Forfiles Command Detailed

Forfiles

Select the file you want to batch from the folder or tree. Grammar

forfiles [/P Path] [/M searchmask] [/s] [/C Command] [/d[{+ |-}] [{mm/dd/yyyy | DD}]] Argument

/P Path

Specify Path, indicating where to start the search. The default folder is the current working directory, which is specified by typing a period (.).

/M Searchmask

Search for files by Searchmask. The default searchmask is *.*.

/s

Instructs Forfiles to search in subdirectories.

/C Command

Runs the specified Command on each file. command strings with spaces must be enclosed in quotation marks. The default Command is "cmd/c echo @file".

/d[{+ |-}] [{mm/dd/yyyy | DD}]

Select a file with a date that is greater than or equal to (+) (or less than or equal to (-)) The specified date, where mm/dd/yyyy is the specified date and DD is the current date minus DD days. If + or-is not specified, the + is used. The valid range for DD is 0-32768.

/?

Displays help at the command prompt. Comments

•	Forfiles is most commonly used in batch files.
•	The forfiles/s is similar to dir/s.
•	The following table lists the variables that can be used in the  /cCommand  command string. variable description @file File name @fname File name with no extension @ext File name extension @path Full path of file @relpath Relative path of file @isdir If the file type is a directory, the value evaluates to TRUE, otherwise the value is FALSE @fsize File size in bytes @fdate File last Modified date stamp @ftime File Last modified timestamp
•	With Forfiles, you can run commands on multiple files or pass parameters to multiple files. For example, you can run the TYPE command on all files with *.txt extensions in the tree. Alternatively, you can use the filename "Myinput.txt" as the first argument, in the c:/ Execute each batch file (*.bat) on the drive.
•	By using Forfiles, you can perform any of the following actions: • Use/d to select files by absolute or relative date. • Build an archive tree of files using variables such as @fsize (file size) and @fdate (file date). • Use @isdir variables to differentiate between files and directories. • Format the output by including special characters on the command line and by using the hexadecimal code 0xHH wrapping character.
•	Forfiles works by executing the "loop subdirectory" tag on a tool designed to work with only a single file.

Example

To list all the batch files on drive C:, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m*.bat/c "cmd/c Echo @file is a batch file"

To list all the directories on drive C:, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m*.*/C "cmd/c if @isdir ==true echo @file is a directory"

To list all files that have more than 100 days on the drive C:, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m*.*/dt-100/c "cmd/c echo @file:d ate >= days"

To list all the files that were created prior to January 1, 1993 on drive C: and for files that have a date earlier than January 1, 1993 to display the file is quite old!, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m*.*/dt-01011993/c "cmd/c Echo @file is quite old!"

To list the extensions for all files on drive C: In column format, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m*.*/C "cmd/c echo extension of @file is 0x09@ext0x09" with:

To list all the batch files on drive C:, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m *.bat/c "cmd/c Echo @file is a batch file"

To list all the directories on drive C:, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m *.*/C "cmd/c if @isdir ==true echo @file is a directory"

To list all files that have more than 100 days on the drive C:, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m *.*/d t-100/c "cmd/c echo @file:d ate >= days"

To list all the files that were created prior to January 1, 1993 on drive C: and for files that have a date earlier than January 1, 1993 to display the file is quite old!, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m *.*/d t-01011993/c "cmd/c Echo @file is quite old!"

To list the extensions for all files on drive C: In column format, type:

forfiles/p c://s/m*.*/C "cmd/c echo extension of @file is 0x09@ext0x09"