MiserDOS Power-Search Examples

If you have SeriousB installed, then you also have a very powerful
file searching utility: MiserDOS. Assuming "Expert functions" is
enabled in the View menu, a blue icon with a "C>" prompt will be
displayed to run MiserDOS.

The first example is one of the most useful, though a bit
long-winded:

To find all files, including hidden files, containing the two words
"First" and "Second" anywhere on your C drive, with "First" and
"Second" needing to be found within 500 characters of each other, and
to display content around the words in files found regardless of the
type of file, and to exclude any filepaths with the characters "zip"
anywhere in the filepath (see below), type this at the MiserDOS C:\>
prompt:

     DIRS *.* (first second)/500 /D -zip

The above would not find file C:\WINDOWS\PKUNZIP\ANYFILE.TXT
because the characters "zip" are contained in it's filepath.

Note that the "/500" part is attached to the "(...)" part without a
space separating them. Case makes no difference. This works the same:

     DIRS *.* (FIRST SECOND)/500 /D -ZIP

The V.3 editor is used to show content. The V.3 editor
automatically replaces any non-character bytes with spaces, so you can
see surrounding text even in a formatted document, like a Word .DOC
file, or program files like EXE files.

To instead search all drive letters, start with DIRA:

     DIRA *.* (FIRST SECOND)/500 /D -ZIP

MiserDOS always includes hidden files in all searches. To only
search in .TXT files, add .TXT to the "*.*" part:

     DIRA *.TXT (first second)/500 /d -zip

When the surrounding text is being displayed, just type the
<space bar> to continue, or type the <backslash> key to end the
search. To only search files with name beginning with ABC, use:

     DIRA ABC*.* (FIRST SECOND)/500 /D /ZIP

To only search the folder shown in the MiserDOS prompt, just
start with DIR as in:

     DIR *.* (FIRST SECOND)/500 /D

If MiserDOS tries to search a program file that is in use, a
Windows error popup may be displayed. No harm is done and you can just
continue searching by selecting "Cancel". But a good way to avoid this
is to exclude any filepaths containing "windows":

     DIRS *.* (FIRST SECOND)/500 /D -WINDOWS

To find just one word, but still show content around the
search word, and exclude all filepaths containing the characters "zip"
or "exe", leave off the "/500" part:

     DIRS *.* (FIRST)/D -zip -EXE

You could have a space before the "/D" as in:

     DIRS *.* (FIRST) /D -zip -EXE

To instead compile the found files, including surrounding
content, into a file add "> filepath" like:

     DIRS *.* (FIRST)/D -zip -exe > C:\SEARCH.TXT

To just list the file names and not show content, leave off
the "/D" part:

     DIRS *.* (FIRST) -ZIP -EXE

To store the results in file SEARCH.TXT so that you can leave
the computer unattended while searching, add "> filepath" like:

     DIRS *.* (FIRST) -ZIP -EXE > C:\TEMP\SEARCH.TXT

To find two words within 800 bytes of each other, add the
"/800" part:

     DIRS *.* (FIRST SECOND)/800 -ZIP -EXE

To find three words within 500 bytes of each other:

     DIRS *.* (FIRST SECOND THIRD)/500 -ZIP

To find two phrases (containing spaces) within 500 bytes of
each other, and show surrounding content:

     DIRS *.* ("phrase one" "phrase two")/500 /D

To list files created or modified yesterday and today,
including hidden files, anywhere on your system, and assuming today is
3/25/01, type this:

     DIRA *.* 3/24/01<3/25/01

To find files created or modified today only, and save the
results in file MYFILE.TXT type this:

     DIRA *.* 3/25/01 > C:\MYFILE.TXT

To list any files containing either the word "First" or the
word "Second", type:

     DIRA *.* |first second|

If you enclose the search words with vertical bars to use "or"
logic, as in the above example, you cannot display content surrounding
the words.

You can also run MiserDOS directly from the desktop by setting up
an icon to run SeriousB program file SBWSU.EXE and adding MDOS to the
"target" path (right click the icon, select properties, then
"shortcut" to add to the "target" field). For instance, the "target"
field might read:

           C:\SBW30\SBWSU.EXE MDOS

End of MiserDOS Power-Search examples

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