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forfiles

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Selects and runs a command on a file or set of files. This command is most commonly used in batch files.

Syntax

forfiles [/P pathname] [/M searchmask] [/S] [/C command] [/D [+ | -] [{<date> | <days>}]]

Parameters

Parameter Description
/P <pathname> Specifies the path from which to start the search. By default, searching starts in the current working directory.
/M <searchmask> Searches files according to the specified search mask. The default searchmask is *.
/S Instructs the forfiles command to search in subdirectories recursively.
/C <command> Runs the specified command on each file. Command strings should be wrapped in double quotes. The default command is "cmd /c echo @file".
/D [{+\|-}][{<date> | <days>}] Selects files with a last modified date within the specified time frame:
  • Selects files with a last modified date later than or equal to (+) or earlier than or equal to (-) the specified date, where date is in the format MM/DD/YYYY.
  • Selects files with a last modified date later than or equal to (+) the current date plus the number of days specified, or earlier than or equal to (-) the current date minus the number of days specified.
  • Valid values for days include any number in the range 0–32,768. If no sign is specified, + is used by default.
/? Displays the help text in the cmd window.

Remarks

  • The forfiles /S command is similar to dir /S.

  • You can use the following variables in the command string as specified by the /C command-line option:

    Variable Description
    @FILE File name.
    @FNAME File name without extension.
    @EXT File name extension.
    @PATH Full path of the file.
    @RELPATH Relative path of the file.
    @ISDIR Evaluates to TRUE if a file type is a directory. Otherwise, this variable evaluates to FALSE.
    @FSIZE File size, in bytes.
    @FDATE Last modified date stamp on the file.
    @FTIME Last modified time stamp on the file.

  • The forfiles command lets you run a command on or pass arguments to multiple files. For example, you could run the type command on all files in a tree with the .txt file name extension. Or you could execute every batch file (*.bat) on drive C, with the file name Myinput.txt as the first argument.

  • This command can:

    • Select files by an absolute date or a relative date by using the /d parameter.

    • Build an archive tree of files by using variables such as @FSIZE and @FDATE.

    • Differentiate files from directories by using the @ISDIR variable.

    • Include special characters in the command line by using the hexadecimal code for the character, in 0xHH format (for example, 0x09 for a tab).

  • This command works by implementing the recurse subdirectories flag on tools that are designed to process only a single file.

Examples

To list all of 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 of 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 of the files in the current directory that are at least one year old, type:

forfiles /S /M *.* /D -365 /C "cmd /c echo @file is at least one year old."

To display the text file is outdated for each of the files in the current directory that are older than January 1, 2007, type:

forfiles /S /M *.* /D -01/01/2007 /C "cmd /c echo @file is outdated."

To list the file name extensions of all the files in the current directory in column format, and add a tab before the extension, type:

forfiles /S /M *.* /C "cmd /c echo The extension of @file is 0x09@ext"