MODIFY

PURPOSE   OPERATION   OPTIONS   COMMAND LINES   RELATED PROGRAMS


Author: Dan Mares, dmares @ maresware . com
Portions Copyright © 1998-2021 by Dan Mares and Mares and Company, LLC
Phone: 678-427-3275

One liner: Alternative to the attrib command to change file attributes.


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PURPOSE

Modify/change file attributes (takes the place of attrib).

The program can change the attributes of files with a more simple command structure than the DOS attrib command. It allows you to change the following: hidden, read/write, archive, and system attributes.

The latest versions of the program will also reset attributes of directories with the proper (-D) option.


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OPERATION

Attributes are changed by either adding or subtracting them.

Modify is used to change the attributes of files and directories based on specific command line criteria. The options placed on the command line can be used to restrict and pick the specific files needed to adjust the attributes. The 32 bit version will work on long filenames.

To add an appropriate attribute use a plus sign (+), and to subtract them use a minus sign (-), and the appropriate option letter. The appropriate letters are: a:= = change the modify/backup attribute, h:= =hidden, r:= =readonly, s:= =system, 0:= =turn off all attributes.

Modify will change the DOS file attributes based on command line options.


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OPTIONS

For options (rhsa) use the minus (-) to turn the attribute off, and a plus (+) to turn the attribute on.

-r:  set/unset the read/write attribute

-h:  set/unset the hidden attribute

-a:  set/unset the archive bit

-s:  set/uset the system attribute

-0:  remove all attributes and set to normal

-D:  if file is actually a directory, change its attributes also.

-p + path(s):  If more than one directory is needed to be looked at, then add the paths here as appropriate. (-p c:\windows d:\work) [PATH=path]

-f + filespec:  If more than one file type is needed, add them here. (-f *.c *.obj *.dll) [FILES=filetype]

If these options are used, the program builds a matrix of paths and file types. It searches all the requested directories for all the requested file types. Thus giving a total of all the files in all the paths requested. These options are added to any default command line provided. (C:>mdir c:\work\*.c -f *.dll -p d:\windows)

-x + filespec:  e(x)clude these file types from listing. (same format as -f option) (-x thesefiles.txt) [EXCLUDE=filetype]

-g + #:  Where the # is replaced by a number indicating, list all files ‘g’reater than # days old. You can use a -gl pair to bracket file ages. [OLDER=xxx]

-1 + #:  Where the # is replaced by a number indicating, list all files ‘l’ess than # days old. You can use a -gl pair to bracket file ages. To get todays files, use (-l 1) [NEWER=xxx]

-L + #  Where the # is replaced by a number indicating, list all files less than # bytes in size. (-L 100000) [LESSTHAN=xxx]

-G + #:  Where the # is replaced by a number indicating, list all files greater than # bytes in size. You can use a -GL pair to bracket file sizes. (-G 10000) (-G 10000 -L 100000) [GREATER]=10000

-R  Recurse the tree when performaing any of the operations.


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COMMAND LINE

C:> modify  *.c  +r  -h /* reset all .c files to readonly, remove hidden attribute */

C:> modify  autoexec.bat  +rh /* set autoexec.bat to readonly and hidden */

C:>modify  one  -D +h    /* change the directory one to a hidden directory */

C:>modify  -f *.c *.obj  +h  /*make all *.h *.c files hidden */

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RELATED PROGRAMS

DOS: Attrib

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