Get list of folders containing files-with-some-attribute?

Discussion related to "Everything" 1.5 Alpha.
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xxy
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2024 4:09 pm

Get list of folders containing files-with-some-attribute?

Post by xxy »

Possibly, this search is not possible (yet)? Regex would not work since attributes (s/S for system, h/H for hidden, etc) are not a sub string of the full path; a simple search
d: attr:s (or d: attrib:s)*
will produce a list of the files in question (as expected), but a(n overly optimistic) try with
d: child:attr:s (or d: child: attr:s)
will not produce any list (as expected).

*=Obviously, I can sort this result list (of the files-only, when in fact I need their folders-only) by path, then, by scripting, can cut the file names from the paths, then delete the multiple occurrences of paths, so I'd indeed get the required folder list in the end, but is there some trick in Everything to abridge this workflow?

Thank you very much in advance!
NotNull
Posts: 5461
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:22 pm

Re: Get list of folders containing files-with-some-attribute?

Post by NotNull »

xxy wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 7:00 pm Possibly, this search is not possible (yet)?
Good news: this is possible.

Take a look at the child-attr: Search Function.

( child-file-attr: -- or one of its aliases-- might be better suited for your specific case)
xxy
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Aug 25, 2024 4:09 pm

Re: Get list of folders containing files-with-some-attribute?

Post by xxy »

Fantastic, thank you so much!

My bad: I had searched the forum, and the (regular) help file, but had not thought / remembered that 1.5 has got its own, dedicated documentation, so I totally missed it.

Perhaps, it would be possible to make a prominent link, on the homepage https://www.voidtools.com/ itself, to 1.5 and its documentation?* Currently, it's really hidden within the 1.5 forum pages, and there is not even an entry in the "Forum" section of the Forum start page viewforum.php?f=1 , as a reminder, and as a link. I'll note the url now, hoping to find that note when next time, in some months, I'll need to look up 1.5 functionality, but that's a little bit hit-and-miss...

*=All the more so since this "alpha" is surprisingly stable indeed; since my switch (from 1.4) some months ago I haven't had any single problem caused by a "bug" or some, none!

I'm very thankful for this fine tool, and to share my use case which might be of interest to other users:

Background of my question has been that for the music in my my ripped music CDs, I use a 4-star "weight" system, obviously according to my own appreciation of the music, so it's not any "objective quality" statement: I apply (by Autohotkey) "hidden" and/or "system" attributes to the .wav files (=tracks):
"0 stars" = no attribute (of these)
"1 star" = hidden (my file managers obviously being set to also display hidden, and system, files)
"2 stars" = system
"3 stars" = hidden plus system

while more or less all file managers are able to "format" these accordingly: hidden = bold, system = blue, hidden-plus-system = bold-blue, and even FreeCommander is able to format them hidden = green, system = blue, hidden plus system = red.

Then, by doing a full-system search in Everything (excluding the backup drives, obviously, and using subfolder naming as "tags") for sub-strings (incl. regex in case), and also combining my searches with attr requirements in case), I can do any wanted filtering on the fly (incl. by mood, by specific jazz instruments, also in combination, etc), just within the file system, without relying on those dedicated music databases; I use (the musically very good) Winyl (which is free) as player software (since it gets less "in the way" as other such tools do, with their respective music "administration" functionality).

As you see, my system almost entirely relies upon Everything, thanks to its incredible search / filter power.

Thank you so much again!
Last edited by xxy on Fri Nov 08, 2024 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
void
Developer
Posts: 16734
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Re: Get list of folders containing files-with-some-attribute?

Post by void »

Everything 1.5 is still in alpha.

Once in beta I will make it easier to find from the main page.



Colors filters are on my TODO list.

For now, please consider the following search:

add-column:a a-label:"My Star Rating" a:=($attributes:&0x02?1:0)+($attributes:&0x04?2:0)


The My Star Rating column will show your star rating.
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