Monday 30 December 2019

Can I do a "one-time" file content search in Windows Server 2008 without adding the folder to the index?


Can I search for files which contain a specific string in a folder if that folder is not in the search index?


So, lets say folder 'textFiles' is not in the index. I navigate to this folder in Windows Explorer. I type '.ini' in the search box I want to see a result list containing only 'b.txt'


FOLDER C:\textFiles\

FILE a.php
CONTENT once twice thrice mice moose monkey

FILE b.txt
CONTENT mingle muddle middle.ini banana beer

FILE c.spo
CONTENT sellotape stapler phone book

I do not have permission to add folders to the Windows index and I do not have permission to install or run any executables that did not ship with the server or approved applications.


I'd be happy with a Windows native command line solution if necessary.



Answer



You can do this with the command line tool findstr.exe provided by Microsoft.




  1. Open a command prompt and navigate to c:\textfiles




  2. run command findstr /L /M /C:"ini" *.*


    note: you can add /S to search all subdirectories




Full details on FINDSTR


  FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]

/B Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
/E Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
/L Uses search strings literally.
/R Uses search strings as regular expressions.
/S Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
subdirectories.
/I Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
/X Prints lines that match exactly.
/V Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
/N Prints the line number before each line that matches.
/M Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.
/O Prints character offset before each matching line.
/P Skip files with non-printable characters.
/OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
/A:attr Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"
/F:file Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/C:string Uses specified string as a literal search string.
/G:file Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/D:dir Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
strings Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename
Specifies a file or files to search.

Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with /C. For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or
"there" in file x.y. 'FINDSTR /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for
"hello there" in file x.y.

Regular expression quick reference:
. Wildcard: any character
* Repeat: zero or more occurrences of previous character or class
^ Line position: beginning of line
$ Line position: end of line
[class] Character class: any one character in set
[^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
[x-y] Range: any characters within the specified range
\x Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
\ xyz\> Word position: end of word

For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference.

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