See also: DIR, ATTRIB, DESCRIBE, and SELECT.

 

File Selection

 

Supports attribute switches, extended wildcards, ranges, multiple file names, and include lists.

 

Internet

 

Can be used with FTP/HTTP Servers.

 

Usage

 

PDIR is an extremely flexible command allowing you to display information about files and directories from one or more local or remote volume or directories in a wide array of user-defined formats. For a simpler version, see the DIR command.

 

PDIR and DIR are related, but they do not have identical switches and they are not intended to produce identical output. PDIR is primarily intended to produce output that will be subsequently parsed by another program (or batch file), or (more rarely) for a special-purpose directory display. Its options and output are geared towards those applications.

 

The various PDIR displays are controlled through options or switches. The best way to learn how to use the many options available with the PDIR command is to experiment. You will soon know which options you want to use regularly. You can then select those options permanently by using the ALIAS command.

 

The /(...) option specifies which fields you want to display and how to format them. (You can have multiple /(...) options on a line.)  The syntax is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@function[*]

 

 

You can also specify a format, independently for each field, by prefixing the field character with its format specification:

 

where

 -        specifies left justification instead of the default, right justification;

 i        specifies the minimum field width, and

 a        specifies the maximum field width.

 

If the first digit of i is 0, the field will be padded with zeros instead of spaces. Some fields cannot be reduced below a minimum width (for example, the z (size) field is a minimum of 15 digits).

 

If a PDIR line is empty (for example, if you have an embedded @IF), it will not be displayed.

 

If you want to append fields with no intervening whitespace, or with a custom delimiter character, you can use double quotes to specify arguments. For example, to display the date and time with no space between them:

 

pdir /(dymd""thms) *

 

Or to display the date and time separated by a +:

 

pdir /(dymd"+"thms) *

 

PDIR sets three internal variables:

 

 

Example

 

To display the CRC, the full LFN and the owner  of each file:

 

pdir /(r fpn q) *

 

Options:

 

Options on the command line apply only to the filenames which follow the option, and options at the end of the line apply to the preceding filename only. This allows you to specify different options for different groups of files, yet retains compatibility with the traditional DIR command when a single filename is specified.

 

Most options are used to select the desired files/directories. (This is in contrast to the DIR command.) The special option /(...) is used to specify which characteristics of the selected files or directories should be displayed in which sequence and format.

 

 

 

You can specify /A:= to display a dialog to help you set individual attributes.

 

 

/B1 will display relative paths when used with /S. (Normally, /B shows the full pathname for the file.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you specify a number after the /S, PDIR will limit the subdirectory recursion to that number. For example, if you have a directory tree "\a\b\c\d\e", /S2 will only affect the "a", "b", and "c" directories.

 

If you specify a + followed by a number after the /S, PDIR will not display any filenames until it gets to that depth in the subdirectory tree. For example, if you have a directory tree \a\b\c\d\e, /S+2 will not display the contents of \a or \a\b.

 

 

 

If /T is not specified, the default is /T:w.

 

If you append a u after the field, DIR will display the file time in UTC.

 

Note: If more than one time type is specified, the first one specified is used, and all subsequent ones ignored.