import list of file paths into everything

[RufusVS]

I will occasionally generate lists of files using windows "findstr" function (it's basically grep) and
would like to be able to import them into everything, so I can do sorts by size/date/etc. and
even generate .efu files possibly.

I've seen the edit file list function, but I'd like to be able to "bulk input" a list of file paths
from an external file.

Is there a way to do this that I have not discovered?

For my current purposes, I may be able to generate an efu file, and then compare the entries
to my list of files, but that involves a lot of manual operations.

Rufus

[therube]

An .efu in simplest terms is a text file.
From there you might say its a .csv.

Has a short header, which i guess it needs:

Code: Select all

"Name","Path","Size","Date Modified"

After that, it might* be a matter of entering the data, in quote enclosed, comma separated fields.

*Might:

I haven't tried it.
A directory size field is the cumulative size of the particular tree.
Don't know what would happen with missing data, like if you only included file names (& "" for the rest of the fields), but I'd figure it would simply show as blanks?
Likewise, if you excluded directories themselves, I'd think (expect) that also not to cause any issues, simply that information isn't there?
(The .efu I looked at is from 2015. Perhaps something has changed since, or not?)


Throw some data to it & see what you get?

[therube]

sorts

Given that it is a .csv...

You could generate the data using everything, saved as .efu (aka .csv) & then use a csv utility to manipulate it.


Just another way of looking at it.
(CSVFileView is slower then Everything in sorting [assuming you've indexed the wanted fields in Everything].)

[void]

I've added to my TODO list: Add an import option to the File List Editor.

You should be able to make your own .efu file from your external file.

What is the format of an EFU file list?
EFU files are comma-separated values (CSV) files.
A header is required with at least the Filename column specified.
File size is specified in bytes.
Dates are FILETIMEs (100-nanosecond intervals since January 1, 1601.)
Attributes can be zero or more of the Windows File Attributes.

More information: viewtopic.php?t=1705

Supported headers are:

• Filename
• Size
• Date Created
• Date Modified
• Date Accessed
• Attributes

The Filename header is required.
An Attributes header is also useful if you want to define files from folders.

A directory size field is the cumulative size of the particular tree.

Yes, sizes for folders are ignored and recalculated when the efu is loaded.

Don't know what would happen with missing data, like if you only included file names (& "" for the rest of the fields), but I'd figure it would simply show as blanks?

If the data is missing no data is displayed in Everything.

Likewise, if you excluded directories themselves, I'd think (expect) that also not to cause any issues, simply that information isn't there?

You don't have to define all folders in the path to a filename, Everything will automatically add these directories.
If you want Everything to display dates and other attributes, then you will need to add manual entries for these.

Examples of efu files:

Code: Select all

Filename
"c:\somefolder\afile.txt"

What you will see in Everything:
a folder called c:
a folder in c: called somefolder
a file in c:\somefolder called afile.txt
Date, size and attributes will be blank. (folders automatically have the D attribute).

Code: Select all

Filename
"c:\somefolder\afolder"

What you will see in Everything:
a folder called c:
a folder in c: called somefolder
a file in c:\somefolder called afolder
The afolder will be treated as a file, because we did not specify the attributes for it.
Add a attributes header and set the value for afolder to 16 (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
For example:

Code: Select all

Filename,Attributes
"c:\somefolder\afolder",16

afolder will now be displayed as a folder in Everything.

Code: Select all

Filename,Size,Date Created,Date Modified,Date Accessed,Attributes
"c:\somefolder\afile.txt",65536,129264846502219602,129264846502375852,,1

What you will see in Everything:
a folder called c:
a folder in c: called somefolder
a file in c:\somefolder called afile with the size of 64KB, modified on the 17/8/2010 and the attributes READ ONLY.

Code: Select all

Filename,Date Modified,Attributes
c:\somefolder,129264846502219602,17
"c:\somefolder\afile.txt",129264846502219602,0

What you will see in Everything:
a folder called c:
a folder in c: called somefolder (date modified: 17/8/2010) with the READ ONLY and DIRECTORY attribute set.
a file in c:\somefolder called afile.txt
Date, size and attributes will be blank. (folders automatically have the D attribute).