Qfind VERSION 2.2 - 08/19/93 Qfind Copyright 1991,1992, 1993 by JebSoft and James E. Bell 135 Gunlock Trace Roswell, Georgia 30076 Electronic Mail on Compuserve: 70270,534 QFIND (Quick Find) is a set of utility programs that perform the function of finding the location of a file or files on your system. QFIND uses a different approach than most of the file-finding programs available today. FEATURES: * Extremely fast file name search. * Very easy to use. * DOS Command line version of programs. * Microsoft Windows 3.1 version of programs. Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 2 Files included in QFND20.ZIP: QFBUILD.EXE Builds file name database. DOS version QFIND.EXE File finder utility. Command line version QFBDLWIN.EXE Builds file name database. Windows version QFINDWIN.EXE File finder utility - Windows version THREE_D.DLL DLL file used in Qfindwin. This file should be located in your Windows directory QFINDWIN.INI Initialization file for QFINDWIN QFINDDOC.TXT Text version of documentation QFINDDOC.WRI Windows Write version of documentation QFINDHST.WRI History of changes for Qfind in Write format QFINDHST.TXT History of changes for Qfind in text format REGISTER.FRM Registration form REGISTER.WRI Registration form in Windows Write format. The following files are used by the Windows Install program. They are only needed for the installation. SETUPQF.EXE SETUPKIT.DLL VER.DLL FILES.DAT STARTUP.INI Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 3 Qfind, like many DOS utilities, was born of necessity. I needed to find "that file". I did not know which directory contained the file, much less which disk contained the file. I pulled out one of the existing file find utilities and used it to search all my drives for "that file". After much disk activity, I found the file. I needed to find another file later and did the same thing. Most of my files (99.99%) had not changed their location on my system between searches. Why do all that disk activity each time I need to find a file when most of the files are still in the same location since the last time? Why not "remember" where all the files are located and use that information for later searches. If the file system has changed considerably since the last search, just build the file database again and use the new one to search. Qfind is a file finding system that does just that. Qfbuild builds a database that contains all files on all selected drives on your system. The search programs (Qfind and Qfindwin) then use that file to do their searches. This results in extremely fast search times since the actual file names in the disk directories are not needed again. On one of my machines that has a 200 meg and a 120 meg drive and 10,000+ files, the search time is less than 3 seconds. On another machine that has 2 32 meg logical drives, 8 network drives and over 15,000 files, the search time is less than 4 seconds. ************************************************************ Installation: All the files, except THREE_D.DLL and QFINDWIN.INI can be located in any directory of your choice. QFINDWIN.INI must be in the same directory as WIN.INI. THREE_D.DLL can be in any directory specified in the path statement. The recommended place is in the WINDOWS directory. ************************************************************ QFBUILD.EXE Qfbuild is the DOS program that builds the database that contains all the file names and directory names on selected drives along with the optional switches for including Arc and Zip files. . It is executed from the command line with the following syntax.... QFBUILD [-z] [-a] first_drive next_drive etc.... The Arc and Zip switches must precede the drive letters. The "[ ]" are not included on the actual command line. They are here to show that these parameters are optional. Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 4 If the -z switch is included, all ZIP files on the selected drives are searched to include their files names in Qfind.dat. The -a switch is for ARC files. Examples: QFBUILD -a c d e f g This would build a Qfind.dat containing all files in drives c, d, e, f, g and the internal directories of any ARC files found on these drives. QFBUILD -z e f g This would build a Qfind.dat containing all files in drives e, f, g and the internal directories of any ZIP files found on these drives. QFBUILD -a -z c: d: e: f: g: This would build a Qfind.dat containing all files in drives c, d, e, f, g and the internal directories of any ARC and ZIP files found on these drives. Qfbuild will take drive letters with or without the trailing ":" after the drive letter. The data file is built in the order of the drives on the command line. If you need to alter the order for some reason, just order the drives on the command line as you wish. Qfbuild sorts the file names in each subdirectory in ascending order. This was done to make it easier to visually read the output in Qfind or Qfindwin. The inclusion of the -z and -a switch is recommended. Qfind.dat would then contain all files on the selected disks including the files contained in the ARC and ZIP files. The only reason for leaving out the -z and -a switch on the command line would be to make Qfind.dat smaller. Qfind and QfindWin both have the ability to search for files either including or excluding ARC and ZIP files. Changing the location of the data file.... Normally, the data file is written to the root directory of the C drive. If you need to change the location, add the variable QFIND to the environment. The variable QFIND is set to the drive and directory where you want the data file to be located. Example.... Set QFIND=E:\QFIND Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 5 QFBUILD will write the data file in the QFIND directory on the E drive and QFIND will look there to find the file. *********************************************************** QFIND.EXE Qfind is the command line version of the search program. It is executed with the very simple syntax as follows.... QFIND [-x] [-g] search_mask Example: Qfind *.c The above command will find all the .C files on all selected drives and list them to the screen. I did not allow for multiple search masks because the search is so fast and the actual directory structure is not re-read for each search. If you need to find files with another search mask, just re- execute Qfind with the new search mask. The -x switch must precede the search mask parameter, and is used to exclude the search of the contents of any ARC or ZIP files. If the -x switch is added to the command line, Qfind will NOT search the contents of ARC or ZIP files. NOTE - If QFIND.DAT was not created with the contents of ARC or ZIP files selected, then Qfind cannot access the names in those files. Therefore the -x switch would have no effect. The -g switch provides a "GOTO" function to Qfind. If the - g switch is selected, it will change the current drive and the current directory to the drive and directory containing the matched file name. Example: QFind -g xyz.exe The current drive and current directory will be changed to the drive and directory that contains the FIRST occurrence of XYZ.EXE. If there are multiple copies of XYZ.EXE on your system QFind selects the first one matched in the data file built by QFBUILD. In this example, Qfind would also search the contents of any ZIP or ARC files since the -x parameter is omitted. If a file match were found in a ZIP file, Qfind would change the drive and directory to the drive and directory containing the ZIP file. If you don't want to match names in the ZIP or ARC files, just place the -x Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 6 switch along with the -g switch on the command line like so.... Qfind -x -g xyz.exe The search mask conforms to the standard DOS wildcard naming convention. Examples: QFIND ???e???.* Will find all files with an "E" in the 4th character of the file name. QFIND *.?X? Will find all files with an "X" in the 2nd character of the file type. QFIND ?abc*.exe Will find all .EXE files with "ABC" in the 2nd through the 4th position. QFIND looks for the data file in the root directory of the C drive unless the environment variable QFIND is set. See QFBUILD for example. QFIND will copy the selected files to the Windows clipboard. Just select Copy from the menu, and the main window contents will be copied to the clipboard. The Find dialog box can be automatically brought up when Qfindwin is launched. To select this feature, place a -f parameter in the Qfindwin command line like so... Go to Program manager and select the Qfind icon. Go to File, Properties and add -f to the execution line. Old execution line - QFINDWIN.EXE New execution line - QFINDWIN.EXE -F Qfindwin will now bring up the find dialog box when launched. ************************************************************ QFBLDWIN.EXE This is the Windows 3.1 version of the build program. It can be launched by itself or from QFINDWIN. To use QFBLDWIN, launch it from the program manager, file manager, or QFINDWIN. It will present a shareware notice (bypassed in the registered version) and then present you with the main window. The windows controls are as follows: Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 7 Drives - QFBLDWIN will display drives C thru Z and will grey out any drives with higher than are present in your system. If you have saved settings in the past, QFBLDWIN will check the same boxes that you selected last time. Otherwise QFBLDWIN will select all drives. Search Arc Files Search Zip Files The settings control the inclusion of ARC or ZIP directories. If they are checked, the respective ARC or ZIP directories will be included in QFIND.DAT. The inclusion of the ARC and ZIP directories is recommended. Qfind.dat would then contain all files on the selected disks including the files contained in the ARC and ZIP files. The only reason for not selecting them would be to make Qfind.dat smaller. Qfind and QfindWin both have the ability to search for files either including or excluding ARC and ZIP files. Save Settings If this box is checked the present settings (drive selections, ARC and ZIP selections) are save in QFINDWIN.INI. OK This will start the building of the new file database. Cancel Terminates the program without building a new database. When you press OK, QFBLDWIN will present you with a dialog box that shows you the running count of various files, etc.. At this point, you can minimize QFBLDWIN and let it do it's thing in the background. If you click on the CANCEL button, QFBLDWIN will terminate and leave the previous QFIND.DAT intact. QFINDWIN.EXE This is the Microsoft Windows 3.0/3.1 version of the search program. It uses the same search mask conventions as QFIND with an additonal feature. There is a special syntax that will find a string anywhere in the file name/file type. It is selected by not entering a period in the search mask. It is as follows: QFIND ab Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 8 The above will find any file beginning with "ab". This is the same as entering a mask of "ab*.*". QFIND *ab The above will find any file with "ab" anywhere in the file name/file type. The above example would find files like abxxxx.xxx or xab.xxx.xxx or xxxxxab.xxx or xxxxxxxx.abx. To use QFINDWIN, execute it from Windows with either the program manager or the file manager. It will display a screen with "FIND", "BUILD", "COLOR", and HELP on the menu. Click on FIND and a drop down menu will appear. It has the following items: Find This selection will display a dialog box asking for the search mask. About This selection will display the "About" dialog box. Exit This selection will exit the program. Click on BUILD to launch QFBLDWIN and build a new file database. Click on COLOR the set the color settings of QFINDWIN. The color menu consists of 2 items.... USE COLOR - This is a toggle. If a checkmark appears by the USE COLOR, QFINDWIN will use color to display the directory, file and zip entries. Otherwise bolding, normal, and italic BLACK is used. To change the USE COLOR setting, just click on the menu item. The check will reverse state with each click. SET COLOR - Clicking on this item will display the set color dialog box. If USE COLOR is not checked, this item will be grayed out and will not be selectable. When this item is selected, it will present a set color dialog box. To use the dialog box do the following.... Select the DIRECTORY, FILE, ZIPS/ARCS by clicking on the appropiate button. This will set the 3 scroll bars to the present value of this selection. Drag the scroll bars to set the colors that you want. NOTE - On a 16 color system, the colors will not change smoothly. On a 256 color system, the change will be much smoother. Continue selecting each file type and selecting the color combination for each. Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 9 If the SAVE SETTINGS box is checked, these settings will be saved in QFINDWIN.INI. To search for files...... Click on Find and enter the search mask in the text box. click on OK and the matched file names will appear in the main box. If there are more matches than will fit in the window, vertical scroll bars will appear. You can use these vertical scroll bars to move the text around. You can use the following scroll bar items..... Scroll UP (UP arrow) - Each click will scroll the file names UP one line. Scroll DOWN (DOWN arrow) Each click will scroll the file names DOWN one line Scroll Page UP - Each click will scroll the file UP one page. Scroll Page DOWN - Each click will scroll the file DOWN one page. Move with Thumb - You can move the display of file names back and forth with the thumb control. The thumb control is the little square box in the vertical scroll bar. If you move the thumb to the half- way location, the display of file names will move down to the middle, etc. Click on the ARC or ZIP checkbox to toggle the ARC and ZIP file setting. If an "X" appears in the checkbox, QfindWin will search for file name matches within ARC and ZIP files. NOTE - If QFIND.DAT was not created with the contents of ARC or ZIP files selected, then Qfindwin cannot access the names in those files. Therefore the state of the checkboxes will have no effect. If the color option is not selected, the text is shown as follows. DIRECTORY names are shown in bold font. FILE names are shown in normal font. File names that are found within ARC or ZIP files are shown in italic type with the ARC or ZIP name shown surrounded by "**". If the color option is selected, the text is shown in the colors selected by the color setting selected in the SET COLOR dialog box. QFINDWIN.INI Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 10 All parameters for QFINDWIN are located in this file. QFINDWIN no longer looks in WIN.INI for anything. QFINDWIN.INI must be located in the same directory as WIN.INI. There are 2 different sets of parameters contained in QFINDWIN.INI. A set of parameters for QFINDWIN, and a set for QFBLDWIN. All parameter, except for 1 (QFDIR) are automatically set by the save settings function of QFINDWIN and QFBLDWIN. A sample QFINDWIN.INI file is included. QFINDWIN uses the QFINDWIN.INI entry to find the data file instead of the environment method. To tell QFINDWIN where the data file is located, place the following 2 lines in the QFINDWIN.INI file.... [qfind] FILE = d:\temp OR wherever the data file is located. If there is no entry in the QFINDWIN.INI file, QFINDWIN will look for the data file in the root directory of drive C. Note........ THREE_D.DLL must be located in a directory that is defined in your path for QFINDWIN to display in the 3D look. The preferred location is in your Windows directory. ************************************************************ Support.... I can be reached on Compuserve. My ID is 70270,534 This is Version 2.0 of Qfind. I would appreciate feedback on suggested additional features in the next version, problems with this version, etc.... Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 11 Installation....... With version 2.0 a new installation program is included. This is only used if an automatic installation is desired. There are basically 3 ways to install the Qfind programs....... If the DOS versions are the only things that are going to be used, simply copy the required files to a directory of your choice. The files are: Qfind.exe Qfbuild.exe Qfinddoc.txt Qfindhst.txt If you want to manually copy all files (including the Windows stuff), do the following.... Copy the following files to a directory of your choice. Qfind.exe Qfbuild.exe Qfindwin.exe Qfbldwin.exe Qfinddoc.txt Qfinddoc.wri Qfindhst.txt Qfindhst.wri Copy the following file to the \Windows\System directory Three_D.Dll Copy the following file to the \Windows directory Qfindwin.ini Automatic installation..... Execute the SETUPQF.EXE from the program manager or file manager. Setupqf will automatically install the various file in the proper directories. NOTE--- SETUPQF.EXE requires VISUAL BASIC's run-time module (VBRUN100.DLL). If you don't have it, you can get it from Compuserve. Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 12 Registration Registering QFIND will get you the latest version of the programs along with a utility that will personalize your copy and remove the start-up message in QFINDWIN. Where to find QFIND: The latest version of Qfind.zip can always be found on The Atlanta Windows BBS. The BBS phone numbers are: (404) 516-0048 (public) USR Dual Std w/fax 16,800 bps (404) 516-9845 (private) USR Dual Standard 16,800 bps (404) 516-9898 (private) USR Dual Standard 16,800 bps (404) 516-9385 (public) USR Dual Std w/fax 16,800 bps (404) 516-1773 (private) USR Dual Std w/fax 16,800 bps (404) 516-1588 (public) USR Dual Std w/fax 16,800 bps (404) 516-1883 (public) USR v.32 bis 14,400 bps Also Qfind.zip can be found in the WINSHARE forum on Compuserve. Disclaimer: Users of QFIND, QFINDWIN, QFBLDWIN, and QFBUILD must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "QFIND, QFINDWIN, QFBLDWIN, and QFBUILD are supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation,the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of these programs." LICENSING AGREEMENT: QFIND, QFINDWIN, QFBLDWIN, AND QFBUILD are Copyright 1991, 1992 by JebSoft and James E. Bell 135 Gunlock Trace, Roswell, Georgia 30076 This program is made available through Shareware for personal use on non-business PC's only. If you find these programs useful and find that you are using them and continue to use them after a reasonable trial period, you must make a registration payment of $10.00 to James E. Bell. Use of this program by any business, corporation, government agency, or any other institution is prohibited without payment of $10.00 to James E. Bell for each installed PC. In accordance with the Shareware distribution method, all users are granted a limited license to copy QFIND, QFINDWIN, QFBLDWIN ,and QFBUILD for the trial use of others providing that there programs are: Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 13 Copied in their original archive form. Not modified in any way and are distributed with the full and unmodified documentation. Are not sold or traded for money or any other consideration by any party other than JebSoft and James E. Bell Not distributed in conjunction with any other product or software without the written consent of James E. Bell. Qfind Version 2.0 - Page 14