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P S E A R C H ------------------------- Users Guide and Reference ------------------------- Version 5.2B July 1992 ┌─────────┐ ┌─────┴───┐ │ (tm) │ │o │────────────────── │ ┌─────┴╨──┐ │ Association of │ │ │─┘ Shareware └───│ o │ Professionals ────│ ║ │──────────────────── └────╨────┘ * Member * Patri-Soft (714) 352-2820 (Voice) (714) 352-2825 (BBS) (714) 352-1527 (FAX) Copyright 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 by Patri-Soft Registering The Utilities ------------------------- PSEARCH is distributed under the Shareware concept. This allows users to evaluate software for a short time to determine if it is useful to them. If you decide the software is of value to you and decide to keep and use, you are required to register it. This concept allows for quality software to be distributed at a reasonable cost. Hundreds of hours of my time has been invested in PSEARCH. Continued registration will justify the continued upgrading of this utility to insure it remains up to date with current technology. In any case, I do greatly appreciate all users that care enough to register. I try to provide the best possible software for all you faithful supporting users. You may use the order form in ORDER.FRM when registering. Send registration requests to: Patri-Soft 5225 Canyon Crest Drive Suite 71-358 Riverside, CA 92507 The registration charge is a one time fee that entitles you to all future versions of the product. These may either be obtained from normal Shareware sources or from me. I do not automatically send product updates to registered users. It is impossible to provide automatic upgrades at the low costs of these utilities. If you would like to receive the next version of the software, add an additional $15 to your order and indicate on the order form you wish to receive the next update version. You will be sent the next version along with an optional order form to request subsequent releases. Site licensing plans for one or more Patriquin utilities: --------------------------------------------------------- Contact Patri-Soft for information VISA / Mastercard / Telephone Registration ------------------------------------------ You may place a telephone order for the utilities using your credit card by calling Nelson Ford's Public (Software) Library. Telephone orders: 800-242-4775 or 713-665-7017 The PSL supplies Shareware software at a nominal cost to its customers. Consider them for all your Shareware needs. ---- OR ------ You may call the Patri-Soft BBS and register online. The number is (714) 352-2825 1200/14000 8-N-1. Fill out script 2 to place your order. Credit card orders are also accepted through U.S. Mail. REGISTRATION ------------ Patri-Soft provides full support to users, both registered and non-registered. We provide support through several different way: U.S. Mail - You may send us problem reports through the mail. Any extended information that you can provide is greatly appreciated. (i.e. screen shots, the actual problem file, etc). Telephone - You may contact us at (714) 352-2820 to discuss problems. However, extended telephone support may be limited as the circumstances require. CIS - You may contact us on CompuServe (76347,2477). This is usually the fastest way. FAX - You may FAX us problem reports and orders at (714) 352-1527. A BBS is in operation 24 hours a day to take your enhancement requests and problem reports. The number for this is (714) 352-2825. (1200/14000 8-N-1). Extended access is provided to registered users of the utilities. Patri-Soft offers a money back guarrentee if you are not satisfied with the software. Simply contact us with the reasons of your dissatisfaction, and we will gladly refund your money. We at Patri-Soft pride ourself on our user support. If for some reason you feel that you have not gotten the service you deserve, PLEASE let us know. We try to respond to ALL users quickly and politely. PSEARCH . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 PSEARCH Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Implementing PSEARCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 PSEARCH Menu Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Main Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Text Search Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 File Name Search Option . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Advanced Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 PSEARCH Output Data Display . . . . . . . . . 9 PSEARCH Command Line Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 PSEARCH Command and Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Flex Filename Searching Control Characters . . . . 11 Exclude File . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Examples of /EX Parameter . . . . . 15 Examples of /X Parameter . . . . . . 20 PSEARCH Color and Monitor Support . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Pausing the Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft PSEARCH PSEARCH is a generalized search facility for all PC users. PSEARCH can search the current directory or all directories of an hard disk for files or text in files. PSEARCH is not just another search type command. It works with normal DOS command parameters or with menus. This ensures that PSEARCH can be used by anyone that uses a PC. PSEARCH goes much further than just searching for data. Once files are found, you can include file names in DOS commands which can either be executed or placed in command files. This turns PSEARCH into a very useful utility that can aid in many different situations. For instance, if you want to print a selected group of files based on how old they are, you can issue a print command for each file using PSEARCH. Any DOS command may be generated and executed based on the files identified in the search process. The only limit to the use of this facility is your imagination. PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft PSEARCH Features List all files on a hard disk that match a wildcard specification. Show the names of any files containing specified text. Replace found text with user-specified replacement text Show text lines of any file containing a specified string. Look for word "Mrs." in any file and preserve the case during the search. Find 123 files containing the word BUDGET and print their name. Compile all C programs that refer to the RECDESC.H include file. Find a word processing document containing the name "Wiffle". Delete any *.DOC files containing "To: Mr. Johnson". Locate all READONLY files on a disk. List all files updated today. Build a DOS command to archive manually selected files from one or more directories. Search multiple drives attached to the system for text or a file name. Search for a file name, even if it has been archived into .ZIP, .ARC or .LZH formats. Limit text search to words, prefixes or suffixes. This greatly enhances the search by returning only the data you want. Exclude files from the search process to greatly improve search performance. Implementing PSEARCH PSEARCH may be executed directly from the DOS command line or you may use menus to guide you through the process of entering search specifications. Both modes use the same PS command name. PSEARCH determines the difference in modes by the presence or absence of PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft command line parameters. When no command parameters are used, the menu mode is used. PSEARCH Menu Mode To start PSEARCH using the menu mode, enter the PS command at the DOS prompt and press <ENTER>. The following menu will be displayed. PSEARCH Main Menu Select a menu option by positioning a highlight bar over the menu item you want. Use the cursor arrow keys to move the highlight bar, then press <ENTER> to start the action. Or you may select a menu item by pressing the key corresponding to the first character of the menu option. For example, press <F> to start a file name search. Main Menu Options Text Search Activates PSEARCH's text search facility. A menu will be presented allowing you to enter specifications for PSEARCH to use to search for data. This option searches within files to find specific text. It allows you to automatically scan you system's disks to locate files containing specific data contents. For example, you can find all files on the system that contain the name "Jones". Change Text PSEARCH can locate text in files and replace with user- specified text. This option allows you to search multiple files for a specific word, and substitute anther word in its place. For example, you could search for "Mr. Jones" and replace it with "Mr. Smith." File Find This option searches files on your system by the contents of their file names. The DIR command provided with DOS allows you to locate files on your system only within a single directory. When you have many directories and perhaps even multiple hard disks, it becomes impractical to use the PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft DIR command to locate a file when you don't know what directory it exists in. PSEARCH Name Search can automatically search all directories and all disk devices to find a specific or pattern file name. View PSEARCH maintains a file which contains the information found in the previous search. This file can be reviewed by using the View facility. Scrolling through the data shows the last 500 lines of the previous search. Help This option provides several pages of scrollable HELP information. When you exit the help, you will be returned to PSEARCH's Main Menu. Exit to DOS You may exit the PSEARCH menu mode by either selecting this menu option or by simply pressing the <ESCAPE> key from menu mode. Upon exiting, PSEARCH will display how long it has been active and provide a summary of its results. Register When you register the software with Patri-Soft, we will send you codes which will register this version of PSEARCH. Enter the information EXACTLY as Patri-Soft has provided it to you. Text Search Option When you select the Text Search option from PSEARCH's Main Menu, the Text Search panel is displayed, allowing you to enter specifications indicating the data PSEARCH is to search for. PSEARCH Text Search Entry Panel See the PSEARCH command parameters section for a description of all the parameters you may specify on this panel. Enter the text strings as desired. PSEARCH will search for the text exactly as you specify them. For example, if you want to find the string "foo bar", enter that on text line 1. PSEARCH will only display files that have the text "foo bar" appearing exactly as it is now. If you wanted to find the word "foo" and/or "bar", then you would enter "foo" in Text 1 and "bar" on text 2. PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft AND/OR logic may be toggled by pressing F7. Any combination of AND/ORs may be used to find the text. For example, you can search for: Foo -and- bar -or- foz You may specify how each search string must appear in the file. If you would like to make sure that the case of the match exactly matches what you have typed in, press F5. This alternates the case sensitivity on and off. You may also specify WHERE the string must be found in relation to the word in which it appears. Press F6 to rotate among "Word," "Prefix," "Suffix," or "normal." If you specify: Word: The string must be found as a COMPLETE word. Prefix: The string must be found at the beginning of a word. Suffix: The string must be found at the END of word. Normal: The string may be found anywhere in a word. Other Options: Press Right Arrow and Left Arrow to rotate between choices. Directories: Enter where you want PSEARCH to look for text. Available options are: Path & Subdirectories: Search the specified path and all subordinate directories (tree). Current directory: Search only the files in the specified directory. All files: Search all files on all specified drives (System) Display Mode: This option controls how PSEARCH displays the found information. Available options: Don't display text: Suppress all found-text display. Show only the filenames of matching files. Show 1st match: Show only the very first match, and immediately continue to the next file. This can be faster since it finds only the first match and does not continue to search the whole file. Related text: Show approximately 5 lines on PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft either side of the matching text. Show all matching text: PSEARCH will display each line which contains the relevant matches Scroll Mode: This option controls how the text is displayed. Two choices are available: Continuous: Show found text continuously. Stop when full: Pause when screen is full. Exclude: PSEARCH has the capability to exclude certain files from searches. The available options are: Ignore excludes: Do not exclude any files from search. Use exclude list: Do exclude the files listed in PSEARCHT.EXC. Miscellaneous options: Line numbers: Yes, show the approximate line numbers where the found text. Pause mode: Yes, Pause on every found match. No, display continuously. Letters of drives to search: Enter extra drives to search. Once you have entered all the information required on this panel, you may start the search immediately by pressing <F10>. You may also press <F9> to go to another panel to specify advanced search options (described below). Press <F3> to temporarily exit to a PSEARCH window to execute DOS commands. You may enter any DOS command in this window. The <F10> key is valid from any position on this panel. If you press <ENTER> to proceed through each item on the panel, pressing <ENTER> on the last item will also begin the search. All specifications you enter in this panel (except for pathname and search text) are maintained in a special PSEARCH control file. This file (PSEARCH.DAT) is created the first time you run PSEARCH and is placed in the same directory as the PSEARCH program file (PS.EXE). This control file allows PSEARCH to retain your last search specifications for the next time you use the utility. Change text: Follow the same procedure as for text searching, but enter the text to replace in the specified field. All other PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft options are the same. Press F10 to begin the search and replace option. File Name Search Option When you select the Name Search option from PSEARCH's Main Menu, the File Name Search panel is displayed, allowing you to enter specifications indicating the files PSEARCH is to search for. PSEARCH File Name Search Entry Panel This panel functions like the Text Search Entry panel shown earlier. See the previous section for an explanation for the options listed here. Advanced Options When you press <F9> from PSEARCH's Text Search or File Name Search panels, the Advanced Options panel is displayed, allowing you to enter further specifications for text or file name searches. These advanced options are not necessary for PSEARCH to function and may be ignored if desired. PSEARCH Advanced Options Panel Print results: PSEARCH will print to the PRN if this options is on. Logging: Log the results to PSEARCH.LOG Attributes: Enter R to search Read-only, H for hidden, S for system, A for archives. PSEARCH will only search files matching those specifications. See the PSEARCH command parameters section for a description of the /X. Once all specifications are entered, begin the search by PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft pressing <F10>, or by pressing <ENTER> from the last entry field on the panel. PSEARCH Output Data Display When you begin a search, the PSEARCH Output Data panel is displayed, allowing you to see the results of the search. The panel below illustrates a search. PSEARCH Output Display Panel The top and bottom portion of the panel display statistics to keep you aware of what PSEARCH is searching during processing. The center portion of the display shows the data found that matches the search specifications. For each text match found, PSEARCH displays the file name and data matching the search criteria. The file name is shown on a line before the matching text, along with the date and time the file was last updated or created and the size of the file (in characters). If DOS attributes are present in the DOS directory entry for the file, they are also shown. The Scroll Back At any time during the search, you may press any key to pause the search. At this time, you may press F3 to access DOS, or Up Arrow to view the lines that have scrolled off the screen. In this scroll back, you may define 5 macros, which when pressed, will activate another application. Defining a Macro In the scroll back, press F4. A screen displays which contains 5 separate groups of macro definition. Fill in the information as follows: Key: This is the key that you will press to activate the application Description: This is for your own reference. Enter a brief description containing the general purpose of this key Action: Return or Exit. If you select Return, PSEARCH will return to the after performing the desired command. You must have enough PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft memory to run both applications at once using this method. If you select Exit, PSEARCH will leave memory and automatically invoke the specified application and will NOT return to PSEARCH after completion. You will have all the available memory dedicated to the selected application. Command: Command to execute. Enter the name of the application and substitute in the '&' or the '#' as appropriate. If the application is not in the DOS PATH, PSEARCH will not be able to find the application and will fail. If you want to invoke a .BAT file in 'EXIT' mode, you MUST include "COMMAND /C" in front of the .BAT file name. After defining keys in the scroll back, simply press the key while in the scroll back and PSEARCH will invoke the desired application. PSEARCH Command Line Mode The Command Line mode allows you to enter the PS command and parameters at the DOS prompt. In this mode, PSEARCH works just like all the other Patri-Soft Utilities. Although more difficult to master, the command line mode is the easiest and fastest to use once you become more familiar with PSEARCH. PSEARCH Command and Parameters PSEARCH allows you to specify many command parameters to customize the printing process. All these parameters are optional. The command format and parameters are described below. The command for PSEARCH is PS. PS [fspec] /T:text /CT:text /F /S /E /A /D /M /C /P /PR /PF /MO /O:nn /N:nn /X[F][P]:cmd /AT:c /FW /FP /FS /DR:xxx /SO /AR /AO /FX /SK [fspec] Enter the DOS file specification for the directory and file names to be searched. If no directory name is specified, PSEARCH will search the current directory. Note: If the /A parameter is specified, the directory name portion of this parameter is not used. The /A parameter is described below. PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft Flex Filename Searching Control Characters The filename specification may contain a full DOS pathname including standard DOS wildcard characters * and ?. In addition, the special characters '~', '!', or ';' may be placed immediately before the filename to specify more flexible filename search criteria. ~ Soundex Select any filename that sounds like the specified name. For example, ~WORD would select: WORD WOOORD WRD WOOD WORLD ; No Vowel Select equal filenames but ignore vowels AEIOU in filename. For example, !WOORD would select: WoRD WoooRD WieRD WRD ! Characters Select any filenames that contain the characters entered. For example, !WD would select: WorD.dat WilDone.dat lstWorD.x SPECIFY A LIST OF FILES TO BE SEARCHED As an alternative, a file containing a list of input files may be supplied. Create a file containing lines with a filename or complete pathname on each line. Provide this filename as the source filename to PSEARCH and add an @ character before the name. The list of files will be processed as if they were all specified on the input command line. For file list processing, PSEARCH understands the output of the DOS DIR command. You may use the DOS redirection feature to direct DIR output to a file, edit the file to add or remove entries, and then provide this to PSEARCH as input. For example: PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft DIR \TURBOC\C\*.C > FILE.LST PSEARCH @FILE.LST /T:TEXT /AO Archive Only. If you have files on your system that are compressed into archive files with DOS extension names of .ZIP, .ARC, or .LZH, PSEARCH is to search only these files. This parameter is valid only for file name searches. PSEARCH does not decompress these file contents for text search requests. When supplied, the /AO parameter specifies that all archive files are to be searched internally for file names compressed in them that meet the file name specification. Note: Do not specify .ARC, .ZIP, or .LZH in the PSEARCH file specification. PSEARCH will automatically find and search these files. /AR ARchive files as well as regular files. PSEARCH will search both archive files and non-archive files for matching file name specifications. Valid only for file name searches. (See also the /AO parameter). /AT:c ATtributes. PSEARCH is to search for files having one or more of the attributes specified by the /AT: parameter, as follows: U Updated. The DOS ARCHIVE flag is on to indicate the file has been updated since the last backup. R Read Only. The DOS READONLY flag is on. H Hidden. The DOS HIDDEN flag is on. S System. The DOS SYSTEM flag is on. For example, specify /AT:U to locate all files that have been updated since your last backup was done. Use /AT:H to determine what hidden files exist on your disks. /C Case Indicates that text search requests are to be case sensitive; i.e., exact upper/lower case matches must occur. Normally it is easier to let PSEARCH find text data regardless of its case. This allows you to find all possible matches. Case sensitive search is useful when you know the text is specified in an exact way. It reduces the number of PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft false matches that may be encountered during the search. /CT: Change Text. If you would like PSEARCH to search and replace, use a /CT parameter for every /T: parameter. The /CT applies to the preceeding /T: paramter. An example of the usage would be: PS *.BAT /T:CD\WP50 /CT:CD\WP51 /DR: DRive list. If the drive is not specified in the main pathname, PSEARCH will search the current disk device. /DR: specifies one or more drives on which to perform the search. The /DR: parameter is useful for systems equipped with multiple hard disks. The following example indicates the search is to be done on drives C and D. /DR:cd Note: Specify this parameter in the PSEARCH DOS environment variable to force it to be in effect for all command line executions of PSEARCH. /DS Directory path search. Normally PSEARCH will search only the current directory, or the entire disk if /S is also specified. The /DS parameter indicates PSEARCH is to search the specified or current directory and all of its subordinate directories for file names. This parameter is useful for system that have well structured hard disk directories. For example, PSEARCH can easily search all word processing directories if all these directories are subordinate to a single high- level directory name. For example, if you have a directory structure like the following: C:\ Root directory C:\WPSYS\ Word processing system C:\WP\ Word processing data C:\WP\PLANNING\ Planning documents C:\WP\MEMOS\ Memos C:\WP\STANDARD\ Policies and Procedures Use the following PSEARCH command to search for all documents containing the text "emergency"... PS C:\WP\*.*/t:emergency/ds PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft Only the word processing document files will be searched. All other directories on your hard disk will be ignored. /EX Exclude files. The exclude facility allows you to provide a list of pathname and filename specifications that are to be excluded from processing. See below. The PSEARCH Exclude Facility The PSEARCH Exclude Facility Searching through data on your hard disk requires extensive processing and disk read time, so excluding files from the process will save time and will reduce the number of false matches encountered. The most common files to exclude from text search processing are product program and control files. These files constitute a large portion of your hard disk's used space and unnecessarily lengthen the time it takes searches to locate the desired data. Exclude File If you want to use different exclude criteria for Text Searches and File Name Searches, you may create separate files, using the following names: PSEARCHF.EXC File Name Search exclude specifications PSEARCHT.EXC Text Search exclude specifications These files may be created using a standard word processor or text editor, or you may use the EDLIN text editor provided with your DOS system. Place these exclude files in the same directory the PS.EXE file is located in. The file (or files) will contain the names of all the files and paths to be excluded. You may specify DOS pattern names to exclude groups of files with a single specification. Like DOS, an '*' indicates the last part of a filename or filename extension may be any set of characters. Also like DOS, the '?' indicates that any single position of a filename may be any character. Two additional pattern features are available that are not used with DOS. You may place an '*' anywhere in the filename to indicate any set of characters may exist in this point in the name. For pathnames, you PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft may place two '**' at the end of a directory path specification to indicate the specification applies to the specified directory and all subordinate directories. Using '**', you can exclude an entire path with a single specification. The exclude facility is implemented with two actions. First, the /EX parameter must be specified. Second, you must have a valid exclude file or files, or PSEARCH will not continue. Note: If you wish the Exclude facility to be active during all executions, specify /EX as part of the PSEARCH= DOS environment variable. Examples of /EX Parameter 1. Exclude all filenames with the extension .EXE from processing. *.EXE 2. Exclude all filenames ending with extension .COM. *.COM 3. Exclude all filenames beginning with the letters "TEST" from processing. TEST*.* 4. Exclude all filenames having the characters "TEST" anywhere in the first portion of the filename. *TEST*.* 5. Exclude files having "DO" as the first two characters of the filename, and "FIX" as the 4th, 5th, and 6th characters. The third character of the filename may be any character. DO?FIX.* 6. Exclude file names beginning with the two characters "PC" and where the first portion of the filename ends with the characters "XX". Any characters, 0 to 4 in number, may exist between the "PC" and "XX" in the first portion of the filename. PC*XX.* PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft 7. Exclude all files from the DOS directory on drive C:. C:\DOS\*.* 8. Exclude all files from the TEST directory existing on any drive searched. \TEST\*.* 9. Exclude all files from the D:\GAMES\ directory and also exclude all files and directories subordinate to the GAMES directory. D:\GAMES**\*.* /F Find File in the current directory. Normally PSEARCH will search all directories to find a file. Use the /F parameter to have PSEARCH only search the specified or current directory. /FP Find Prefix. Indicates that matching text must be at the end of an existing word (use with /T:). Designed primarily for word searches, this parameter qualifies the search to help you find exactly the match you want. /FS Find Suffix. Indicates that matching text must be at the beginning of an existing word (use with /T:). /FW Find Word. Indicates that matching text must be a word (use with /T:). A word is defined as any string of characters and numbers that does not begin or end with other characters or numbers. For example, in "This", "This" is a word, but "is" is not a word. The command: PS *.*/t:is/fw will match for the word "is" but will not match on the "is" characters in the word "this". /L Line numbers. When you are searching DOS text files for specific text (/T: parm used), use the /L parameter to cause PSEARCH to determine and display the number of the line associated with the text displayed. DOS text files are those files that have a carriage return and line feed at the end of each line of text. A good example of these is DOS batch command files (*.BAT). Word processing files often do not use this format, so line number specifications are not often PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft useful for them. /MO MOre. Stops screen scrolling when the end of each screen page is reached. After the display stops, you may press <ESCAPE> to terminate processing, <C> to disable /MO and display without stopping again, or press any other key to display another page of the display and stop again. /N:nnn Newdays. Indicates that only files created or updated within the last nnn days are to be selected for processing. /N:1 causes any files updated within the last day to be selected. To match only those files updated on the current date, specify /N:0. /ND No Display. For text searches, PSEARCH normally displays the text when a match is found. If you only want the file names shown, use the /ND parameter to deactivate the text display. /NM No Multiples. For text search specifications, causes PSEARCH to only search for a single occurrence of matching text in any file and display it. Other matches may exist in the file. Use the /NM parameter to shorten your display of output and improve search performance by stopping the search of a file after a single match is shown. /NP Suppress all PSEARCH displays. This is designed to be used when PSEARCH is invoked by other applications to build a list of files found matching the search criteria. /NW No Windows. PSEARCH normally operates in full screen window mode. To deactivate this feature and display all output in normal DOS line mode, specify this parameter. The /NW parameter causes PSEARCH to use BIOS type screen writes to display output. The /NW parameter may be useful when you have special devices or TSRs active that screen or capture output going through these interfaces. /O:nnn Olddays. Indicates that only files older than nnn days are to be selected for processing. Specify /O:365 to select files over one year old. /P Pause. PSEARCH will pause whenever a match of filename or text in a file is found. You may terminate the search or continue by pressing any key. PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft /PF Print to File. To direct print to an output file, enter /PR. The file PSPRINT.DAT will be created in the current directory. The resulting file may be edited or viewed using a word processor, text editor, or the DOS TYPE command. /PR PRint. Direct screen output also to the output printer device. This allows you to have a printed record of PSEARCH results. /R:nnn Near. Use when you specify multiple /T: parameters. Specifies the number of characters that may exist between two sets of text characters to be searched. In other words, the text will only be considered a match if it is within n characters of the other text specified. The /R parameter lets you find values you know are related to one another and know the values will exist within close proximity of each other in the file. For example, the following command will search files for the name "Jones" and will also help identify a letter to this person by indicating the search is only to match the name "Jones" when it exists near the letter salutation "Dear". The /R:50 value indicates the two values must be within 50 characters of each other in the file. PS *.*/t:jones/t:dear/r:50/ta /S System. All directories on the drives specified are to be searched. If not specified, only the current or specified directory is searched. /SO Sound Off. Turns the sound off at the beginning of a PSEARCH execution. It may be turned back on at any time by using the sound PF key. /T:text to be searched Specifies the text to be found for text search requests. The text string may contain any characters. A terminating command line or the following slash character will signal the end of the text to be searched. If this is the last parameter on the command, any trailing spaces will not be included in the search. To include trailing spaces, terminate the string with an ending slash character. Text may be specified in upper or lower case. Unless PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft the /C parameter is specified to force exact case matches, the search will be made for any text match regardless of case. Strings may also be single or double quoted. This allows for special characters to be included in the search string, such as "/" characters. For example, /T:BUDGET /T:Budget /T:Mr. Jones/ /T:"01/01/88" Note: To include a trailing space as part of search text, you must follow the search text by another / command parameter. For example: PS *.C/T: SMITH /TA Up to five /T: parameter specifications may be included for text search requests. This allows PSEARCH to search for five different texts in a single pass of a disk or directory. When multiple text is specified, consider the use of the /TA parameter (described below) to force PSEARCH to find all text in a single file before considering the file a match. The presence of the /T: parameter indicates the search is to be for text in a file or for file names. Any command line mode execution of PSEARCH without the /T: parameter will cause PSEARCH to assume the request is to locate files by name only. /TA Text AND. Used when multiple /T: parameters are specified to indicate that all text strings specified on the command must be found in the file to be considered a match. Without /TA specified, any matching text from any /T: parameter specification on the command will be considered a match. /X:xxx eXecute. This parameter causes PSEARCH to build and execute a DOS command whenever a filename match or a text match is found. The DOS command to be executed is specified by "xxx". The command may either be a standard DOS command or the name of a DOS batch command file. The command will be executed with a second copy of COMMAND.COM. The command data may contain the following special characters to allow for substitution values: # Always replaced with the selected filename. PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft & Always replaced with the selected path/filename. ! Always replaced with the filename without extension. @ Replaced with a slash to allow for command parameters to be specified in executed commands. Examples of /X Parameter 1. To delete selected files: /X:ERASE & 2. To use ARC utility to archive file /X:ARC A OLD123.ARC # 3. To type the file: /X:TYPE & 4. Start 123 for the file: /X:LOTUS /XF:xxx eXecute File. Works like the /X parameter, except the command is generated and placed in a DOS batch command file named PSCMDS.BAT in the current directory. This file may be edited before it is executed. /XP:xxx eXecute with Pause. Works like the /X parameter except you are asked to confirm that the command is to be executed for each file selected in a match. PSEARCH Color and Monitor Support PSEARCH checks the DOS equipment flags to determine what type of monitor you have on your system. This is usually always correct except for one specific occasion. If you are running a composite monitor with a color graphics card, the screens may not be displayed correctly. If this occurs, use the DOS MODE command to set your environment to black and white. This can be done at system startup or just before starting PSEARCH. Be aware that some applications incorrectly reset the environment and it may need to be reset before again running PSEARCH. The following sample DOS MODE command shows how to set the environment to black and white. PSEARCH User's Guide Copyright 1992 by Patri-Soft MODE BW80 See the DOS Reference Manual for more information about setting the monitor with the MODE command. Pausing the Search Regardless of whether or not the Pause parameter is specified, you may pause PSEARCH processing at any time by pressing any key on the keyboard. At the end of the next process PSEARCH will pause, and you will have the option to continue the search, use a function key, or exit from PSEARCH. Program Maintenance History --------------------------- There is an ongoing commitment to improve PSEARCH as long as there is expressed need by PSEARCH users. I do respond to your requests. The enhancements below reflect both user requests and my own ideas. Please let me know of your needs, maybe they can appear on this list in the future. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Version 1.0 March 1, 1986 -- PSEARCH Version 1.0 was released in March 1st, 1986 Version 2.0 April 8, 1986 PSEARCH Version 2.0 was released April 8th, 1986. It upgraded version 1 with the following new features. -- Ability to search in .ARC files for filenames /AR /AO -- Find text by WORD, PREFIX, or SUFFIX /FW /FP /FS -- Returns back to menus after search is complete -- Extract data to file implemented -- Fix to show found text un upper/lower case -- /SO to turn sound off -- Ability to exclude .COM and .EXE files from search -- Ability to search all drives attached to system /DR:abc Version 3.0 September 7, 1986 PSEARCH Version 3.0 was released Sept. 7th, 1986. It upgraded version 2 with the following new features. -- Sound alike and other new filespec wildcards (! ; ~). -- More menu options on the Peak menu. -- Correction to retrieve proper environment string to be used when executing DOS commands. Version 3.3 July 5, 1987 -- Change registration so there is no longer a need to have the PSEARCH.REG file exist in the root directory. -- Text searches will not attempt to search .ARC files. Since these files are compressed it makes no sense to search them for text. -- Use environment field PS= to specify default command parameters. PSEARCH Users Guide/Reference Copyright 1992 Patri-Soft Page 28 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 3.4 September 16, 1987 -- Ignore ~ ! and ; filename search characters unless they are in the first position of the filename. Previous versions file searches would fail if these characters were found in any position but the first. -- Correct filename matching. If file XXX would not be found if pattern name of XXX.* was specified. -- When print option was used with menus, when processing completed, menu text was printed to the printer. Corrected. Version 3.8 March 1, 1988 -- Add ability to accept " or ' quoted strings in text search input command data. This is for the /T: parameter only. Version 4.0 February 22,1990 This version is essentially a rewrite of the original PSEARCH facility. All the changes are too numerous to mention. Following is a list of the most significant changes. Enhancements... -- Add ability to search up to 5 text strings -- AND/OR capability on text strings -- New exclude file allows user to specify file names -- New menu structure -- Near parameter to force multiple text matches to be within n characters of each other. -- /NW implements no window mode for those that need or prefer DOS style displays. -- /DS parameter allows a single directory path including all subordinate directories to be searched. -- The limit of the number of directories that can be searched greatly enhanced. The maximum number of directories is related to the amount of free memory available to PSEARCH. Items removed... -- The Peak feature has been removed. -- The 5 text strings replaces the ability to specify a ? in the text search string. -- The exclude file replaces the /SK command to skip .COM and .EXE files. PSEARCH Users Guide/Reference Copyright 1992 Patri-Soft Page 29 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 4.1 February 26, 1990 -- System lockup during speaker beeps. Also improper beeps. -- Set sounds off as default -- Set pause at full screen (more) as default in command mode Version 4.2 March 9, 1990 -- Added /RT parm to show related text -- Added field edit capabilities. -- Removed more line from display after user pressed a key -- Replaced /MO with /NO. More was made default. Version 4.3 May 4, 1990 -- Corrected errors encountered when processing .ZIP files containing directory names as well as filenames. -- Corrected problem where PSEARCH ignored the drive specification for the path to be searched. -- Added directory name to filename display on search display -- Added a screen of condensed help. -- Improved screen I/O performance -- Removed requirement to place quotes around text to be searched for in command line. You may now search for data containing spaces. PS *.TXT/T:Joe Doe -- File find now searches all hard disk drives unless a specific drive is specified. -- /S parameter causes all hard disk drives to be scanned unless a specific drive is specified in the supplied pathname. Version 4.4a July 11, 1990 -- When PS *.exe/DS used. The same directory was searched 3 times. This only happened when directory had no subdirectories. PS was fixed to scan the directory once. -- For network operation -- added auto skipping of any files DOS denied access to. A message is printed for each file that is bypassed. -- Detect bad exclude file specifications and stop processing. Processing used to continue but not select any files. -- PSEARCH was searching all directories for a file even when a specific pathname was specified. The search is now limited to just the specified pathname. -- Support multiple drive parameter (/DR:) when directory name specified. Allows multiple drives to be searched for a single directory name. -- PS *.* /AT:u stopped displaying output when readonly, hidden, system, updated file displayed. -- Added [=blank and ]=\ to /X: command substitution PSEARCH Users Guide/Reference Copyright 1992 Patri-Soft Page 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 4.4c December 17, 1990 -- Added capability to specify a list of files to be searched on the command line using the "@" symbol. -- Added the /NP (No Print) parameter -- Enhanced the .EXC file to be able to process SELect and EXClude statements. Version 4.4D -- Fixed problem with registration info not displayed. Version 4.4E -- When PSEARCH.DAT found during file search IN ARCHIVES, program locked up. -- /X: parm did not work in /NW mode. DOS returned Bad command or filename. -- A couple little comsmetics. -- If a corrupted .ZIP file was encounterd, PS crashed. Now skips the file. Version 5.0 -- Added /PA to append to the PSPRINT.DAT -- Added scroll back feature -- Added View feature to menu. View prev scroll back -- Added text and WordPerfect file viewers. Press enter when scroll bar is within a file on the scroll display. -- Added evaluation day message pregmsg() in pmregis.c -- Allow empty search strings for batch file use Can have command PS /T:word/T:/T: -- \ characters was not considered printable. Added \\. -- Change PSEARCH.DAT to PS.DAT -- Default to "more" off in menus. Due to scroll back option -- Added /HA parameter to display hi-ascii chars -- Directories now searched in alphabetical order -- You may now specify incomplete pathnames such as C\*.* It is assumed C is a directory subordinate to the current directory. Version 5.1 -- When using the /R parameter, PSEARCH will only display the parts of the file that actually matches, and not the entire file. -- PS will now remove trailing spaces on /T: specifications. -- /TA is now assumed when /R is specified. -- Show number of word matches -- When searching for text, 0 byte files would eventually cause PS to encounter DOS error 4. -- Scroll back counter was incorrect, often showing high values. -- /HA can be specified to display High Ascii even when searching from the menu.