Filename Completion
Filename Completion Keys:
F8 Get the previous matching filename.
or Shift-Tab
F9 Get the next matching filename.
or Tab
F10 Keep the current matching filename and display
the next matching name immediately after the
current one.
Filename completion can help you by filling in a complete file name on
the command line when you only remember or want to type part of the name.
For example, if you know the name of a file begins AU but you can't
remember the rest of the name, type:
[c:\] copy au
and then press the Tab key or F9 key. CMD.EXE will search the current
directory for filenames that begin AU and insert the first one onto the
command line in place of the AU that you typed.
If this is the file that you want, simply complete the command. If
CMD.EXE didn't find the file that you were looking for, press Tab or F9
again to substitute the next filename that begins with AU. When there
are no more filenames that match your pattern, the system will beep each
time you press Tab or F9.
If you go past the filename that you want, press Shift-Tab or F8 to back
up and return to the previous matching filename. After you back up to the
first filename, the system will beep each time you press Shift-Tab or F8.
If you want to enter more than one matching filename on the same command
line, press F10 when each desired name appears. This will keep that name
and place the next matching filename after it on the command line. You
can then use Tab (or F9), Shift-Tab (or F8), and F10 to move through the
remaining matching files.
The pattern you use for matching may contain any valid filename
characters, as well as wildcard characters and extended wildcards. For
example, you can copy the first matching .TXT file by typing
[c:\] copy *.txt
and then pressing Tab.
If you don't specify part of a filename before pressing Tab, the command
processor will match all files. For example, if you enter the above
command as "COPY", without the "*.TXT", and then press Tab, the first
filename in the current directory is displayed. Each time you press Tab
or F9 after that, another name from the current directory is displayed,
until all filenames have been displayed.
If you type a filename without an extension, CMD.EXE will add *.* to the
name (* on HPFS drives). It will also place a "*" after a partial
extension. If you are typing a group of file names in an include list,
the part of the include list at the cursor will be used as the pattern to
match.
When filename completion is used at the start of the command line, it
will only match directories, executable files, and files with executable
extensions, since these are the only file names that it makes sense to
use at the start of a command. If a directory is found, a "\" will be
appended to it to enable an automatic directory change.
Appending Backslashes to Directory Names
If you set the AppendToDir .INI directive, or the "Add \ ..." option on
the Command Line 1 page of the OPTION dialogs, CMD.EXE will add a
trailing backslash [\] to all directory names. This feature can be
especially handy if you use filename completion to specify files that are
not in the current directory -- a succession of Tab (or F9) and F10
keystrokes can build a complete path to the file you want to work with.
The following example shows the use of this technique to edit the file
C:\DATA\FINANCE\MAPS.DAT. The lines which include <F9> show where F9 (or
Tab) is pressed; the other lines show how the command line appears after
the previous F9 or Tab (the example is displayed on several lines here,
but all appears at a single command prompt when you actually perform the
steps):
1 [c:\> edit \da <F9>
2 [c:\> edit \data\
3 [c:\> edit \data\f <F9>
4 [c:\> edit \data\frank.doc <F9>
5 [c:\> edit \data\finance\
6 [c:\> edit \data\finance\map <F9>
7 [c:\> edit \data\finance\maps.dat
Note that F9 was pressed twice in succession on lines 3 and 4, because
the file name displayed on line 3 was not what was needed we were looking
for the FINANCE directory, which came up the second time F9 was pressed.
In this example, filename completion saves about half the keystrokes
that would be required to type the name in full. If you are using long
file or directory names, the savings can be much greater.
Customizing Filename Completion
You can customize filename completion for any internal or external
command or alias. This allows the command processor to display filenames
intelligently based on the command you are entering. For example, you
might want to see only .TXT files when you use filename completion in the
EDIT command.
To customize filename completion you can use the Command Line 1 page of
the OPTION dialogs, or set the FileCompletion directive manually in your
.INI file. You can also use the FILECOMPLETION environment variable. If
you use both, the environment variable will override the settings in your
.INI file. You may find it useful to use the environment variable for
experimenting, then create permanent settings with the OPTION command or
the FileCompletion directive.
The format for both the environment variable and the .INI file is:
cmd1:ext1 ext2 ...; cmd2: ...
where "cmd" is a command name and "ext" is a file extension (which may
include wildcards) or one of the following file types:
DIRS Directories
RDONLY Read-only files
HIDDEN Hidden files
SYSTEM System files
ARCHIVE Files modified since the last backup
The command name is the internal command, alias command, or executable
file name (without a path). For example, to have file completion return
only directories for the CD command and only .C and .ASM files for B (the
Boxer editor), you would use this setting for filename completion in the
OPTION dialogs:
FileCompletion=cd:dirs; b:c asm
To set the same values using the environment variable, you would use this
line:
[c:\] set filecompletion=cd:dirs; b:c asm
With this setting in effect, if you type "CD " and then pressed Tab, the
command processor will return only directories, not files. If you type
"B " and press Tab, you will see only names of .C and .ASM files.
CMD.EXE does not check your command line for aliases before matching the
commands for customized file completion. Instead, they ignore any path
or file extension information in the first word of the command, and then
search the FILECOMPLETION environment variable and the FileCompletion INI
directive to find a match that will limit the files selected for filename
completion.
Filename Completion Window
You can also view filenames in a filename completion window and select
the file you want to work with. To activate the window, press F7 or
Ctrl-Tab at the command line. You will see a window in the upper-right
corner of the screen, with a sorted list of files that match any partial
filename you have entered on the command line. If you haven't yet
entered a file name, the window will contain the name of all files in the
current directory. You can search for a name by typing the first few
characters. (Ctrl-Tab will work only if your keyboard and keyboard driver
support it. If it does not work on your system, use F7 instead.)
See Popup Windows for information on customizing window position, size,
and color.
Filename Completion Window Keys:
F7 (from the command line) Open the filename
completion window.
or Ctrl-Tab
^ Scroll the display up one line.
v Scroll the display down one line.
Scroll the display left 4 columns.
> Scroll the display right 4 columns.
PgUp Scroll the display up one page.
PgDn Scroll the display down one page.
Ctrl-PgUp Go to the beginning of the filename list.
or Home
Ctrl-PgDn Go to the end of the filename list.
or End
Enter Insert the selected filename into the command
line.
Created using Inf-PHP v.2 (c) 2003 Yuri Prokushev
Created using Inf-HTML v.0.9b (c) 1995 Peter Childs