The program is started as usual, e.g. by doube-click on its icon.
After the program startup there appears a short license message (in english – the original as stated in the GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE – and ones again in German, the original language of the program).
This message can be (read and then) done away with easily by entering return or clicking on „OK“.
Afterwards there appears the main form of the program.
The main form contains two tables, one above the other, and several menus. The upper table holds the list of file(entrie)s.; most menuitems in the menu „MyFileEntry-List“ or commands in the „MyCommands-List“ in the lower part of the form apply to the selected ones (beware of exceptions, e.g. you can remove all fileentries at ones – the files itself are kept).
The main difference between the menu „MyFileEntry-List“ and executing the resp. commands in the „MyCommands-List“ is that together with the commands in the „MyCommands-List“ you can easily at once enter the necessary parameters (using „Input assistance” – CTRL-I – if necessary), while with the menuitems they must be input after selecting the menuitem.
Columns can be editable or display-only, like the first five cols in the „MyFileEntry-List“. (The old values – the inputs – remain the same, while the new values – the outputs – can be specified.) The editable columns can be comboboxes (choice fields) or single-line textfields. When entering text, you can always undo all changes by pressing the ESC-Key.
The last column in the „MyCommands-List“ should actually be multiline. To enter multiline text there, use the „Input assistance“ located in the menu „Help“ or press CTRL-I, both after entering a cell in that column by double-clicking.
Important: To position the cursor on a textfield cell of a table (for entering or just for selecting text – for copying), always use a double-click (while the mouse-cursor is positioned on the resp. cell).
In addition with both tables you can select multiple lines simultaneously. First variant (single interval): You click on one end of the range you want to select, hold down left or right shift-key, and click on the line on the other end of the range. Or: You click one after another on the lines you want to select, while you hold down the CTRL-key.
The „File“-menu contains only two items: „Backup“ and „Exit“, which ends the program.
If you select „Backup“, all files (for which there are entries in the table) will be written to a series of Zip-files whos name and directory you can specify. First, a backup filename and directory are prompted. Under the directory there will be created a subdirectory, who's name is made from
the word „Backup“
the date in a format, which leads to a correct sorting (YYYYMMDDHHmmss), and
the name of the backup-file chosen, with out its extension (e.g. „Backup 20100409174359 My_File“)
All files (not only the selected ones!) from the list will be taken and one after the other be written to consecutive Zip-files („My_File 001.My_Extension“, „My_File 002.My_Extension“, etc. „My_Extension” can be „zip“, but can be otherwise specified by you). Zip-files can be at most 4 GB of size. That's the reason why the name is not taken „purely“, but is extended by a consecutive number (in case more than one Zip-file will be necessary).
The limit on the size of the Zip-files has a positive side-effect: each Zip-file can be stored on a DVD or a (minimum) 4-GB USB-stick.
What's more: WinZip, 7Zip und Windows (partly) are not compatible with Java®-made Zip-files: They have problems when they encounter non-ASCII-signs. You'll get problems if they are part of a Zip-entry (that's to say a filename of a file backed up). A filename, which contains é, á or ®, causes an error when trying to extract the file (and is not displayed correctly). Therefore a utility is included with the program to display (correctly display, e.g. é, á oder ® and not „++“ instead of „ü“ or „+®“ instead of „é“!) and extract compressed files (without any problems ;-) ). See menuitem „Display or extract compressed file“ (menu „Zip“, see below in this text)!
When ending the program there is no check for changes. (You got to know yourself ;-) ! The reason: This is awkward to implement in Java®, cause the programmer himself got to keep track of all changes – there is no „has_data_changed“-attribute or something like that with the fields, tables, or forms.) So it is asked, if you want to save the list of „MyFileEntries“, „MyCommands“, or both, without looking for changes. (In each case all files will be saved, not only the selected. If you want the latter, abort exiting and chose „Write marked lines to CSV-File“!) During the following, the save can still be aborted, but exiting the program only prior to that. (When ending the program, there is a choice for what you want to save – there you can simply click „Abort“.)
This menu contains all items, which are responsible for selecting file(entrie)s, for loading and saving the „MyFileEntry-List“ etc.
Admits the choice of files or whole directories. The directories are searched (for files), if thereby is encountered a sub-directory, this is searched again etc. (recursively, for nerds ;-) ). There can be taken all files, all text-files or the files according to the extension in the file „extensions.txt“ in the current working direstory. Thus you can simply define a bunch of hundreds or even thousands of files you want to work on with just a few clicks. (The filechooser here is in multi-select mode [and allows selecting files and directories], so you can select many files and/or directories simultaneously using CTRL- and/or SHIFT-clicks.)
These files can be manipulated directly (e.g. using replace, copy, or backup) or be filtered more closely using appropriate commands resp. menuitems. It is also possible to select and then delete single file(entrie)s (the latter by selecting the appropriate menuitem) by using clicks, maybe together with the CTRL- oder SHIFT-key. You will normally select the files you don't want to be taken into account and then delete them. (But e.g. „Replace on marked files“ obviously operates on the selected files!)
The file „extensions.txt“ contains just the extensions, without the dot „.“, exactly one extension per line. Comments or the like are not provided.
Example for the containts of
„extensions.txt“:
mp3
m4a
If you now select „Load“, you'll get the choice between „Standard-Files (extensions.txt)“ (instead of „Textfiles“) and „All Files“. If you only want to chose your music files, you simply select „Standard-Files (extensions.txt)“ and then the directories you want to be searched. Then all files with one of the extensions given in „extensions.txt“ which reside in one of the given directories (or in one of their sub-directories) will be listed. The file „extensions.txt“ can be edited while the program is running, but always before you call „Load“. Attention! Windoze doesn't allow „extensions.txt“ to be a link! (The file „Replace_WinBatch.jar“ can be a link; under „Properties“ you should specify the working directory – where the file „extensions.txt“ will be searched. [The standard is that directory where the link points to, not where the link resides!])
Loads the list of file(entrie)s readily from the chosen CSV-file („CSV“ means „Comma Seperated Values“ and is a well-known format, which can be used by many spreadsheet-programs. It is readable and in case of need can be edited using a normal text-editor (e.g. „Notepad“, „jedit“, „SciTe“ etc., also „Word“, „OpenOffice.org Writer“ etc.) It can be created by this program, too, see next menuitem! (Explanatory note: „CSV“ is a very general format, the „MyFileEntry-List“ is stored and read in a very special!)
Writes the marked lines of the current list of file(entrie)s to a CSV-file (of special format). This file can be read (see menuitem before!), and, before that, can be manipulated using a spreadsheet- or textediting-program.
The name of the file is asked for; a default is supplied.
Selects all entries in the „MyFileEntry-List“.
Deselects all entries in the „MyFileEntry-List“.
Selects all entries in the „MyFileEntry-List“, which were previously unmarked, and deselects all other.
There are six subitems. Selects all „MyFileEntries“, for which a special condition is true resp. is false. See subitems!
Searchcondition is a regular expression. So see help on „Searchcondition / regular expression“.
All lines („MyFileEntries“) are selected to which the entered searchcondition applies to.
You can input the searchcondition / regular expression and the column, which should be searched. (E.g. „Search in:“ „Directoryname (old)“ will search the directoryname of the input file. Of course you can search the whole file, too. Use „Filecontents“ [old resp. new]).
You input the searchcondition „Replace“, and search in „Directoryname (old)“. All the lines will be marked which stand for files which can be found in a directory whose full path name anywhere contains „Replace“; e.g. all files in a directory „Replace_WinBatch“ or any of its sub-directories.
Searchcondition can be first any string (one-line text). But there is one exception: There are characters which have a special meaning in regular expressions. This applies to dot („.“), backslash („\“), all kinds of brackets, braces etc. and some others.. Solution: You lay out a resp. line in the “MyCommands-List”. Then you can use “Input Assistance”. You select the whole string to search for and chose „Quotation: \Q ... \E“ from the menu „Brackets“. Every character that stands between „\Q“ and „\E“ will be taken literally – no special meaning! (If you chose „Quotation: \Q ... \E“ from the menu „Brackets“ there will be also a solution in case the string itself will contain „\E“.)
Regular expressions can be very powerful: like a whole little program. This leeds to the case when they really need debugging like a program! I myself spent sometimes an hour or even more on debugging a regexp.
All lines („MyFileEntries“) will be selected for which the file size [in byte] is between a minimum and a maximum which both can be specified by the user. The defaults are chosen in a way that all files („MyFileEntries“) will be selected. If the minimum is left 0, only the maximum will be taken into account (naturally, cause all files have minimum 0 bytes!) Vice versa: You enter a minimum and leave the maximum at 99,999,999,999: only the minimum will be taken into account – if there are no files greater then about 99 GB (if this should be really the case, simply increase this value)!
Analogous to preceding menuitem. Beware! The date format must (nearly) exactly be kept. The date format is „month (three letter abbreviation, case doesn't count) day, year (four letters!) hour:minutes:second AM or PM“, e.g. „May 6, 2010 10:42:27 AM“! Time, including second and AM resp. PM, cannot be omitted! Seconds can be – like all figures except year (and month ;-) ) – be single-digit, e.g. „jan 6, 2008 0:0:0 am“. Year should be four-digit, because „08“ is interpreted as „1908“!
Tests if file (old) and file (new) within a line are presumably identic. For this, file date and size must match. Presumably identic files can be excluded without problems e.g. when copying.
Tests if file (old) and file (new) within a line are definitively equal. For this, files are read and compared to bytewise. Definitively equal files can be excluded in any case e.g. when copying.
All lines („MyFileEntries“) are selected to which the entered searchcondition does not apply to. Apart from that this is analogous to „searchcondition is true“.
All lines („MyFileEntries“) will be selected for which the file size [in byte] is not between the given minimum and maximum, i.e. where the size is either less than the minimum or greater than the maximum. Contrary to „size between ...“, q.v.!
Contrary to „modification date between ...“, q.v. and „size NOT between ...“ above!
This submenu is completely analogous to „Additionally mark lines, if“, i.e. the lines / files are unmarked, if the conditions are complied with resp. not complied with. Attention: Normally marked lines will be finally removed, so unmark normally means „keep“.
Replace only works on text-files (.txt, .html, sources etc.) or on the file- resp. directoryname (extension included with filename). First a searchcondition is asked for. Searchcondition is a regular expression. Again see help on „Searchcondition / regular expression“. (You need to know not much about regular expressions in the beginning: The simplest regexp is just any string you've known before.) Every occurence of the search string will be replaced in the result by the string you input second. The output is in one of the fields „Directoryname (new)“, „Filename (new)“, „Extension (new)“ resp. as containts of a file in „Directoryname (new)“ with „Filename (new)“ and „Extension (new)“, depending on what you've specified (chosen) under „Search in“.
Noteworthiness: The backslash („\“) is used both in the searchcondition and in the replace string as the escape-symbol. That means, it must be doubled to have its literal meaning. In the replacement-string the rest is taken literal, i.e. e.g. „\n“ is no newline, but will be interpreted just as „n“. A backslash, which isn't doubled, is simply discarded. When you want to enter multiline text as replacement, use the resp. command with „Input assistance”.
„C:\\eclipse\\workspace\\Replace_WinBatch“ is replaced by „I:“ on the „Directoryname (old)“. Then you replace any string you want on „Filecontents (old)“. There will be a new file on drive „I“ (in a resp. subdirectory, e.g. „I:\helptext“, if the „Directoryname (old)“ was „C:\eclipse\workspace\Replace_WinBatch\helptext”). The new file looks like the old one, except for the replacement.
See also the annotation concerning searchconditions, above under „Additionally mark lines, if”→„searchcondition is true“.
Works much like replacing, however the original text will be taken and converted to uppercase. You are asked only for the column to work on (e.g. „Filename (old)“ or „Filecontents (old) or (new)“). The rest is defined, on contrary to the menuitem above.
Attention! If you work with windows: File- or directorynames are regarded as equal, if they only differ concerning case.
Like the menuitem before, lower- instead of uppercase.
Only the first letter of each word is capitalized, the rest is unchanged, which normally means „lower“ (if you want to enforce this „lower“, select „Marked lower“ first, e.g. apply to „Filename (old)“, and select „Marked Wordcase“ and apply to „Filename (new)“).
Copies all selected files from Directoryname (old), Filename (old) + Extension (old) to Directoryname (new) using Filename (new) + Extension (new) without changing the Filecontents. Works on non-textfiles (binary files, e.g. „.mp3“), too – on the contrary to the previous menuitems, especially „Replace on marked files“. The date of the new file(s) will be the current (on the contrary to the following menuitem).
Is not excessively fast, needs about 50 % more time then the operating system, but has the advantage that you can chose which files you want to copy (also from different directories!), though the directory tree will be kept (in fact you can specify for each single file where it should be copied to).
Like the menuitem before, however the modification date will be set to that of the original file. Good for backup and restore, what's more: you can still filter (select, even by the operating system!) the copies by their (original) modification date.
Works analogous to the UNIX-Command „grep“. The output file („Directoryname (new)“, „Filename (new)“ etc.) will only contain such lines from given input („Filecontents (old) or (new)” - you will be prompted for!) for which a certain searchcondition (you will be prompted for!) holds true.
Beware! You should set „Directoryname (new)”, „Filename (new)” etc. in advance, so that (a) new output file(s) will be created, and the original file(s) won't be overwritten.
Alternatively you can opt for appending (to the output file). This option (you'll be prompted for resp. when you input a resp. command line you can enter „a“ [overwrite = Not append = „n“] in the last column) you should chose, if you want the whole output to be sent to only one file. The resp. full path name of the input file will then head each output together with the line number „0000000“. These lines can be eliminated by a "grep not" with the searchcondition „(?m)^0{7} “ (before you eliminate the line numbers, see next paragraph!). Maybe afterwards you will have to eliminate line numbers twice (see next paragraph!).
The output file will contain line numbers (7-digit) with a separating blank before each line. If that does trouble someone, you should replace directly afterwards „(?m)^\d{7} “ on „Filecontents (new)“ by nothing. The line numbers will be gone (Beware: There is a blank at the end of the searchcondition!)
Analogous to menuitem before, but now the lines are kept, for which the searchcondition holds not true. What was said about the line numbers holds.
Gives summary Information about the selected files (cumulative, minimum, and maximum size, oldest und newest modification date).
Gives summary Information about all files, not only the selected. See menuitem before!
Removes all selected lines from the list. The underlying files are kept.
Is (much) faster then „Mark all“ and then „Remove marked lines“, but the effect is the same.
Removes all selected lines from the list. The underlying files are not kept.
This menu contains all menuitems which are responsible for manipulating the list of (My)Commands.
The normal way is as follows: specify the commands (i.e. filling in all fields / table cells as far as necessary of the respective line[s]), select (mark) the files you want the commands to operate on, select (mark) the commands you want to execute and then select the menuitem „Execute marked MyCommands“ (see below).
The specification comprises the following:
the choice of the „Command-Type“ (choicefield, just select want you want)
if applicable, to which column of the „MyFileEntry“-table the command should be applied (likewise a choicefield)
entering, what to find (and replace), when filtering by size or date the minimum (textfield with „Input assistance“ via CTRL-I or Help→„Input assistance“)
if applicable, entering „Replace by“ or „Maximum“ (textfield with „Input assistance“ via CTRL-I or Help→„Input assistance“)
Attention! The results will always be in the columns „... (new)“ resp. in the new defined file (which can be identical to the old one). The original fileentry (the first five cells in each line) will always be unchanged.
Consequence:
If you want to make successive changes on the same files resp. fileentries, you need to run the first command on the … (old)-columns, but from the second command on, you should apply the changes to … (new). E.g. you first execute „Replace on marked files“ on „Directoryname (old)“, the second „Replace on marked files“ must then be run on „Directoryname (new)“.
Analogous to the resp. menuitem under „MyFileEntry-List“. See above!
Analogous to the resp. menuitem under „MyFileEntry-List“. See above!
Single particularity: There could be multiline entries in the created file. Not all spreadsheet-programs are able to deal with multiline entries in a single cell (e.g. „OpenOffice.org Calc“ cannot), but you always can use a texteditor to manipulate the file and then have it read in again by the program.
Insert a new (command) line before the (hopefully unique ;-) ) selected (command) line.
Sole problem: The cursor shouldn't reside in one of the first two columns (of the comboboxes) when this menuitem is selected, otherwise the value of that column will not be displayed correctly.
Insert a new (command) line behind the (hopefully unique ;-) ) selected (command) line.
Sole problem: The cursor shouldn't reside in one of the first two columns (of the comboboxes) when this menuitem is selected, otherwise the value of that column will not be displayed correctly.
Copies the last marked (selected) line (should be only one ;-) ). Multiple lines can be copied one after the other. They will be inserted last copy first (last in-first out [LIFO]; Stack; pushdown storage).
Insert the last copied line, if that is already done, the last copy before etc. before the last currently marked line.
Sole problem: The cursor shouldn't reside in one of the first two columns (of the comboboxes) when this menuitem is selected, otherwise the value of that column will not be displayed correctly.
Analogous to menuitem before. Problem: see above!
Selects all (command) lines. If you wish to remove all commands (i.e. all lines in the lower table), you will first select this menuitem, and then the following. (You could also execute all commands, e.g.)
The selected (command) lines will be irrevocably deleted.
The selected (command) lines will be executed, depending on the „Command-Type“ on all or just the selected file(entrie)s (lines of the „MyFileEntry“-table).
If you want to execute all commands, chose „Mark all lines“ beforehand.
Is still in beta-version. Is primarily thought to be a tool for (displaying and) extracting the Zip-files created via „Backup“. Beware! Extracting a backup-file with nearly 4 GB will take 6 – 8 Minutes.
You can simply chose a zip-file by clicking the resp. button. Afterwards you will chose the path (to the directory) where you want to extract to. Then you can opt for extracting all or only the selected entries (files). Subdiretories will be created as need.
Problems: See : Item „Backup ...“ under Help→Read me at all costs!
Here you'll find all the information about the program (except for the information you're just looking for … ;-) ).
You will need to select this menuitem, when you are starting the program for the first time.
… is already done, when you are able to select this menuitem ;-) .
Shows this file.
Shows a (relatively) short introduction concerning „regular expressions“. Shows what „regexp“ in Java® can (or cannot ;-) ). Who is already more or less accustomed to regexp, will find short information via the „ToolTipTexts“ on the comboboxes of the „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“ (q.v. also the menus „Brackets“ and „Insert“).
The simplest regular expression is just a normal string, without the special signs reserved in regexp (all kinds of brackets and the backslash and „.^$?*+“, just precede them with a backslash if you need them literally). So with regexp you can do a saerch-and-replace nearly as you are customed to.
If the cursor resides on the MyCommands-List in one of the columns „Find/Replace/Filename/Minimum ....“ or „Replace by/Maximum ...“ by selecting this menuitems one of the forms „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“ resp. „Input Assistance on 'Replace by' ...“ will be shown to enter regexp resp. multiline text. Especially for regexp you will find intensive help.
… was only one (up to now ;-) )!
Shows the text of the „GNU Lesser General Public License“ („LGPL“).
If the cursor is positioned on the column „Find/Replace/Filename/Minimum...“ (by double click!) and you press CTRL-I resp. you select the Menuitem Help→Input Assistance, this form is shown for entry help. Especially for inputting regular expressions you will find numerous aids.
This frame contains four menus and numerous comboboxes.
The comboboxes are (with one exception) all made following the same design pattern. By clicking on a value it will be inserted into the entryfield (at the cursorposition, or – if text is selected – instead of this). (Exception: The second field on the left hand side.) To know which meaning the inserted characters have, there are „ToolTipTexts“ with a short help for each value to be inserted. „ToolTipTexts“ show up after the mouse cursor resides on the resp. line for a few seconds. You will also find help if you chose „Searchcondition / regular expression“ from the „Help“-menu.
The menu(item)s have the folllowing meaning.
The „File“-Menu does only contain the items for regularly ending and aborting the input.
Regular end: The display of the table will be updated and the window will be disposed (frame closed).
The display of the table will NOT be updated, but the window will be disposed
Does only contain the item „Undo“. Cutting, copying and pasting of text can be done via normal shortcuts, which are provided in any case for your operating system as a standard (e.g. CTRL-X, -C, -V).
Undos the last edit.
All items in this menu behave alike: The selected text will be somehow enclosed („bracketed“), e.g. in round brackets or braces. For more precise information: see below!
Encloses the selected text into parenthesis. The text in parenthesis is part of a regular expression, referred to as a Group. In the replace-by-text you can reference groups by $1 through $9. To count the groups they are numbered from the outside to the inside and from left to right. $0 references the whole found text.
(\d+)\.(\d+) matches each decimal number with at least one decimal place (e.g. 123456.78). The integer part of the number will be in group 1, the decimal part in group 2 and the whole number is group 0. The replace-by-text could be „integer part = $1, decimal part = $2, number = $0“. Using $3 through $9 would lead to an error.
The bracketed characters are options: [abc] would mean, there could be a, b or c at the resp. position.
In a text between „\Q“ and
„\E“, every special meaning is suspended. „\“
is valid without duplication, „\n“ really means a „\“
followed by a „n“ etc. Important for paths under Windoze
(these are full of „\“'s). „\Eigene Dateien“
(as is often part of a path on German Windoze systems) could cause
problems. To work around this, „\E“ is replaced by
„\\E\QE“ by this function. (The quotation ends after the
bachslash and a new one starts immediately with the „E”).
Annotation:
I assume that „\Q“ stands for „Quotation“,
„\E“ für „End (quotation)“.
The bracketed text must be a (positive integer) number saying how often the character before shall occur. The value will be exactly obeyed to. If you use e.g. „a{5}“, there must be „aaaaaa“ somewhere in the text to search.
Analogous to the menuitem before, but the enclosed number now means the minimum frequency. „a{5,}“ would also match „aaaaaaaaaaa“, „\d{5,}“ every number with at least five digits (possibly including leading zeros).
Analogous to the menuitem before (with maximum, „a{,5}“ matching e.g. „aaa“).
Inserts the current date, using the standard format for the default locale in effect (e.g. „Apr 12, 2010 04:44:37 AM“ for English or „12.04.2010 04:44:37“ for German).
Inserts a minimal value for the (modification) date (e.g. „Jan 1, 1901 12:00:00 AM“ for English).
Inserts a minimal value for a number (i.e. file size).
In the selected text every „\“ will be replace by „\\“.
Example:
„C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\Harald\Eigene Dateien“ will be replaced by „C:\\Dokumente und Einstellungen\\Harald\\Eigene Dateien“.
Permits the input of multiline text (as replacement for the text
you specified in the column „Find/Replace/Filename/Minimum“).
When
you specify this text, you can reference groups (build by
parenthesis) by using $1 through $9 (special feature: $0 needs no
parenthesis, cause it means the whole expression found).
Search for „.(?s).*“, which means „just
everything“ (including line terminators).
Replace by
„$0
New_Text“.
„New_Text“ in this way will be appended to each file. „New_Text“ could e.g. be an environment variable definition which should be inserted into each „.profile“-file on a UNIX-system.
This menu has exactly the same function as with „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“. See above (Form „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“)!
This menu has exactly the same function as with „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“. See above (Form „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“)!
This menu has analogous function to „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“. Instead of the minimum the resp. maximum will be inserted. See above (Form „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“)!
This menu has exactly the same function as with „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“. See above (Form „Input Assistance on 'Find and replace' ...“)!