Version 12
Contents
NEW VERSION OVERVIEW - Take Command 12.11
Feature List:
| * | Added Spanish language support. |
NEW VERSION OVERVIEW - Take Command 12.10
Feature List:
Added a Visual Studio 2010 theme to Take Command and the IDE/debugger.
| * | Added Italian language support. |
| * | The non-English language support has been extended to include more menus, dialogs, and strings. |
TCMD will now copy descriptions from DESCRIPT.ION when dragging & dropping in the Folders and List View windows.
TCMD and TCC will now display "Administrator:" on the title bar if the process is run as an administrator and no other title is defined.
Conditional tests (DO, IF, IFF, @IF) have two new tests:
string =~ expression Returns 1 if the string matches the regular
expression
string !~ expression Returns 1 if the string does not match the
regular expression
HTTP operations will now try to autodetect and use the system proxy settings, if available. (If not, they will fall back to using the values defined in OPTION / Internet.)
FTP / FTPS / SFTP operations will now try to autodetect and use the system firewall settings, if available. (If not, they will fall back to using the values defined in OPTION / Internet.)
Help file updates.
Commands:
If the path argument is ~ (tilde), CD will change to the user's home directory (defined by HOME in the environment).
If the path argument is ~ (tilde), CDD will change to the user's home directory (defined by HOME in the environment).
Fixed a (3rd party dll) bug when compressing with lzw.
Added /8 option for UTF-8 files.
Added /8 option for UTF-8 files.
Variable Functions:
@HTMLDECODE - Decodes an HTML string.
@HTMLENCODE - Encodes the string for HTML (i.e., replacing things like > with >).
Batch Debugger:
Conditional breakpoints - you can now add breakpoint conditions to break on the number of iterations, or on a conditional expression (like the tests in IF and DO). There is a new tabbed window that shows the breakpoints and their (optional) conditions.
Added the option to disable (without deleting) breakpoints.
The breakpoints and conditions are saved when the batch file is saved & restored when the batch file is reloaded.
NEW VERSION OVERVIEW - Take Command 12.0
This is a summary of the compatibility fixes and new features. For complete details, see the appropriate topics in this help file.
The new features that are supported in TCC/LE are marked with a *.
Feature List:
| * | Numerous optimizations to make everything a little faster. |
| * | Added Russian language support. |
| * | New icons for Take Command, Take Command/LE, TCC, and TCC/LE. |
The Take Command folder view now auto updates when folders are created, deleted, or renamed. (This can be disabled with the new .INI directive AutoUpdateFolders.)
Added directory wildcard support to TCC. You can control the subdirectory recursion by specifying * or ** in the path. A * will match a single subdirectory level; a ** will match any all subdirectory levels for that pathname. Directory wildcards also support regular expressions. Directory wildcards cannot be used with the /O:... option (which sorts entries before executing the command). And think very carefully before using directory wildcards with a /S (recurse subdirectories) option, as this will almost certainly return unexpected results! There are a few commands which do not support directory wildcards, as they would be meaningless or destructive (for example, TREE, @FILEOPEN, @FILEDATE, etc.).
Take Command now supports customizing the color palettes used in the tab windows, via a "Tab Colors" button on the "Configure Take Command / Tab" dialog. Take Command will first try to retrieve the palette from the console (Windows and later only). If the console is using a custom palette, Take Command will use that palette for the tab window. If there is no custom palette for this console, Take Command will use the colors saved from the "Tab Colors" dialog.
The Take Command "Configure Take Command / Tabs / Windows" foreground and background colors combo boxes now display the actual colors instead of the color name. (This is necessary to support the custom color palettes, as otherwise if you redefined the palette the color names would have no relation to the colors used. It also makes it easier to select the color you want.)
You can now use environment variables in the TCMD.INI sections "[4NT]" and "[TCMD]", and the ini parser will expand them before setting the directives. (Note that if you were already setting a directive to a value with an embedded %, you'll need to double the %'s now.)
| * | TCMD.INI file parsing (and thus the startup time) is faster. |
The TCC persistent History and DirHistory lists load significantly faster.
Changed the internal TCC Perl support from the hopelessly buggy & undocumented embedded Perl to PerlScript (the WSH COM interface to Perl). The good news is that Perl support is no longer version dependent, so you can use Perl 5.8, 5.10, or 5.12.
TCC now supports Python 3.1, 2.6, and 2.5. (TCC will search for the Python dll's in that order.)
The Take Command tabbed toolbar will hide the tabs row if there is only one tab defined.
The default directory for the Command Input window is now set to the selected directory in the Folders view. (This allows tab completion in the Command Input window to match the List View when no path is specified.)
The Take Command "Tabs" menu now includes "Previous Tab" and "Next Tab", allowing you to define keys to change tabs from the keyboard.
The Take Command "Options" menu now includes "Configure Tabbed Toolbar", which allows you to add buttons or tabs, or save or reload the toolbar from TCMD.INI. (You can also do this by right clicking on the toolbar.) To edit an existing button, right click on the button.
Ranges now support multiple file exclusions (i.e., "dir /[!*.txt] /[!*.doc] *"). (Useful for aliases or variable substitution where a default file exclusion is specified.)
Added "Owner" to file ranges. The syntax is "/[O"owner"]" or "/![O"owner"]". It supports wildcard comparisons; the value returned is the same as shown in DIR /Q or %@owner[file].
If you left click on the current TCC command line while in a Take Command tab window, TCC will move the cursor position to the mouse position.
You can describe directories and files with the List View in Take Command when it is in "Details" view. Double click on the "Description" column, enter or edit the description in the edit box, and press Enter to save.
The toolbar button dialog now has a "Copy" button, which copies the properties of the current button to a new button.
| * | Changed the dialog fonts from MS Sans Serif to Tahoma. |
The VK_APPS (menu) key will invoke the context menu in Take Command tab windows.
The Take Command and TCC configuration dialogs have been reformatted to display correctly on Netbook (1024x600) displays.
Added (experimental) double-wide character set (i.e., Japanese, Chinese, etc.) support to Take Command.
| * | File read operations are slightly faster. |
Startup Options:
| /C | Run the specified command in a new TCC tab window. If there is already a Take Command session running, /C creates a new tab in the existing Take Command rather than starting a new session. /C must be the last option on the command line (otherwise Take Command can't tell if additional options belong to Take Command or the command to run in the TCC tab). |
| /NT | Don't load the default startup tabs (usually only useful when combined with /C or /T). |
.INI Directives:
AutoUpdateFolders=yes|NO - Updates the Take Command folder view automatically when folders are created, deleted, or renamed. This will slow things down slightly, so if you have processes that are modifying directories a lot (more than once every few seconds) you may want to disable the autoupdates.
| * | CMDVariables=yes|NO - Requires environment variables in TCC to be delineated by leading and trailing %'s. For those of you who just can't get enough of CMD compatibility, and the consistent way it handles variables. Which have to be enclosed in %'s, like "%varname%". Unless it's a batch variable, which only has a leading %. Or a FOR variable, which only has a leading %. Or sometimes two leading %'s. |
CommandInputWrap=YES|no - If set to Yes, Take Command will wrap the input lines in the Command Input window instead of scrolling horizontally.
CompletePercents=yes|NO - If the tab-completed filename has embedded %'s, and the first argument of the command is an internal command, the %'s will be doubled so that variable expansion won't end up deleting (or unexpectedly expanding) the filename. (The tab completion routine cannot preparse aliases or environment variables, so if you're using one of those as your first argument, you're out of luck!)
DirHistoryOnEntry=yes|NO - TCC normally saves the previous directory to the directory history when you change to a new directory. This option saves the new directory to the directory history when you change directories.
IBeamCaret=yes|NO - use an IBeam caret instead of the default console underline caret. (Take Command tab windows only.)
LockListView=yes|NO - Prevents modification of the Take Command List View (double clicking on the description column to edit the description, or selecting a file or directory and pressing F2 to rename it).
SmoothScroll=yes|NO - Scrolls the Take Command tab windows smoothly (1 pixel at a time instead of a line at a time). Slows things down and doesn't provide any extra functionality; it's just eye candy! (In order to reduce the slowdown, Take Command will only use smooth scrolling when the console has scrolled <= 3 lines. If the console is spitting out a lot of short lines, you won't see the smooth scroll, but then you can't really discern anything at that speed.)
StartTabWait - the number of milliseconds to wait before loading the next Take Command startup tab. The range is 0 - 5000. (This should only be needed in rare cases, when tabs are interfering with one another while starting.)
Command Line Editing:
See the new .INI directive CompletePercents.
You can triple-click on a line to select the entire line (Take Command "Command Input" and tab windows only).
Command completion (i.e., Tab or F9 for the first argument on the line) will append a space to the command name.
^P in the Command Input window will print the command history.
^P (last argument in previous command) on the TCC command line has been changed to ^B. (But it can still be remapped.)
New Commands:
Monitor the Windows clipboard, and execute a command when the contents change.
CLIPMONITOR [/C]
CLIPMONITOR n command
| n | Number of repetitions (or FOREVER) |
| command | Command to execute when condition is triggered |
| /C | Remove the clipboard monitor. |
Change the console font characteristics. This command is only available in Windows 7 and later, and will only affect stand-alone TCC console windows. (You can already change the font in Take Command tab windows.) The syntax is:
FONT [/Ffamily /Nname /Wn /Xn /Yn ]
/F - The font family:
decorative
dontcare
modern
roman
script
swiss
/N - Font face name
/W - Font weight (100 - 1000, in multiples of 100). The normal weight is 400; bold is 700.
/X - The width of each character, in logical units.
/Y - The height of each character, in logical units.
The GZIP command is compatible with the archives created by the UNIX gzip utility and supports RFC 1952. GZIP is used for compressing a single file; if you need to compress multiple files you should use the ZIP (or TAR) command. The syntax is:
GZIP [A:[[-][+]rhsdaecjot] /A /E /L /M /O:[-]adegnrstu /Q /V] gziparchive [@file] file
| gziparchive | The .gz file to work with |
| path | The path where the file will be extracted |
| file | The file to extract |
/A:... - Attribute selection
/A - Add file (default).
/E - Compression method (0 = deflate, 1 = lzw). The default is 0.
/L - Compression level (1 - 6). The default is 4.
/M - Move the file to the gzip archive and delete the original on disk
/O - Sort order
/Q - Quiet (don't display filenames as they are added to the archive).
/V - View date, time, and filename of the file in the archive. (Due to the limitations in the GZIP format, this can only display the first file in the archive.)
The TAR command is compatible with archives created by the UNIX tar utility. TAR also supports gzip compression and can be used to create .tar.gz archives.
TAR [A:[[-][+]rhsdaecjot] /A /C /D /F /G /M /O:[-]adegnrstu /P /Q /R /U /V] tararchive [@file] file...
tararchive The tar file to work with
file The files(s) to be added to the zip file
/A:... - Attribute selection
/A - Add files to the tar archive (default).
/C - Display contents of the tar archive.
/D - Delete the specified file(s) from the tar archive.
/F - Update only those files that currently exist in the tar archive, and which are older than the files on disk.
/G - Use gzip compression.
/M - Move
/O - Sort order
/P - Display progress (in %) for each file.
/Q - Quiet (don't display filenames as they are added to the archive).
/R - If the argument is a subdirectory, copy all of the files in that subdirectory and all of its subdirectories to the tar archive.
/U - Update which either don't exist in the tar archive, or which are older than the files on disk.
/V - View the list of files in the tar archive (date, time, size, and filename).
The UNGZIP command is compatible with the UNIX gunzip utility and supports RTF 1952. The syntax is:
GZIP [/E /O /Q /V] gziparchive [path]
| gziparchive | The .gz file to work with |
| path | The path where files will be extracted |
/E - Extract file (default).
/O - Overwrite existing file.
/Q - Quiet (don't display filenames as they are extracted from the archive).
/V - View date, time, and filename of the file in the archive. (Due to the limitations in the GZIP format, this can only display the first file in the archive.)
The UNTAR command decompresses archives created by the TAR command. UNTAR also supports gzip decompression and can be used to extract .tar.gz archives.
UNTAR [/C /D /E /F /G /Nte /O /Q /U /V] tararchive path file ...
| tararchive | The Tar file to work with |
| path | The path where files will be extracted |
| file | The file(s) to extract |
/C - Display contents of the tar archive.
/D - Recreate the directory structure saved in the tar file.
/E - Extract (default)
/F - Extract only those files that currently exist in the target folder, and which are older than the file in the tar archive.
/G - Gzip
/N[te] - Don't update the CD / CDD extended directory search database (JPSTREE.IDX).
/O - Overwrite existing files.
/P - Display progress (in %) for each file.
/Q - Quiet (don't display filenames as they are extracted from the archive).
/U - Extract files which either don't exist in the target folder, or which are older than the file in the zip archive.
/V - View the list of files in the archive (date, time, size, and filename)
ZipSFX creates a zip-compatible self-extracting archive. The syntax is:
ZipSFX [/B"text" /C"text" /D"path" /F"file" /Ln /M"message" /R /S"password" /X64] archive directory
| archive | The name of the self-extracting executable |
| directory | The directory to be compressed into the self-extracting executable |
/B - Banner text to display before the self-extraction begins.
/C - Caption for the self-extractor dialogs.
/D - Target directory for the self-extractor.
/F - Optional name of the file to execute (open) after the archive is extracted. This must be a relative path to a file in directory. If this is set to ".", the folder in which the archive has been decompressed will open in Windows Explorer. If it is set to "" (empty string), the extractor will close and take no action.
/Ln - Compression level (0 - 6; the default is 4).
/M - Message to notify the user that the extraction has completed normally.
/R - Recurse subdirectories
/S - Password
/X64 - Create a 64-bit executable.
Commands:
ICON=file - Change a window's caption bar and task bar icon. The file can be an icon file or an executable. (If an executable, ACTIVATE will use the first icon.)
/O - Don't overwrite existing value (only valid in combination with /R)
/W now uses DoD 5220.22-M (E) for secure deletion.
/G:nn - Set the disk cluster size to be used by /G. DIR will normally query the system for the cluster size on the specified drive, but you can override with /G:n if you know that the returned info is incorrect, or if you want to find the size required if the specified files were moved to another device with a different cluster size.
/NL - Don't display the link name for symbolic links.
Now supports usage in aliases and on the command line. You need to enclose the body of the DO loop in a command group that follows the DO expression, and there is no ENDDO. The syntax is:
DO [n | FOREVER] (commands)
or
DO varname = start TO end [BY n ] (commands)
or
DO FOR n SECONDS | MINUTES | HOURS (commands)
or
DO [WHILE | UNTIL [DATETIME yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss]] condition (commands)
or
DO varname IN [range] [/I"text"] [/D"path" /N[dj] /O:[-]adegnrstu /Sn] [/A:[[-][+]rhsdaecjot] [/C /L /P /T"..."] [@]set (commands)
For example:
DO count = 1 to 10 (echo count = %count)
ITERATE and LEAVE are supported in command-line DO's.
ISHUNG is a new condition (for DO WHILE and DO UNTIL) that is true if the specified window is not responding.
Restores the Function list.
/Ln - The number of leading and trailing lines to display on a match. Each successive group of lines in a file will be separated by a "----" header.
/N[dehjs]
D - don't search hidden directories
E - don't display errors
H - no header
J - don't search junctions or symlinks
S - no footer
/NJ - Don't recurse into search junctions or symlinks
/W - Indicates that the FOR set is to be treated as filenames, even if no wildcards are detected (or if you're using regular expressions).
/O - Don't overwrite existing value (only valid in combination with /R)
/F"..." - Delete matching command lines. You can have multiple /F"..." arguments, and they can contain wildcards.
/R1 - Ignore duplicates and HistoryExclude and always append the lines. (This is considerably faster for large history lists.)
ISHUNG is a new condition that is true if the specified window is not responding.
/R - Automatically reconnect if the ftp session times out.
Now supports SSL, so it will work with SSL servers like Google Talk.
/Tn - Set the port number (default is 5222).
/V - Display verbose output (useful for debugging).
Added horizontal mouse wheel scrolling in Take Command tab windows (requires Windows 7 or later).
/D will change to the newly created directory.
Now displays the empty source directories it is removing (with /S and no /Q).
/K - If the move was to a different drive, this option will move the original to the recycle bin instead of deleting it.
/Ns - Don't display the summary of files moved.
/W now implements DoD 5220.22-M (E) for secure deletion.
DBLCLICK [command] - Execute the specified command on a left mouse button double click.
There is a new "Console Palette" button on the Windows tab that allows you to redefine the 16 console color attributes. (Requires Windows 7 or later.) This will *not* work when running TCC in a Take Command tab windows due to a bug in the Windows API (it insists on unhiding hidden console windows), but when in Take Command you can define a custom palette for the tab windows.
The "Windows" foreground and background colors combo boxes now display the actual colors instead of the color name. (This is necessary to support the custom color palettes, as otherwise if you redefined the palette the color names would have no relation to the colors used. It also makes it easier to select the color you want.)
/CUE="text" - Displays the cue text in light gray in the edit box (it disappears as soon as you enter a character).
/O: - Added /O:o (sort by owner) option
/Q - Display owner (you'd better have a > 80 column display!)
/SSL[=n] - Use SSL to connect to the server. Supports automatic, implicit, and explicit modes.
/O - Don't overwrite existing value (only valid in combination with /R)
Now saves the Function list as well as the environment & aliases
/ELEVATED - Start the program with full admin privileges. (Windows 7 or later only.)
LOCKDESKTOP - Locks the desktop (Windows 7 and later)
LOGOFF - Display the log off dialog
USER - Display the switch user dialog
/D - Show the modules loaded in each process
/M - Show the memory usage for each process
/N - Show the class names
/T - Show the kernel and user cpu times
Is now using a different Zip library.
/CRC - Display the file CRCs (only when using /V).
/I - Save the compressed file's description ("File Comment") to the NTFS description or DESCRIPT.ION file.
/P - Display progress (in %) for each file.
Is now using a different Zip library.
/CRC - Display the file CRCs (only when using /V).
/En - set the encryption level (0=default, 1=AES 128-bit, 2=AES 192-bit, 3=AES 256-bit)
/I - Save the file's description (from the NTFS description or DESCRIPT.ION) as the compressed file's "File Comment"
/Ln - set the compression level (0-6, where 0 = no compression and 6 = maximum compression). The default is 4.
/P - Display progress (in %) for each file.
/T - Save the file attributes (they will be written to the file system during extraction)
/Z"..." - set the comment for the zip file.
Internal Variables:
_EXECARRAY - The number of array elements assigned by the last @EXECARRAY function.
_INSERT - The current insert edit mode (0=overstrike, 1=insert)
_XMOUSE - The column position of the most recent left mouse click. (Note that this will only work in a Take Command tab window, or if you have enabled the console mouse in a stand-alone TCC session.)
_YMOUSE - The row position of the most recent left mouse click. (Note that this will only work in a Take Command tab window, or if you have enabled the console mouse in a stand-alone TCC session.)
Variable Functions:
@EVAL - The <<, >>, MOD, and \ operators now support large (up to 10,000 digit) numbers. (Previously they were "limited" to 64-bit integers). The bitwise operators (AND, OR, XOR) are still limited to 64-bit integers.
@EVAL - Now supports binary input by prefixing "0b" to the number:
(%@eval[0b1001+2]
@EVAL - Now supports binary output by appending "=b" to the expression:
(%@eval[1+1=b]
@GETDATE[date] - Displays a calendar dialog and returns the selected date (yyyy-mm-dd). You can optionally pass the default date.
@GETDATETIME[datetime] - Displays a date and time picker and returns the selected date and time (yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss). You can optionally pass the default date and time.
@INIWRITE - If you don't specify an entry, will now delete the specified section.
@PPID[file] - Returns the PID for the parent process of the specified executable
@REGBREAD[key,handle,length] - Read a registry value into a (previously created) binary buffer
@REGBWRITE[key,type,handle,length] - Write a registry value from a binary buffer
@REGEX - Removed the (unused and confusing) group count return value. @REGEX now only returns 1 (for a match) or 0 (for no match).
@REGSET - Added support for REG_MULTI_SZ. (The data values are separated by commas.)
@TARCOUNT[file] - Return the number of files in a .tar archive
@TARCFILE[file,i] - Return the compressed name of a file in a .tar archive
@TARDFILE[file,i] - Return the decompressed name of a file in a .tar archive
@TARFILEDATE[file,i]- Return the date & time of a file in a .tar archive
@TARFILESIZE[file,i]- Return the size of a file in a .tar archive
@URLDECODE[string] - Decode an URL encoded string (replacing %xx with the original characters)
@URLENCODE[string] - Encode a string for transmission (replacing non-alphanumeric characters with their %xx hex representation)
@ZIPCOUNT[file]- Return the number of files in a .zip archive
@ZIPCOMMENT[file] - Return the comment for the .zip archive
@ZIPCFILE[file,i] - Return the compressed name of a file in a .zip archive
@ZIPDFILE[file,i] - Return the decompressed name of a file in a .zip archive
@ZIPFILECOMMENT[file,i] - Return the comment for a file in a .zip archive
@ZIPFILECRC[file, i] - Return the CRC for a file in a .zip archive
@ZIPFILEDATE[file,i] - Return the date & time of a file in a .zip archive
@ZIPCFILESIZE[file,i] - Return the compressed size of a file in a .zip archive
@ZIPDFILESIZE[file,i] - Return the decompressed size of a file in a .zip archive
Batch Debugger:
The batch debugger has been rewritten with a new editor and many new features.
If you hover the mouse over a variable, the debugger will display a tooltip with the current value.
If you hover the mouse over an internal TCC command, the debugger will display a tooltip with the command syntax.
If you hover the mouse over an array variable (1-dimensional only!), the debugger will display a tooltip with up to the first 20 elements with assigned values.
The "Aliases" and "Functions" windows now support syntax coloring.
Added "Add to Watch" to the context menu.
The Goto dialog now has an optional Column position.
The File menu has a new option:
Save Copy As - Saves a copy of the file to a new name, without changing the default name.
The Edit menu has new options:
Move Line Up - Moves the current line up one row.
Move Line Down - Moves the current line down one row.
Toggle Comment - Inserts / Removes a "rem " at the beginning of the current line.
Remove Blank Lines - Removes blank lines from the selection (or the entire file if no selection).
Compress Spaces - Removes extra spaces between words for the selection (or the entire file if no selection).
Make Selection Uppercase
Make Selection Lowercase
View Whitespace - Displays a marker (a small dot) in the columns for spaces or tabs.
View EOL - Display the end of line characters (CR and/or LF).
The Debug menu has a new option:
Pause On Error - Switches the debugger to single step mode when TCC encounters an error.
The Options menu entry has new options:
Tabs - Change the tab and indent settings.
Display Line Numbers - Toggles the line numbering on & off.
Display Folding Margin - Toggles the folding margin (the + indicator) on and off.
Indentation Guides - Prints vertical lines at the current indent columns (useful for lining up code).
The Windows menu entry has new options:
Zoom In - Increase text size by one point.
Zoom Out - Decrease text size by one point.
Reset Zoom - Reset the text size to the original size.
Plugins:
Added UNKNOWN_CMD, PRE_INPUT, PRE_EXEC, and POST_EXEC support. TCC will first look for aliases of those names; if it doesn't find a match it will look in the plugins for a matching name. For UNKNOWN_CMD and PRE_EXEC, TCC will pass the command line to the plugin; PRE_INPUT and POST_EXEC will get a NULL.