Here are two scriptfiles I use all the time in conjunction with my BBS.
Doing something to four files in a directory is one thing; fifty or sixty or
five hundred is another.

  The first is a "SmartDOS" file that does a string of commands to each file
in a directory, one at a time.  It came from a script that converted LZH
files to LHA, but it can be used for any set of commands that you could
Execute from a scriptfile.

  The second is an ARexx file that takes a list of files and injects whatever
you want in front of each filename and after each filename, so you end up
with a file you can Execute that will perform the same function to each
command.  It can also insert a different string between each line, such as a
FailAt command. very important.

  
  Example of the DOS file:

  You have a bunch of pictures you want to compress.  The SmartDOS scriptfile
copies each pic to Ram, compresses it, then copies the LZX file back to the
directory.  Simple!  You want to stuff some small ReadMe file in with each
pic, no sweat.  This example comes to mind because I'm actually doing exactly
that in the background as I type. :)

  My standard script for doing the above routine looks for the files to be in
"XXX:", so before I start it up, I just Assign XXX: to whatever directory the
files are in.  You can, of course, put actual paths in the scriptfile.


  Example of the ARexx file:  

  I have a directory with 500 files in it, and a list of 250 files that I
want to move into a neighboring directory.  Just to make it complicated,
let's say there's some files on the list that aren't in the directory.  It's
either look at the list and do the whole thing by hand, or...

  What we're going to do is stick a "Rename" in front of every file name on
the list, and a destination path after it.  We also have to stick a "FailAt"
in between each line to keep the scriptfile moving when it comes across a
file it doesn't see in the directory.  We ReXecute the file and end up with:

FailAt 25
Rename BIGFILE1.LZX Files:TempDir
FailAt 25
Rename BIGFILE2.LZX Files:TempDir
FailAt 25
Rename BIGFILE3.LZX Files:TempDir
<etc>

Then you simply CD to the directory the files are in and Execute the file.
Bang, all your 250 files are now moved.

The ARexx files was written by Asher Feldman, author of the excellent
uuencoder/decoder "UUxT", a nice st-seq selector named "SLECT", a UNIX-like
pipe: device named "PIP20", and possibly other fine products.  He can be
reached at asher@shell.portal.com.

  Hope these help!


                               **  THE BENCH//\/\\ASTER  **



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