Exclude certain file types such as dll, exe, dat etc.

Question

What is the best method to exclude file type not interested in such as dll, exe, dat, etc.

Just to help clear up what I'm trying to accomplish; search local hard drives and network drives that contain specific content, not interested in files such as .exe, .dll and .cab or any system files for that matter, only files that may have readable text such as .doc, .xls and etc. The results to be pushed to a specific directory of choice utilizing the xslt xcopy transform with the xcopy /Y flag so that overwrite prompts will be negated.

I'm also tracking start time, end time, search criteria and whatever else is required/requested during the search effort where a history log of some sort would be extremely valuable. I understand that this is not available in this release but may be included in future upgrades/releases. I think this sums up what I've been trying to accomplish and to this point I'm very pleased with FileLocator Pro and your continued support, responses and suggestions.

Comments

Are you looking to always exclude those types? You can click on the NOT check box by the file name to exclude *.dll;*.exe;*.dat.

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Hello again Dave and thanks for the great support.I tried your suggestion and it does work if I select the NOT box and Boolean to cover the OR. I've also include a Containing text: with an OR search content utilizing the Whole Word option. I was pleased to see that this option allowed Boolean. I will continue to test.

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Just to help clear up what I'm trying to accomplish; search local hard drives and network drives that contain specific content, not interested in files such as .exe, .dll and .cab or any system files for that matter, only files that may have readable text such as .doc, .xls and etc. The results to be pushed to a specific directory of choice utilizing the xslt xcopy transform utility as you suggested with the xcopy /Y flag so that overwrite prompts will be negated.

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I'm also tracking start time, end time, search criteria and whatever else is required/requested during the search effort where a history log of some sort would be extremely valuable. I understand that this is not available in this release but may be included in future upgrades/releases. I think this sums up what I've been trying to accomplish and to this point I'm very pleased with FileLocator Pro and your continued support, responses and suggestions.

Answer 1

Since version 6.5 you prefix the part of the expression which specifies the exclusion group, e.g.

NOT:*.dll;*.exe;*.sys;*.dat

With this syntax you can then also add additional criteria, e.g. to search for all files with the word Window excluding PDF files you can enter:

Window;NOT:*.pdf

Or, to search for any image file with the word New York you can type:

*.png;*.bmp;*.jpg:New York

There's a few more nice DOS Expression features since 6.5 so be sure you check out the help file:

Help: DOS Expressions

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Note: In version 6.2 (or earlier) you could exclude multiple types by clicking the Not check box next to the File name: field and then specifying the types to exclude, e.g. the DOS Expression

*.dll;*.exe;*.sys;*.dat

This was changed with version 6.5 to allow more flexibility with DOS Expressions.

Comments

Thanks Dave, I'll be watching fo the 6.5.

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--> NOT:*.pdf:Window

Isn't that a bit confusing?
First the NOT and then the search?

Isn't it more usable to write the NOT always at the end?

Window NOT:*.pdf

or p.e.

Window;Gates NOT:*.pdf;*.jpg  

(search for "Window" + "Gates" but not in pdf and jpg files)

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This would work:
Window;NOT:*.pdf

Since you could theoretically be searching for 'Gates NOT' the semi-colon is needed to separate expressions, e.g.
Window;Gates;NOT:*.pdf;*.jpg

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For details can be found here: http://www.mythicsoft.com/filelocatorpro/help/en/index.html?dos_expressions2.htm

I had a bit of trouble working them out but basicly the "NOT:*.jpg;NOT:*.gif;" pull back all files that are NOT jpg or gif.

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Good link. You could also express the term as:

NOT:*.jpg;*.gif

Answer 2

So how do you use this syntax with file name regular expressions? I want to exclude certain files by extension, and with the check box one could specify:

File name: \.iso$|\.wim$

...this would exclude those files.

With regex enabled, specifying NOT (as in NOT:\.wim$) makes it skip all the files, not just the one specified (I tried it using just one extension as a test).

Comments

Unless you're using FileLocator Pro you can't combine NOT with regex on the file name field. You could use something like negative look aheads but when using regex the whole expression needs to be a valid regex.

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Thanks Dave. Guess I'll use the older version that includes the "Not" box. I'm starting to really like regexps.

Answer 3

...That should read \.iso$|\.wim$

                     ^       ^
With backslashes     ^       ^