1. Renaming a File with the Ren and Rename Commands
The Ren and Rename
commands both let you rename files and directories (the Microsoft
documentation only mentions files, but the commands do work with
directories). Using these commands is definitely faster than renaming
them manually using Windows Explorer when you have a lot of files to
change. These commands use the following syntax:
RENAME [drive:][path]filename1 filename2
REN [drive:][path]filename1 filename2
The following list describes each of the command line arguments.
drive
Specifies the drive to use for the file or directory. The default is to use the current drive.
path
Specifies the
absolute or relative path to use for the file or directory. The default
is to use the current directory. However, you can specify an absolute or
relative path as needed.
filename1
Defines the file or
directory that you want to rename. You can use wildcard characters with
this command. For example, if you want to rename all TXT files to have a
TEXT extension, you'd type REN *.TXT *.TEXT and press Enter.
NOTE
Unlike in
Windows Explorer, the Ren and Rename commands won't constantly ask you
about file extension changes. Although this means you'll spend less time
clicking the Yes button, it also means that you could accidentally
rename files that you didn't want to rename.
filename2
Defines the new file or directory name. If you use a wildcard character for filename1,
then you generally have to use a wildcard character with this argument
as well. When in doubt, always test the renaming strategy using sample
files.
2. Sorting File Content with the Sort Utility
The Sort utility is an
amazing utility in that it can sort any text file. You can use this
utility to perform analysis of output from other commands. For example,
you could use it to perform a custom sort of a directory listing. The
sort mechanism considers locale, so you can sort data based on a
specific language. In addition, the Sort utility works on extremely
large files, so you don't have to worry about getting halfway through a
sort and having the sort fail. (Large sorts can take a while because the
Sort utility writes any data that won't fit in memory to disk.) This
utility uses the following syntax:
SORT [/R] [/+n] [/M kilobytes] [/L locale] [/REC recordbytes]
[[drive1:][path1]filename1] [/T [drive2:][path2]] [/O
[drive3:][path3]filename3]
The following list describes each of the command line arguments.
/+n
Specifies the
comparison character. The default is to use the first character of each
line as a starting point. By using another character as a starting
point, you can change the sort order of the data. For example, the Dir
command won't let you sort a directory listing by time without first
sorting it by date. If you're interested in sorting the listing by time,
you could set the sort to use the time, /+13,
as the starting point for the sort. This particular sort is handy
because some vendors, including Microsoft, have used the time as a
method of indicating the version number of their DLLs. Consequently,
sorting by the time can provide a very fast indication of version number
as long as you know what the time indicator means (vendors often
provide this information in their knowledge bases).
NOTE
There's no space between the /+
command line switch and the starting position of the sort. However,
there's a space between the other command line switches and their
arguments. Make sure you add or remove space as appropriate or the Sort
utility will fail with an invalid command line switch error message.
/L[OCALE]
LocalOverrides the
default system local, which is always the locale you selected for your
Windows setup. Unfortunately, the only active override for Server Core
is the C locale. The C locale provides a fast collating sort using
binary differentiation, rather than language-specific sorting. Although
this sort is quite fast, it might not always produce the results you
need if your language uses diacritical marks. The sort is always case
sensitive.
/M[EMORY]
SizeDefines the amount
of memory in KB to use. Sort requires a minimum of 160 KB to perform its
task. It's important to remember that the command window doesn't
provide the same amount of memory as your machine contains. Generally,
all modern machines have 640 KB of main memory available in the command
window, with some memory used by command window components and some
required by Sort itself. You can check the amount of available memory
using the Mem utility . The only time you need to set the memory size is if Sort
fails due to memory constraints. Sort uses 90 percent of available
memory to maximize performance as a default.
/REC[ORD_MAXIMUM]
CharactersDefines the maximum
number of characters in a record. The default size is 4,096 characters.
However, you can specify up to 65,535 characters in a record. Larger
record sizes use more memory for each record. Consequently, keeping the
record size as small as possible will improve Sort efficiency.
/R[EVERSE]
Reverses the
sort order. Instead of sorting A to Z, the output appears in Z to A
order. Likewise, Sort also reverses number order.
drive1
Specifies the drive for the sort input. The default is the current drive when you specify a filename.
path1
Specifies the
absolute or relative path to use for the sort input. The default is the
current directory when you specify a filename.
filename1
Defines the name of
the file that you want to sort. If you don't provide a filename, Sort
will use the standard input device, which is usually the keyboard for
Windows, as the input. You can change the standard input by using
redirection , but providing a filename normally provides faster results.
/T[EMPORARY]
[drive2:][path2]Determines the
directory used to hold the temporary files for the sort. Normally, you
don't need to use this command line switch because it's easier to use
the system temporary directory (the default) for storage. However, you
might want to use this option if the current drive is low on storage
space or you want to use a faster drive to hold the temporary data to
promote faster sorting.
/O[UTPUT]
[drive3:][path3]filename3Specifies the location of the output. You must provide a filename as a minimum when using this command line switch. The drive3 and path3
arguments let you place the file on a different drive and directory. If
you don't specify this command line switch, the Sort utility sends the
output to the standard output, which is the console.
