File Selection Options

Example (Windows)

> d *** -exclude=(.doc .txt) -before=today -min_size=2mb -hidden=also

Example (Linux)

> d '***' -exclude=\(.doc .txt\) -before=today -min_size=2mb -hidden=also

Options

Introduction

All of the file selection options have the effect of limiting the selection of files in one way or another. They are intended to be used together with some wildcard file specification.

For example,

> d '*.*' -since=today

> d '*.xyz' -since=today

> d '*.*' -since=1-may -before=1-jun

The file selection options are part of the general definition of a file specification. This means that they are available in all Glindra programs, and not just in the basic file handling programs d (directory), cop (copy), rena (rename), dele (delete), and pu (purge).

-since [= datetime]
-before [= datetime]

Example (Windows)

> d -since=(1-may 18:00)
> d -before=yesterday

These options let you select files based on the date and time when they were created or modified. The selection is done on the "modified" date/time field of the files.

The -before and -since options accept a date, a time, or both, as the option value.

-before selects files that were modified before a certain date/time.

-since selects files that were modified on or after a certain date/time.

If you specify either of these options but do not give a date/time value, the default value is today. This is shorthand for 00:00 hours on the current day, so -before (without a date/time value) will exclude all of today's files, and -since will list only today's files.

The selection is done on the "modified" date/time of the files.

-min_size [= size]
-max_size [= size]

With these options, you can limit the selection of files to those that have a certain size.

Example

> d '***' -min_size=3.5mb

Byte size units

File sizes can be specified either as a plain number, or with one of the following size units:

The default, if you do not specify any unit, is bytes. The unit keywords may be abbreviated as long as they are unique.

Note that the size units have their proper scientific base 10 meanings, so that a kilobyte is 1000 bytes, and not 1024 bytes. For example, you could specify -min_size=10mb to get only files that have a size of 10,000,000 bytes or more.

There must be at least one digit before the size unit, so 1 megabyte is written as 1mb. If you want to insert a space between the number and the size unit, you must enclose the value in parentheses, like -min_size=(17 kb).

See Parsing Byte Sizes for further discussion.

-directories [= only/also/not]

Specifies if directory files should be included in the list. The default, if the option is not present, is to list both directory files and ordinary files. You can override this, and have the program list only directory files, or to omit the directory files altogether, and only list regular files.

The option can take one of three values: only, also, or not.

default	For d (directory), rena (rename), and dele (delete), the default is to list both directory files and regular files. This is the same as -directories=also For cop (copy), pu (purge), and most other programs, the default is -nodirectories
-directories	List directory files only. Same as -directories=only
-nodirectories	List regular files only. Same as -directories=not
-directories=only	List directory files only.
-directories=also	List both directory files and regular files.
-directories=not	List regular files only.

-hidden [= only/also/not]

List hidden files (only/also/not).

Specifies if hidden files should be included in the list. The default, if the option is not present, is to list both hidden files and ordinary files. You can override this, and have the program list only hidden files, or to omit the hidden files altogether, and only list regular files.

The option can take one of three values: only, also, or not, just like the -directories option described above. Note, however, that the defaults are different for the -hidden option.

default	Do not list hidden files, but regular files only. Same as -hidden=not
-hidden	List both hidden files and regular files. Same as -hidden=also
-nohidden	Do not list hidden files, but regular files only. Same as -hidden=not, which is also the default.
-hidden=only	List hidden files only.
-hidden=also	List both hidden files and regular files.
-hidden=not	Do not list hidden files, but regular files only.

-nodefault

Do not add any default wildcards or other filename parts to the filename. If you specify this option, it will apply to both the input and output file specifications.

 You can override this by specifying the option -nodefault.

Input file specification

The d directory command adds the default wildcards *.*.* to the input file specification. If we leave the short name blank, it will be defaulted to a wildcard *. This presents a problem if we only want to see files that actually start with a dot:

> d .emacs

Directory of e:\system\init\

       23 kb   30-Jun-2004 23:55:42   .emacs
       19 kb    1-Nov-2004 21:12:07   junk.emacs
       22 kb   13-Jun-2002 12:09:40   original.emacs
  ----------
       63 kb   total, 3 files

Because the wildcard is added automatically, we get the same file listing we would get with d *.emacs.

By adding the -nodefault option, we get just the file with nothing before the first dot:

> d .emacs -nodefault

Directory of e:\system\init\

       23 kb   30-Jun-2004 23:55:42   .emacs
  ----------
       23 kb   total, 1 file

Output file specification

We get a similar problem if we try to copy or rename a file, to give it a name that starts with a dot.

Example

> rena original.emacs .emacs
  No files renamed

The message "No files renamed" tells the truth, because with the defaults added, the output file name is the same as the input.

To solve this, we add the -nodefault option to the command line:

> rena original.emacs .emacs -nodefault
  1 file renamed

> d *.emacs

Directory of e:\system\init\

       22 kb   13-Jun-2002 12:09:40   .emacs
       23 kb   30-Jun-2004 23:55:42   .emacs.~1~
       19 kb    1-Nov-2004 21:12:07   junk.emacs
  ----------
       63 kb   total, 3 files

-exclude [= filespec]

Exclude all files that match the file specification filespec.

Example

> d 'abc*.*' -exclude='*.tmp'

If it is enclosed in parentheses, the -exclude file specification can itself be arbitrarily complex, and may include its own file selection options.

Example (Windows)

-exclude = (*.tmp *.xyz -since)

-current_only

Example

> d -current

List only the current version of the files by default.

The primary purpose of this option is to make it possible to define an alias that The option can be overridden by the file specification and/or the -default option.

Example (Linux)

> alias dc='d -current'

> dc

> dc '*.xyz'

The -current option is specific to the d directory command. It would not be very meaningful in other programs, since the default for other programs would be the current version anyway.