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ATTR Version 1.00 by Thomas Dyas. A file attribute utility to replace the DOS ATTRIB command. Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. All rights reserved. Table of Contents ----------------- Introduction...........................1 Registration Information...............2 License Information....................2 Installation...........................2 What are file attributes?..............3 Basic syntax of an ATTR command........3 Viewing file attributes of a file......4 Setting the attributes of a file.......5 Command switches.......................6 Special notes and tips.................8 Technical Support......................9 Introduction ------------ ATTR is a utility designed to replace the ATTRIB command available in MS-DOS. ATTR is a fully compatible superset of ATTRIB. You get all the functionality of ATTRIB including the ability to: * View file attributes. * Change one or more file attributes. * Process files in subdirectories. * Change directory attributes However, ATTR does more. With ATTR, you get the following new features that the DOS ATTRIB command does not even offer: * Multiple filenames on the same command line. * The ability to exclude certain filenames from processing. * The ability to only process files with certain attributes. The only real difference between ATTR and ATTRIB is the action that occurs when ATTR or ATTRIB is invoked without any command line arguments. ATTR will show its help screen, while ATTRIB will list the attributes of all files in the current directory. If you miss this feature, tell me when you register ATTR Documentation Page 2 Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. and I will make an effort to change it! The only hardware and software requirements that ATTR needs is an IBM PC or compatible running DOS version 2.0 or higher. In other words, ATTR will run on any PC compatible available today. Registration Information ------------------------ ATTR is released under the Shareware concept. This means that this software is NOT in the public domain. I still retain the copyright to ATTR. If you find ATTR useful for any reason whatsoever, you must register it with me or stop using the program entirely. Registration only costs $7 and allows you to remove all of the annoying "Register Me" messages that the shareware version of ATTR will display every time you use the program. The enclosed file REGISTER.TXT contains all of the information you will need to register such as my address and a form you can print out containing all of the information that I need. You may only distribute ATTR if all of the files contained within the archive are with the ATTR.EXE file. The reason for this requirement is simple considering that people can only register ATTR with me if they have the files that tell them how to register. The simplest method of distribution would be to pass on the original archive! License Information ------------------- The following paragraph is the license information for ATTR. By using the ATTR program, you automatically agree to be bound this license. TKD Software and the author of ATTR, Thomas Dyas, disclaim all warranties on the ATTR program, including all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. Furthermore, there are NO obligations or liability on the part of Thomas Dyas or TKD Software or any other party for damages, including but not limited to special, indirect, or consequential damages arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the ATTR program. By using the shareware or registered forms of the ATTR.EXE program, you automatically agree to be bound to all parts of this software license. Installation ------------ By now, you have decompressed the archive that contains the ATTR.EXE program file and the associated documentation files including this one. Just so you can be thorough, here is a list of all the files that should be included in the archive: * ATTR.EXE This is the actual ATTR program. It IS the product. :) * ATTR100.DOC The main documentation file for ATTR. * REGISTER.TXT Instructions on how to register ATTR. Includes the registration form. * FILE_ID.DIZ A description file for BBS systems. * READ.ME A quick reference to the files in the ATTR archive. The only installation step is to copy the ATTR.EXE file into a directory ATTR Documentation Page 3 Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. listed in your PATH environment variable. The PATH setting tells DOS where to find program files that are not in the current directory. For example, you would not be able to access external DOS commands if your DOS directory was not listed in your PATH statement. The simplest way to install ATTR would be to copy the ATTR.EXE file into your DOS directory. Once this is done, ATTR is ready to be run from any directory! What are file attributes? ------------------------- This is a good question since you cannot change what you don't know about. Simply put, file attributes are special properties that DOS gives to a file besides that file's name. Each attribute can either be on or off. At the current time, there are four attributes available to files and directories. The following list shows each attribute and what DOS and other programs use it for. The letter that proceeds each description is the letter that ATTR will use to refer to that attribute. All ATTR output and command line arguments will use that letter to identify that attribute. A Archive attribute- DOS uses this attribute to mark files that have been modified since the last backup. Several commands such as XCOPY and BACKUP can use this attribute to limit the number of files actually copied. When a backup is done, this attribute would be turned off by the backup program. DOS itself doesn't normally use this attribute. As you will see in the Special Notes section, you can use this attribute to exclude files from copying and other stuff. R Read-only attribute- This attribute prevents a file from being deleted or overwritten. Setting this attribute is a good way of protecting yourself from accidentally deleting an important file! Some files that should have this attribute would be COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS, and MSDOS.SYS. Files with read-only status can be renamed however. H Hidden attribute- Setting the hidden attribute will keep a file or directory out of normal directory listings. This attribute will keep a normal DIR command from displaying the file. However, the DIR /A command under DOS versions 5.0 and higher will display a hidden file. Also, hidden directories can still be accessed using the CD command. S System attribute- This attribute is usually given only to the system startup files IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS. It identifies programs that are vital to the system. IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS fall into this category because they ARE MS-DOS. System attribute files are hidden from normal directory listings as if they were hidden. You never need to give your own files this attribute. Basic syntax of an ATTR command ------------------------------- In all of the format lines that follow, anything surrounded by [] braces is optional. A vertical bar | will separate items that are mutually exclusive. You may enter only one item from this type of list and not any of the others. Items separated by Items delimited by commas may be entered in any order. You may also omit any of the items that you want from a comma list. Finally, items listed in lower case describe a variable that you must ATTR Documentation Page 4 Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. replace such as "filename". Here you would replace "filename" with the actual filename that you want. Ellipses (...) mean that you can repeat the previous sequence as many times as you want. Here is the basic format of an ATTR command: ATTR [ [+|-,A,R,H,S] [switches] [filespec] ] ... Notice that the entire command-line is optional. If you do not give ATTR any parameters to process, it will display a small help screen. Of course, you will probably be giving ATTR some parameters so that it does some actual work! In this case, the most important parameter on the command-line is the "filespec" parameter. The filespec tells ATTR what files it will access. You can specify any valid path. You can include wildcards so that multiple files can be accessed at once. Notice that the ellipses allow you to repeat this entire block as many times as you want. The "switches" part of the command-line will be described later. Valid command switches change the default behavior of ATTR and allow you to exclude files and do other stuff. All switches must precede the filespec they will affect. Finally, the section marked as "[+|-,A,R,H,S]" is the parameter that will tell ATTR to begin set file attributes. ATTR operates in two modes. The first mode is to display the attributes of each file that matches the filespec parameter. ATTR will continue in this mode until you tell it to begin setting file attributes. Once ATTR begins to set file attributes, you must use a command switch to reset it to the attribute display mode. These two modes are simpler than you think. The next two sections will explain all. Viewing Attributes ------------------ When ATTR is in the attribute display mode, it will show a list of attribute letters followed by the full pathname of a file. Each letter represents one of the attribute letters that was listed in the chart above. Here is an example command from my own hard drive: C:\> attr *.sys t*.bat command.com ATTR V1.00 Copyright (C) 1993 by Tom Dyas. All rights reserved. .RHS C:\IO.SYS .RHS C:\MSDOS.SYS A... C:\TPX.BAT A... C:\TC.BAT .R.. C:\COMMAND.COM Notice that if an attribute is set, its letter will be shown. If the attribute is not set, a period will appear. The full pathname of the file is displayed directly after the attribute list. To display file attributes, you just have to give ATTR a list of filespec's. Nothing is better than a few examples. Examples of viewing attributes: ATTR Documentation Page 5 Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. ATTR *.bat a:*.* Shows the attributes of all .BAT files in the current directory and the attributes of all files in the current directory on drive A. ATTR c:\bush*.com c:\windows\system\*.dll Shows the attributes of all files that match BUSH*.COM in the root directory of drive C, and the attributes of all .DLL files in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory on drive C. ATTR *.* Shows the attributes of all files in the current directory. ATTR *.bat *.com *.exe Shows the attributes of all .BAT, .COM, and .EXE files in the current directory. ATTR ..\rat*.txt e:\qwerty.com b:kaka*.* Shows the attributes of all files that match RAT*.TXT in the current directory's parent directory, the attributes of the file QWERTY.COM in the root directory of drive E, and the attributes of all files that match KAKA*.* in the current directory of drive B. Setting the attributes of a file -------------------------------- In order to change the attributes of a file, you must PRECEDE a file spec with one or more attribute modifiers. Each modifier starts with a plus sign (+) or a minus (-) followed by one or more of the four attribute letters. Common sense tells you that the plus sign will set an attribute, while the minus sign clears that attribute. The attribute modifiers will apply to all filespecs that follow until you reset ATTR to the "view attribute" mode. As ATTR changes the attributes of each file, it will display what attributes it changed and the full path name of the file. Here is some sample output from my own hard drive: C:\>attr +h -a p*.bat ATTR V1.00 Copyright (C) 1993 by Tom Dyas. All rights reserved. A-..H+.. C:\PS.BAT A-..H+.. C:\PSC.BAT Notice that each attribute being changed is followed by a plus or minus sign signifying the type of change. In this case, the archive attribute is being cleared while the hidden attribute is being set on both files. If you would like to set or clear more than one attribute, you can combine the letters of the attributes you want to set or clear into a single attribute modifier. The following examples will clarify this point even further. Examples of setting attributes: ATTR +a *.* Sets the archive attribute of all files in the current directory ATTR Documentation Page 6 Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. ATTR -ar *.bak *.bat Removes the archive and read-only attributes from all .BAK and .BAT files in the current directory. ATTR -a -r *.bak *.bat Same as the above command. Notice that the attribute modifiers are cumulative. In other words, the modifiers "add up". ATTR +hr -a *.sys perot*.exe This command will set the hidden and read-only attributes for all .SYS files and perot*.exe files in the current directory. At the same time it will clear the archive attribute for these files. ATTR -r a:\*.bat +a *.exe The read-only attribute will be cleared from all .BAT files in the root directory of drive A. Next, the read-only attribute will be cleared from all .EXE files in the current directory as the archive attribute is being set. Note that the "-r" does not go away simply because another modifier is listed in the command. If you want to "clear out" the modifiers to start "fresh", you must use a command switch. Command switches ---------------- ATTR accepts any number of command switches before a filespec so that you can change the program's default behavior. You can exclude files from processing and include files only with certain attributes. You can process multiple directories recursively. You can also reset ATTR to the "view attribute" mode. Command switches must PRECEDE the filespec that they modify due to the way that ATTR processes the command line. Here they are in no particular order: /? Shows the ATTR help message. You can also display the help message by invoking ATTR with no command line parameters. The message gives you a quick help reference when you cannot refer to this file. This switch is also provided since other programs such as the DOS 5+ commands use this switch to display a small help screen. /S This switch will cause ATTR to recurse through all of the subdirectories under the next filespec. The /S switch only applies to the next filespec. If you want it to apply to more than one filespec, you must specify /S before each filespec in turn. Here are some examples: ATTR /s \*.* Display the attributes of every file on the current drive. ATTR /s \tp\*.pas *.bak This command will display the attributes of all .PAS files in the \TP directory and any of the subdirectories under it. Then, the attributes of all .BAK files in the current directory will be shown. The /S switch doesn't apply to this second file spec since it wasn't specified right before the filespec. ATTR Documentation Page 7 Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. ATTR +a /s a:\*.bat /s a:\*.com This command will set the archive attribute of .BAT files on drive A. It will also set the archive attribute of all .COM files on drive A since the /S switch was specified before the second filespec. /V This switch resets ATTR to the "view attribute". ATTR will stop setting the attributes of files and begin to display file attributes starting with the next filespec. You can also use this switch to "clear out" ATTR and give ATTR entirely new attributes to set. Here are some examples: ATTR +r *.txt /v *.txt *.doc This command will set the read-only attribute for all .TXT files in the current directory. ATTR will then display the attributes for all .TXT and .DOC files in the current directory. You get to see what a pretty job ATTR did setting the read-only attribute. ATTR +r dvorak*.* /v +h *.plo This command will set the read-only attribute on all files that match DVORAK*.* in the current directory. The /V switch will reset ATTR to the "view attribute" mode. ATTR will then set the hidden attribute for all .PLO files in the current directory. The /V switch "cleared out" the "+r" modifier. Since ATTR reads parameters from left-to-right the /V must come before the "+h" to clear out the "+r". If it didn't, ATTR would also clear out the "+h" and display the attributes of all .PLO files! /X[[:]exclude_path] This command switch allows you to exclude files that match exclude_path from processing. The /X switch will stay in effect for all filespecs that follow it until you specify the /X switch again without any exclude_path. The colon that comes between /X and exclude_path is optional. You can put it in if you want. ATTR does not really care if you do. If you specify /X without an exclude_path, ATTR will stop excluding files. Here are some examples: ATTR /x:t*.* *.bat *.exe /x *.com This command will show the attributes of all .BAT and .EXE files in the current directory except for files that match t*.*. The /X switch alone stops the exclude mode. ATTR will then show the attributes of all files that match *.COM. ATTR +a /x*.com *.* a:\stuff\*.* /x /v /s b:\*.* This command will set the archive attribute for all files in the current directory and all files in the \STUFF directory of drive A except for files that match *.com. ATTR will then show the attributes of all files in all directories on drive B. This example is a good example of how the switches can be combined. /I[A,R,H,S,-,+] The /I switch will force ATTR to only process files that have certain attributes. You can specify if the attributes must be on or off. This switch is similar to the /A switch of the DIR command in DOS versions 5.0 or higher. The /I switch will remain in effect for all following filespecs ATTR Documentation Page 8 Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. until you specify the switch again without any parameters. The attribute letters that follow the /I switch must follow with no intervening space. Each letter would force ATTR to accept only files with that attribute SET. If the minus sign precedes an attribute letter, it will force ATTR to accept files with that attribute CLEAR. Here are some examples: ATTR /ia-h *.* /ir *.sys This command will display the attributes of all files in the current directory that have the archive attribute and do not have the hidden attribute. ATTR will then display the attributes of all .SYS files in the current directory that have the read-only attribute. ATTR +a /ir a:\dev\*.com /v /x:psc.bat *.bat This command will set the archive attribute for all *.COM files in the \DEV directory on drive A that have the read-only attribute. ATTR will then display the attributes of all *.BAT files in the current directory that have the read-only attribute except for the file PSC.BAT. This is another good combination example. /P-|+ This switch will turn the file protection feature on and off. By default, ATTR will protect all files with the hidden AND system attributes from having their attributes changed. This behavior is designed to protect the MS-DOS startup files IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS from attribute modification unless you REALLY mean it. These two files normally have both the hidden and system attributes. This is a safety feature. ATTRIB has this behavior by default except that you must remove the system and hidden attributes first. The protection switch is must simpler. Here is an example: ATTR -hs io.sys /p- io.sys The first filespec will not remove the hidden and system attributes from IO.SYS since protection is on by default. The second filespec will modify the IO.SYS file since the /P- switch removes protection. If you want to turn protection feature back on in the same command line use the /P+ switch. Special notes and tips ---------------------- DIRECTORY ATTRIBUTES: The first special note regards setting the attributes of directories. Using ATTR you can hide directories by giving them the hidden attribute. The directories will not be visible in normal directory listings unless the DIR /A switch is used. To set the attributes of a directory, the filespec must match the directory name exactly with the following backslash. You do not have to include the full pathname as in the following examples if the directory is in the current directory. Treat the directory as a file that you must name exactly. Here are some examples: ATTR +h c:\dos This command will hide the \DOS directory on drive C. ATTR -h util This command will "un-hide" the UTIL directory under the current directory. ATTR +h c:\dos*.* ATTR Documentation Page 9 Copyright (C) 1994 by Thomas Dyas. This command will NOT hide the C:\DOS directory since the filespec does not match the directory name exactly. USING THE ARCHIVE ATTRIBUTE TO EXCLUDE FILES WITH XCOPY: Using the archive attribute with ATTR, you can use XCOPY to copy only certain files. First, you must clear the archive attribute from all files in the directory you want to copy. Next, set the archive attribute for all files you want to copy. Then, use XCOPY with the /A switch or /M switch to copy only files with the archive attribute. It may make your life much easier! Here is a sample run without output: C:\STUFF> attr -a *.* +a /x:george*.* *.bat [Remove the archive attribute from all files in the current directory, then set the archive attribute for all *.BAT files except for files matching GEORGE*.*] C:\STUFF> xcopy *.* b:\ /a [XCOPY will copy all files with the archive attribute set in the current directory to the root directory of drive B. It is that simple!] Technical Support ----------------- Technical support for ATTR and any other programs that I have written can come to me through several sources. If you want to send me postal mail, send your questions and comments to the following address: TKD Software P.O. Box 211 Metuchen, NJ 08840 If you have access to Internet electronic mail, send a mail message to: tom.dyas@f331.n107.z1.fidonet.org If you have FidoNet netmail access, send a mail message to: Tom Dyas at node 1:107/331 I will try to answer your questions and improve ATTR using your comments. Registered users will get first priority over all other people. If you want first priority, register with me using the instructions in REGISTER.TXT!