do a database lookup.

 

[Charles Dye]

Or continue using FFIND if that works the way you want. It may be 'deprecated', but I doubt that it will be removed anytime soon. It just won't get any improvements.

 

[David Marcus]

Nothing I try works the way I want it to. I want to search the current directory and its subdirectories for a file or a directory or either. I want to be able to include * in the file/directory name. In the following example, there are two directories named Foo. So, the result should be just those two directories.

C:\Junk>dir

Volume in drive C is unlabeled Serial number is c070:3990
TCC: (Sys) The system cannot find the file specified.
"C:\Junk\*"
0 bytes in 0 files and 0 dirs
184,624,996,352 bytes free

C:\Junk>mkdir Foo

C:\Junk>mkdir /s Bar\Foo

C:\Junk>mkdir NoFoo

C:\Junk>dir /s /a:d /b Foo

C:\Junk>ffind /s Foo

0 files

C:\Junk>everything %_cwd\Foo
C:\Junk\Foo

C:\Junk>everything %_cwd\*Foo
C:\Junk\Foo
C:\Junk\Bar\Foo
C:\Junk\NoFoo

 

[Alpengreis]

You could try with

dir /s /a:d /b Foo*
ffind /s Foo*

 

[David Marcus]

Doesn't work:

C:\Junk>dir /a:d /b
Foo
FooNot

C:\Junk>dir /s /a:d /b Foo*
C:\Junk\Foo
C:\Junk\FooNot

C:\Junk>ffind /s Foo*
C:\Junk\Foo
C:\Junk\FooNot

 

[Charles Dye]

C:\Junk>tree

C:\Junk
├──Bar
│  ├──Foo
│  └──Foolish Young Love
├──Baz
│  └──Egg Foo Young
├──Foo
├──FooNot
└──NoFoo

C:\Junk>dir /s /ad /b foo[]
C:\Junk\Foo
C:\Junk\Bar\Foo

C:\Junk>ffind /s /ad /m foo[]
C:\Junk\Foo
C:\Junk\Bar\Foo

C:\Junk>

 

[David Marcus]

I suppose that's clever, but not user friendly. For an exact match, I have to add []. But, if I include a wild card, then I have to not add []. But, if I search for files, then [] is not needed. This sure seems like a bug.

 

[Charles Dye]

I suppose that's clever, but not user friendly. For an exact match, I have to add []. But, if I include a wild card, then I have to not add []. But, if I search for files, then [] is not needed. This sure seems like a bug.

I'd say it's a deliberate feature, because CMD.EXE behaves the same way and TCC is intended to be compatible. Well, except that CMD.EXE doesn't support the brackets.

 

[Alpengreis]

@David Marcus

Ah, yep - of course - I had as Test "NoFoo" THEN it works. Of course that does not work in your case, sorry about that.

In your case it would be:

dir /s /a:d /b *Foo
pdir /s /a:d /b *Foo
ffind /s /a:d *Foo

Note that ffind also requires "/a:d" param ...

 

[David Marcus]

I'd say it's a deliberate feature, because CMD.EXE behaves the same way and TCC is intended to be compatible.

I can't imagine how this behavior would be useful, so if the point is to duplicate CMD, then it appears that TCC is duplicating a CMD bug.

 

[Alpengreis]

Does it work?

 

[David Marcus]

Does it work?

Does what work? Charles's [] works, but requires remembering when you need to add it.

 

[Alpengreis]

See my new suggestions above ...

one posting before your prelast ...

 

[Alpengreis]

I even found another which should work ... so ALL new suggestions would be:

dir /s /a:d /b *Foo
pdir /s /a:d /b *Foo
ffind /s /a:d *Foo
everything /d /p "c:\Junk\*Foo"

Or if you are in the related directory already:

everything /d /p "%cd%\*Foo"

 

[David Marcus]

I even found another which should work ... so ALL new suggestions would be:

dir /s /a:d /b *Foo
pdir /s /a:d /b *Foo
ffind /s /a:d *Foo
everything /d /p "c:\Junk\*Foo"

Or if you are in the related directory already:

everything /d /p "%cd%\*Foo"

These don't work. They find NotFoo in addition to Foo. If I am searching for Foo, I want to find things named Foo.

 

[Alpengreis]

Yes, you are right, it can't handle NotFoo and FooNot at the same time ...

PS: I thought it was for a "fixed" scenario where not both cases have to be covered ...

 

[vefatica]

How about using a regular expression?

v:\test> tree

V:\test
├──1abc
│  ├──1abc
│  ├──abc
│  └──abc1
├──abc
│  ├──1abc
│  ├──abc
│  └──abc1
└──abc1
   ├──1abc
   ├──abc
   └──abc1

v:\test> dir /f /s /a:d ::^^abc$
V:\test\abc
V:\test\1abc\abc
V:\test\abc\abc
V:\test\abc1\abc

 

[David Marcus]

How about using a regular expression?

Is this a general purpose solution that does Simple way to search subdirectories for files and directories or are you saying that you can handle each particular case using a different syntax? I know I can do the latter. But, I want something easy, intuitive to use.

 

[vefatica]

I reckon the syntax would be the same. /F and /S (maybe other switches) can vary according to your needs. Just put the directory name ...

dir /f /s /a:d ::^^HERE$

or

dir /f /s /a:d ::"^HERE$"  (quoting would be needed for names with spaces)

The BOL and EOL anchors (^ and $) force the string between them to be exact (except for case) ... there are no implied wildcards. At the moment that seems intuitive and easy enough. It probably won't be so intuitive or easy after enough time passes. And an example of it probably won't make it into the help.

 

[David Marcus]

I reckon the syntax would be the same.

The syntax is different, so * doesn't work as a wild card. Charles's hack is simpler. I suppose I could write a btm file to fix the cases that don't work as expected. I only realized recently that the obvious syntax doesn't always work.

 

[Alpengreis]

What about "es" (the command line variant of "everything")?

D:\_Tests\Junk
├  1Foo
├  1Foo.txt
├──Foo
├  Foo.txt
├──Foo1
├──FooNot
│  └──Foo
└──NotFoo

es /ad -w -p %cd% Foo

resp.

"C:\Program Files\JPSoft\TCMD32\es.exe" /ad -w -p %cd% Foo

Result is:

D:\_Tests\Junk\Foo
D:\_Tests\Junk\FooNot\Foo

It SEEMS to work ...

 

[vefatica]

It SEEMS to work ...

I don't know. I think that if you had a directory D:\_Tests\Junk\Foo\FooNot it would be listed among the results. That's because you said -p (also look for matches in the path).

 

[Alpengreis]

I don't know. I think that if you had a directory D:\_Tests\Junk\Foo\FooNot it would be listed among the results. That's because you said -p (also look for matches in the path).

That's the case, yes! Thank you.

 

[Alpengreis]

New try ;-)

D:\_Tests\Junk
├  1Foo
├  1Foo.txt
├──Foo
│  ├  1foo.txt
│  ├  foo.txt
│  ├  foo1.txt
│  ├──FooNot
│  └──NotFoo
├  Foo.txt
├──Foo1
├──FooNot
│  └──Foo
└──NotFoo
   ├──FooNot
   └──NotFoo

"C:\Program Files\JPSoft\TCMD32\es.exe" /ad -w %cd% Foo
D:\_Tests\Junk\Foo
D:\_Tests\Junk\FooNot\Foo