[<<]Message[>>]    [<<]Author[>>]        Subject            Thread    

Number   :  71
Date     :  2001-05-17
Author   :  Kan Yabumoto
Subject  :  XXCOPY /NP switch
Size(KB) :  2



Joseph Maddison said he was using a DIR command to locate
the files which contains a tilde (the letter "~").

Alas, practically any file with an LFN has that character!!!
The trouble using the standard tools such as DIR, COPY, or
XCOPY (and most other file management tools for that matter)
is that filename match uses not only the primary filename
(LFN) but also the alias name (SFN). This behavior makes
it impossible to locate a file with "~" in the LFN but not
in the SFN.

There are other cases where this loose name matching scheme
becomes troublesome. For example, try locating files whose
main part (before the .extension) ends with the letter "1"
(e.g., My_long_name_1.txt).

For example, when you have files

My_Long_File.Txt (MYLONG~1.TXT)
My_long_name_1.txt (MYLONG~2.TXT)
TECHSP~1.TXT (TECHSP~1.TXT)

And you run the following commands

DIR *1*
DIR *~*

You will find all of the three files will be listed in both
cases. You will encounter similar behaviors with COPY and
XCOPY. (Due to the deliberate compatibility concern, XXCOPY
also does it the same way).

This is where XXCOPY's /NP (Precise name-match) feature comes
handy. Joseph's headache of locating the "whacked" filenames
can be handled by one command.

XXCOPY \*~?* /S /NP /LSL

This pattern (~ followed by ?) eliminates a case where
the filename ends by a ~ because the last asterisk(*)
could match "nothing" (?* requires at least one character).

The /NP switch throws away the loose matches (commonly done
by the standard file tools) for the following files

My_Long_File.Txt (MYLONG~1.TXT)
My_long_name_1.txt (MYLONG~2.TXT)

These files do not contain the ~ character except in the SFN
alias. Therefore, the XXCOPY command will match only the
TECHSP~1.TXT file whose primary (LFN in this case) filename
contains the pattern that was specified.

We would love to make /NP as the XXCOPY default behavior but
that would generate too many unnecessary tech support calls
from surprised users. So, the /NP behavior is not automatic.
But, it is nice to remember that XXCOPY can make a precise
name matching (Don't bother to remember the mnemonic but
look it up when you need it).

Kan Yabumoto

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