File-Find with Dirs excluded

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georgeb
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File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *georgeb »

Whenever some trial-installation fails it is important to know if and where any remnants thereof might have survived scattered somewhere on disk as garbage. One can search for characteristic name-fragments or - if unknown - where any files of a certain size might have landed on the HD.

TCs File-Find is a most valuable tool in these situations. Unfortunately, using Windows_10, an ever increasing amount of time for such a drive-wide search-effort is spent unavailingly searching the Windows-subdirs \WinSxS and \servicing.

So I tried to create a saved search-template searching the whole drive with those two subdirs specifically excluded. Should be an easy task - but apparently not so!

First I tried to apply plugins. In particular: "tc-path-!contains" (meaning does not contain) \WinSxS and \servicing. But to no avail. In a subsequent test those 2 putatively excluded Dirs were searched again endlessly. To avoid any misunderstandings I tried those names without and also with leading/trailing backslashes and also with logical OR and (illogical) AND Boolean-operand.

Still I had no success in omitting those two subdirs in the subsequent search. Second I then tried to apply the syntax given in TC-help to directly put those exclusions into the primary "Search-for"-field:
"name.exe |\servicing;\WinSxS"
I tried with and without spaces in between and also 2-pipe-characters instead of one pipe and a semicolon, but still to no avail.

Does anybody in here perhaps know how to get this working?
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white
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *white »

georgeb wrote: 2022-07-16, 14:28 UTC Still I had no success in omitting those two subdirs in the subsequent search. Second I then tried to apply the syntax given in TC-help to directly put those exclusions into the primary "Search-for"-field:
"name.exe |\servicing;\WinSxS"
If you start the search in c:\windows use:

Code: Select all

name.exe | \servicing\ \WinSxS\
If you start the search in c:\ use:

Code: Select all

name.exe | servicing\ WinSxS\
But be aware though that in the last case folders with name "servicing" and "WinSxS" located anywhere are skipped.
georgeb
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *georgeb »

white wrote: 2022-07-16, 15:20 UTC If you start the search in c:\ use:

Code: Select all

name.exe | servicing\ WinSxS\
But be aware though that in the last case folders with name "servicing" and "WinSxS" located anywhere are skipped.
Thanks a lot. That way it really worked. I've tried so many combinations and yet they all have turned out to be a "near miss".

Any educated guess though why it didn't work with the plugin-search "tc-path-!contains" "servicing"? Does the text-entry perhaps need a trailing backslash, too, to be recognized as a sub-Dir-name?
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white
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *white »

georgeb wrote: 2022-07-16, 16:31 UTC Any educated guess though why it didn't work with the plugin-search "tc-path-!contains" "servicing"?
The option "Search in plugins" must be checked as well.

It does work, but does something different. It doesn't limit the number of files/folders that are searched. It tries to match all found files/folders against the condition. So the results are the same, but it takes a lot longer.
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Horst.Epp
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *Horst.Epp »

The fastest option is to use Everything and simply exclude unwanted dirs from its indexing.
TC with the Everything option will never get any of this excluded dirs.
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georgeb
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *georgeb »

white wrote: 2022-07-16, 17:13 UTC The option "Search in plugins" must be checked as well.

It does work, but does something different. It doesn't limit the number of files/folders that are searched. It tries to match all found files/folders against the condition. So the results are the same, but it takes a lot longer.
Thank you so much for setting the record straight here. Because of course the plugin-search-option had been checked, I'm not that much of a newbie. :wink:

But I then always checked the status-bar and waited for those excluded Dirs NOT to appear. But obviously you are right. The search in fact didn't find anything in there (as expected) but for comparison-reasons had to look into each file anyway thereby sabotaging my intentions of saving time by up-front EXCLUDING those Dirs from the search.
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *georgeb »

Horst.Epp wrote: 2022-07-16, 17:51 UTC The fastest option is to use Everything and simply exclude unwanted dirs from its indexing.
TC with the Everything option will never get any of this excluded dirs.
Thank you also for that info. I'll give it a try - although I've always been a little skeptical about search-tools that rely on indexing because of its constant burden on CPU-activity.
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Horst.Epp
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *Horst.Epp »

georgeb wrote: 2022-07-16, 18:30 UTC
Horst.Epp wrote: 2022-07-16, 17:51 UTC The fastest option is to use Everything and simply exclude unwanted dirs from its indexing.
TC with the Everything option will never get any of this excluded dirs.
Thank you also for that info. I'll give it a try - although I've always been a little skeptical about search-tools that rely on indexing because of its constant burden on CPU-activity.
Everything index by default is a file name index and doesn't load the CPU much after the first index.
It uses the NTFS MFT.
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georgeb
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *georgeb »

As a result of this helpful discussion I would ask Mr. Ghisler to add/implement a new element to the "tc-plugin-options" for the search like
"path_exclude"
that would allow to a priori exclude certain subtrees from the search (like WinSxS or servicing as discussed above) in a manner that other than "tc-path-!containes-pathname" the search wouldn't even start to enter those subdirs for comparison with the pathname-condition set in the plugin and thereby wasting a lot of search-time for subdirs that won't contain the search-term for sure.

This would IMHO bring added versatility to the somewhat limited syntax for subDirs-exclusion in the primary "search for"-mask which - again from a logical point-of-view - never seemed to be the proper location for doing so in the first place. This because a files/Dir-location - or the exclusion thereof - should rather be domiciled in and be home to the lower "search in"-mask.
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *georgeb »

Since my last suggestion in the post above may have fallen into the most well deserved holiday period of our author I would like to revive the thread just to bring it to his attention (suggestion tc_plugin option "path_exclude" in File-Find with the purpose of shortening Windows-wide searches to exclude "rabbit holes" like \WinSxS and \servicing).
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *Horst.Epp »

georgeb wrote: 2022-07-31, 11:16 UTC Since my last suggestion in the post above may have fallen into the most well deserved holiday period of our author I would like to revive the thread just to bring it to his attention (suggestion tc_plugin option "path_exclude" in File-Find with the purpose of shortening Windows-wide searches to exclude "rabbit holes" like \WinSxS and \servicing).
And what is so importand that you think Christian has to respond immediately ?
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georgeb
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *georgeb »

Horst.Epp wrote: 2022-07-31, 15:13 UTCAnd what is so importand that you think Christian has to respond immediately ?
I apologize a thousand times - but then again I NEVER mentioned any perceived necessity for an immediate response. It just got my attention that his last regular comment in here for quite some time came shortly before my post cited above. And so I thought he might have missed it altogether b/c of a well-deserved vacation after the final release of TC10.50. So where is the "crime" I've allegedly committed? Free speech in a forum would be a good thing I always assumed. Or are you, by any chance, carping out of mainland China? :mrgreen:
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *JOUBE »

There is a ignore list. It's probably what you're looking for:

Menue > Configuration > Options > Ignore list > [ok] Ignore

tcignore.txt:

Code: Select all

WinSxS\
servicing\
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georgeb
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *georgeb »

JOUBE wrote: 2022-08-02, 11:50 UTC There is a ignore list. It's probably what you're looking for:
Menue > Configuration > Options > Ignore list > [ok] Ignore
tcignore.txt:
Bummer! There are always new things to discover in TC!
Although - are you really certain about this? 'Cause in the menu/Config it says:
"Ignore (don't show) the following files and folders".

Now, if so - that's certainly NOT what I am looking for in TC. TC lacking to show content that is actually there is so contrary to my understanding of a File-Manager (I'm not a big fan of "hidden system files" either) - it almost feels like horror.

All I'm looking for is to (on demand) temporarily excluding certain "rabbit-holes" from an otherwise pretty time-consuming search.
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Horst.Epp
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Re: File-Find with Dirs excluded

Post by *Horst.Epp »

What is your problem with that feature ?
You can toogle the ignore list with a button
and it is of course a normal function of a file manager to hide some files or dirs.
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