Searching for a file within archives

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flyingrhino
Posts: 38
Joined: 15 Apr 2007 12:12

Searching for a file within archives

Post by flyingrhino »

Hi,
Is there any way to use the XY file search to look for files recursively withing directories and archives.
The idea is to look inside the current directory, all directories within and all archives within the search space.
Something like treating archives as directories within the search space and looking inside them too.

Personally I use rar and zip but I assume searching within 7z, gz, would also be useful.

Thanks,

armsys
Posts: 557
Joined: 10 Mar 2012 12:40
Location: Hong Kong

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by armsys »

flyingrhino wrote:Hi,
Is there any way to use the XY file search to look for files recursively withing directories and archives.
The idea is to look inside the current directory, all directories within and all archives within the search space.
Something like treating archives as directories within the search space and looking inside them too.

Personally I use rar and zip but I assume searching within 7z, gz, would also be useful.

Thanks,
In a nutshell, are you asking if all archives can be treated like normal folders? :?

flyingrhino
Posts: 38
Joined: 15 Apr 2007 12:12

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by flyingrhino »

The problem is that a file I'm searching for may reside in a folder or within an archive or both.
It doesn't really matter if xy treats archives as folders or not, but as long as XY can tell me where the file I want is stored then that's ok. If xy treats archives as folders then its an added bonus, but not compulsory.

Thanks,

admin
Site Admin
Posts: 67199
Joined: 22 May 2004 16:48
Location: Win8.1, Win10, Win11, all @100%
Contact:

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by admin »

Not (yet) supported. I know that most other file managers can do this, so you will quickly find something for the job. :)

totmad1
Posts: 131
Joined: 24 Jun 2013 12:37

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by totmad1 »

I personally use this coding to make lists of archive contents

Code: Select all

"&List all this folder"
      selfilter"*.rar ; *.7z ;  *.cab ; *.gz ; *.zip";
       $SelectedItems = get("SelectedItemsNames","|");
        foreach($Item, $SelectedItems,"|") {
         $cmdline = <<<CMD_LINE
cmd /c "$p_zip l "<curpath>\$Item" >>"<curpath>\<curfolder>.txt"
CMD_LINE;
         $cmdline = Replace($cmdline, "<crlf>", ' ');
         Run($cmdline, , 0, 0);
          wait 500;
          }
"List  <curname> single"
       $cmdline = <<<CMD_LINE
cmd /c "$p_zip l "<curitem>" >"<curitem>.txt"
CMD_LINE;
         $cmdline = Replace($cmdline, "<crlf>", ' ');
         Run($cmdline, , 0, 0);
full 7zip script available here
http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic. ... 2&start=30

$p_zip is a permanent variable i have set but you could replace with full path to 7z.exe
totmad1 (totally mad one)

TheQwerty
Posts: 4373
Joined: 03 Aug 2007 22:30

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by TheQwerty »

totmad1 wrote:I personally use this coding to make lists of archive contents
It might be interesting to take this approach but instead of text files, store the contents list as comments on the archives.

flyingrhino
Posts: 38
Joined: 15 Apr 2007 12:12

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by flyingrhino »

admin wrote:Not (yet) supported. I know that most other file managers can do this, so you will quickly find something for the job. :)
XY has been my file manager for many years and has my loyalty and support...

Now I have two reasons to go elsewhere (archive search and drag/drop into skype). Please take away these reasons :)

I'm not a programmer so the script suggested is beyond my ability, but I do appreciate the effort people took in responding

Thanks,

armsys
Posts: 557
Joined: 10 Mar 2012 12:40
Location: Hong Kong

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by armsys »

flyingrhino wrote:Now I have two reasons to go elsewhere (archive search and drag/drop into skype). Please take away these reasons :)
You'll regret your divorce with XY. :naughty:

flyingrhino
Posts: 38
Joined: 15 Apr 2007 12:12

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by flyingrhino »

armsys wrote:You'll regret your divorce with XY.
No, I'm still a devoted XY'er

I just need to open FreeCommander portable when I :
1. Need to search for files in archives (archives are treated as directories - very useful feature for XY too)
2. Drag/drop into skype (used to work in old XY but broken for about 1 year now)
Other than that I'm XY all the way. All day. Every day.

But hopefully these features will appear in XY fast enough and I'll have no reason to use two file managers...

Thanks,

admin
Site Admin
Posts: 67199
Joined: 22 May 2004 16:48
Location: Win8.1, Win10, Win11, all @100%
Contact:

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by admin »

Well, I don't think it's a total disaster to have more than one tool in your toolbox. Two good special tools can be better than one do-it-all.

nerdweed
Posts: 651
Joined: 25 Feb 2012 07:47
Location: XY64 Latest Beta , Win 11, 96dpi, 100%

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by nerdweed »

But if the second tool is not that as good as the first one, you hate jumping to the second one lacking all those beautiful features.

I do like the feature of DO an Xplorer2 to browse archives as folders - but more than that its ability to preview images whilst browsing those archives. I think winzip supports it but i hate it. I have been silently waiting for the day this gets added to XY or atleast to PeaZip or 7Zip or IZarc.

LittleBiG
Posts: 1848
Joined: 08 Apr 2011 12:57
Location: Win10x64

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by LittleBiG »

nerdweed wrote:But if the second tool is not that as good as the first one, you hate jumping to the second one lacking all those beautiful features.
In my point of view Don wanted to mention that there are very good searching programs with that feature. You just have to think about Copernic Desktop Search. Additionally it can do a lot more than purely look into archives.
nerdweed wrote:I do like the feature of DO an Xplorer2 to browse archives as folders
I couldn't see too relevant advantage of treating archives as folders. Enter that folder then leave it is no less mouse click than open it with an external application then close it. Only you have to find a fast one like BandiZip.

Enternal
Posts: 1175
Joined: 10 Jan 2012 18:26

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by Enternal »

Yeah for these types of purposes, sometimes it's better to get dedicated tools for it. For example, PowerGrep, by the same people who wrote EditPad Pro.
http://www.powergrep.com/zip.html
Of course it's not free (wow, it's expensive but looks extremely powerful)...

armsys
Posts: 557
Joined: 10 Mar 2012 12:40
Location: Hong Kong

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by armsys »

Hi Enternal & LittleBiG,
As of today, dtSearch is the fastest search tool you can buy on the market. :roll:

Enternal
Posts: 1175
Joined: 10 Jan 2012 18:26

Re: Searching for a file within archives

Post by Enternal »

armsys wrote:Hi Enternal & LittleBiG,
As of today, dtSearch is the fastest search tool you can buy on the market. :roll:
However it only search text within files. Also it's not the fastest. The fastest file search actually happens to be by copy and pasting into notepad and then do a find. :lol:

Joking asides though, if you're talking about text search, grepWin is quite sufficient. Well actually it's very powerful. It's based on the grep command but this also has a GUI for it. Pretty nice stuff!

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