That is, delete all files matching pattern within a given directory
Example, Delete all *.jpg files within DirectoryName
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
DeleteFiles(ExtractFilePath(ParamStr(0)),'*.jpg');
end;
procedure DeleteFiles(APath, AFileSpec: string);
var
lSearchRec:TSearchRec;
lPath:string;
begin
lPath := IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter(APath);
if FindFirst(lPath+AFileSpec,faAnyFile,lSearchRec) = 0 then
begin
try
repeat
SysUtils.DeleteFile(lPath+lSearchRec.Name);
until SysUtils.FindNext(lSearchRec) <> 0;
finally
SysUtils.FindClose(lSearchRec); // Free resources on successful find
end;
end;
end;
In more recent versions of Delphi, you would probably use the classes in System.IOUtils, which are essentially wrapping FindFirst, FindNext etc:
procedure DeleteFilesMatchingPattern(const Directory, Pattern: string);
var FileName: string;
begin
for FileName in TDirectory.GetFiles(Directory, Pattern) do TFile.Delete(FileName);
end;
You can use the SHFileOperation function. The nice thing about using SHFileOperation is you have the option of deleting the files to the recycle bin and you get the normal API animations so the user will know what is going on. The downside is the delete will take a little longer than Jeff's code.
There are several wrappers out there. I use this free wrapper from BP Software. The entire wrapper file is only 220 lines and is easy to read and use. I don't install this as a component. I have found it easier to add this unit to my project and just Create and free the object as needed.
Update: The download link for the BP Software site is no longer valid. There is an older version on the Embarcadero website.
TSHFileOp (1.3.5.1) (3 KB) May
31, 2006 TComponent that is a wrapper
for the SHFileOperation API to copy,
move, rename, or delete (with
recycle-bin support) a file system
object.
The file name parameter for SHFileOperation supports MS DOS style wildcards. So you can use the component like this:
FileOps := TSHFileOp.Create(self);
FileOps.FileList.Add(DirectoryName + '\*.jpg');
FileOps.HWNDHandle := self.Handle;
FileOps.Action := faDelete;
FileOps.SHOptions :=
[ofAllowUndo, ofNoConfirmation, ofFilesOnly, ofSimpleProgress];
FileOps.Execute;
I usually show the "Are you sure" message myself so I always pass the ofNoConfirmation flag so Windows does not ask again.
If you don't want to delete every jpg file or you need to delete from multiple directories you can add full file names or different paths with wild cards to the FileList string list before calling execute.
Here is the MSDN Page for SHFileOperation
Note that SHFileOperation has been replaced by IFileOperation starting with Windows Vista. I have continued to use SHFileOperation on Windows Vista without any problems.
Related
Usually, with Windows, I save my application's data in the user folder (%appdata%).
For that, I use the function ExpandEnvironmentStrings which is linked to Windows to get the folder I need, and I store inside a subfolder my inifile.
Is there any best practice to manage that and be compliant with all the supported platforms (Windows 32b, 64b & Mac)?
I successfully tested like that:
procedure TfrmMain.SaveSettings;
var
fnINI: TFileName;
ini : TIniFile;
begin
fnINI := IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter(GetHomePath) + IncludeTrailingPathDelimiter(APP_NAME) + ChangeFileExt(APP_NAME, '.ini');
if ForceDirectories(ExtractFilePath(fnINI)) then
begin
ini := TIniFile.Create(fnINI);
try
ini.WriteString(INI_CONNECTION, INI_IP, edtIP.Text);
finally
ini.Free;
end;
end;
end;
Haven't tried XE2 but probably you could use SysUtils.GetHomePath. Also check IOUtils where you can find useful records (TFile, TPath, TDirectory) for managing files, paths and directories. They should support different platforms.
HI
We have a large number of remote computers that capture video onto disk drives. Each camera has it's own unique directory and there can be up to 16 directories on any one disk.
I'm trying to locate the oldest video file on the disk but using FindFirst/FindNext to compare the File Creation DateTime takes forever.
Does anybody know of a more efficient way of finding the oldest file in a directory? We remotely connect to the pc's from a central HO location.
Regards, Pieter
-- Update
Thank you all for the answers. In the end I used the following.
Map a drive ('w:') to the remote computer using windows.WNetAddConnection2
//Execute dir on the remote computer using cmd.exe /c dir
//NOTE: Drive letters are relative to the remote computer. (psexec -w parameter)
psexec \\<IPAddress> -i /accepteula -w "c:\windows\system32" cmd.exe "/c dir q:\video /OD /TC /B > q:\dir.txt"
//Read the first line of "w:\dir.txt" to get the oldest file in that directory.
//Disconnect from the remote computer using windows.WNetCancelConnection2
You could also try FindFirstFileEx with FindExInfoBasic parameter, and on Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 or later, FIND_FIRST_EX_LARGE_FETCH which should improve performance.
First, grab the RunDosAppPipedToTStrings routine from this page on how to run a DOS program and pipe its output to a TStrings. The example uses a TMemo's Lines property, but you can pass any TStrings in, such as TStringList. Note that this will fail silently if CreateProcess returns false. You might want to add an else case to the "if CreateProcess" block that raises an exception.
Then create a simple batch file in the same folder as your EXE. Call it getdir.bat. All it should say is:
dir %1
This produces a directory listing of whatever folder you pass to it. Unfortunately, "dir" is a DOS keyword command, not a program, so you can't invoke it directly. Wrapping it in a batch file gets around that. This is a bit of a hack, but it works. If you can find a better way to run DIR, so much the better.
You'll want to invoke RunDosAppPipedToTStrings with code that looks something like this:
procedure GetDirListing(dirname: string; list: TStringList);
const
CMDNAME = '%s\getdir.bat "%s"';
var
path: string;
begin
list.Clear;
path := ExcludeTrailingPathDelimiter(ExtractFilePath(ParamStr(0)));
RunDosAppPipedToTStrings(format(CMDNAME, [path, dirname]), list, false);
end;
Then all that's left to do is parse the output, extract date and time and filenames, sort by date and time, and grab the filename of the file with the lowest date. I'll leave that much to you.
If you can run something on the remote computer that can iterate over the directories, that will be the fastest approach. If you wanted to use Mason's example, try launching it with PsExec from SysInternals.
If you can only run an application locally then no, there's no faster way than FindFirst/FindNext, and anything else you do will boil down to that eventually. If your local computer is running Windows 7 you can use FindFirstFileEx instead, which has flags to indicate it should use larger buffers for the transfers and that it shouldn't read the 8.3 alias, which can help the speed a bit.
I had almost the same problem on the fax server software I developed. I had to send the faxes in the order they were received from thousands (all stored in a directory). The solution I adopted (which is slow to start but fast to run) is to make a sorted list of all the files using the
SearchRec.Time
as the key. After the file is in the list, I'm setting the attributes of the file as a faSysFile:
NewAttributes := Attributes or faSysFile;
Now when I do a new search with
FileAttrs := (faAnyFile and not faDirectory);
only the files that are not faSysFile are shown, so I can add to the list the files that are coming in new.
Now you have a list with all the files sorted by time.
Don't forget, when you start your application, first step is to remove the faSysFile attribute from the files in the folder so they can be processed again.
procedure FileSetSysAttr(AFileName: string);
var
Attributes, NewAttributes: Word;
begin
Attributes := FileGetAttr(AFileName);
NewAttributes := Attributes or faSysFile;
FileSetAttr(AFileName, NewAttributes);
end;
procedure FileUnSetSysAttr(AFileName: string);
var
Attributes, NewAttributes: Word;
begin
Attributes := FileGetAttr(AFileName);
NewAttributes := Attributes and not faSysFile;
FileSetAttr(AFileName, NewAttributes);
end;
procedure PathUnSetSysAttr(APathName: string);
var
sr: TSearchRec;
FileAttrs: Integer;
begin
FileAttrs := (faAnyFile and not faDirectory) and (faAnyFile or faSysFile);
APathName := IncludeTrailingBackslash(APathName);
if SysUtils.FindFirst(APathName + '*.*', FileAttrs, sr) = 0 then
try
repeat
if (sr.Attr and faDirectory) = 0 then
FileUnSetSysAttr(APathName + sr.Name);
until SysUtils.FindNext(sr) <> 0;
finally
SysUtils.FindClose(sr);
end;
end;
I know this is not the best solution, but works for me.
Update: I've added the following code:
function TSettingsForm.AppDataPath: string;
//CSIDL_APPDATA Individual user Data
//CSIDL_COMMON_APPDATA Common to Computer Data
// works so long as people have at least IE 4. (and Win95 or better)
var
r: Bool;
path: array[0..Max_Path] of Char;
begin
r := ShGetSpecialFolderPath(0, path, CSIDL_APPDATA, False) ;
if r then result := path
else result := '';
end;
And I've changed the setinifilename function (See below). It will not create the folder structure.
--End update--
I'm behind the times, on what to and not to do. This is how I am currently saving the settings for my software. I just tested it on Vista not logged in as an administrator, and it gives me an error message cannot write ini file. So I'm guessing I'm supposed to write the data to a data folder? I've never used vista/win7 before, and want this software to be windows 2K+ compatible. What should I do to save the settings. I also really didn't want to mess with the registry, because every little bit you add to it, slows down the computer just that much more... (or so It seems)
Thanks for any input.
procedure TSettingsForm.setinifilename;
var filename:string;
Path:string;
begin
filename:='key.ini';
path:=AppDataPath+'\MyCompanyName\ProductName\';
if NOT DirectoryExists(path) then
CreateDir(path);
inifilename:= path+filename;
end;
procedure TSettingsForm.SaveSettings;
var
appINI: TIniFile;
begin
appINI := TIniFile.Create(inifilename) ;
try
low:= Trunc (edt_low.value);
high:=Trunc (edt_high.value);
appINI.WriteInteger('SPEED','LOW',low);
appINI.WriteInteger('SPEED','HIGH',high);
appINI.WriteString('PROXY','SERVER',edtProxyServer.Text);
appINI.WriteString('PROXY','PORT',edtProxyPort.Text);
appINI.WriteString('PROXY','USERNAME',edtProxyUserName.Text);
appINI.WriteString('PROXY','PASSWORD',edtProxyPass.Text);
// status.text:='Saved Data';
finally
appIni.Free;
end;
end;
procedure TSettingsForm.GetSettings;
Var
appINI : TIniFile;
begin
appINI := TIniFile.Create(inifilename) ;
try
//if no last user return an empty string
edt_low.value:= appINI.ReadInteger('SPEED','LOW',0);
edt_high.value:= appINI.ReadInteger('SPEED','HIGH',0);
low:= Trunc (edt_low.Value);
high := Trunc (edt_high.Value);
edtProxyServer.Text:=appINI.ReadString('PROXY','SERVER','');
edtProxyPort.Text:=appINI.ReadString('PROXY','PORT','0');
edtProxyUserName.Text:=appINI.ReadString('PROXY','USERNAME','');
edtProxyPass.Text:= appINI.ReadString('PROXY','PASSWORD','');
finally
appINI.Free;
end;
end;
In Vista, your program is NOT allowed to write to the program files directory where your program is located.
You now have to save your ini files in the AppData directory.
A description of how to do this in delphi is at:
http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/delphivista.html#datafolder
And to be Vista/Windows 7 compatible, the rest of that web page will be a good guideline.
For your update, you cannot CreateDir more than 1 level deep at once. Use the ForceDirectories function instead:
path:=AppDataPath+'\MyCompanyName\ProductName\';
if NOT DirectoryExists(path) then
ForceDirectories(path);
p.s. Don't be afraid to write program settings to the Registry. That's what the registry is for. In fact, it properly handles settings for different users for you when different users are logged in. The Registry works in the same way in 98/Vista/7. Whereas ini files have actually been depreciated, and are no longer used by Windows.
You say you don't want to mess with the registry because "every little bit you add to it, slows down the computer just that much more". Actually that is NOT true. The registry is simply a database. And if it is 10 MB or 100 MB, the difference in time it takes to access is imperceptable.
It's all those companies selling Registry Cleaner programs that are trying to keep this fairy tale going. Using their cleaners can do you more harm than good. All they need to do is wipe out one or two important entries and you can be in deep doo-doo. Please read this article about Registry Cleaners, and especially the "Marginal performance benefit" section which explains correctly that the problems Windows 98 and earlier had with the Registry have been mostly fixed.
If your program adds more than 2 or 3 KB to the Registry, that will be a lot, and it is an insignificant amount. Use the registry. Do it right.
You should use the ApplicationData directory for your app data, In Delphi you can find this folder programatically using the shell api function SHGetSpecialFolderLocation
Embarcadero have a FAQ page on this, here.
As already mentioned - dont save anything in the app folder.
You should split your configuration settings into two parts :
One part containing the settings that must work regardlees of the user - that part should be stored in COMMON_APPDATA.
A Second part containing the individual users settings (users personal choice of font etc) - that part should be stored in APPDATA
As for the CreateDir, it is true that you cannot create more than one level at a time - however, Delphi has the ForceDirectories function that can do exactly that.
e.g. ForceDirectories('C:\MyFolder\SubFolder\SubSubFolder');
I have a problem adding strings to a TStringList. I've searched other posts but couldn't find an answer to this.
What I'm trying to do is to add a big amount of strings to a TStringList (more than 14000) but somewhere in the process I get an EAccessViolation. Here's the code I'm using:
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
List := TStringList.Create;
List.Duplicates := dupAccept;
end;
procedure TForm1.ButtonStartClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
List.Clear;
List.Add('125-AMPLE');
List.Add('TCUMSON');
List.Add('ATLV 4300');
List.Add('150T-15');
List.Add('TDL-08ZE');
List.Add('RT20L');
List.Add('SIN LINEA');
List.Add('TIARA');
List.Add('FL200ZK1');
List.Add('FL250ZK1');
List.Add('SIN LINEA');
List.Add('CENTAURO-70 S.P.');
List.Add('CORSADO');
{ This list continues to about 14000 strings...}
List.Add('VOSJOD 2');
List.Add('Z 125');
List.Add('ZUMY');
List.Add('NEW AGE 125');
List.Add('SIN LINEA');
end;
procedure TForm1.FormClose(Sender: TObject; var Action: TCloseAction);
begin
FreeAndNil(List);
end;
¿What's wrong with this code? The list contains duplicate strings so I set the Duplicates property to dupAccept. I was able to load the list using LoadFromFile, but I don't want to have a text file outside my application.
I hope you can help me!!! Please tell me if you need any further information.
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your help.
The suggestions for using an external file are on the mark here. However, your post indicates your desire for not having an external file. I would then suggest you link the file to the executable as a resource. You can easily do this following these steps:
Place all the strings into a text file called stringdata.txt (or whatever name you choose). Then create a .rc file of whatever name you choose and put the following into it (STRING_DATA can be any identifier you choose):
STRING_DATA RCDATA "stringdata.txt"
Create a .res file from the .rc:
BRCC32 <name of rc>.rc
Now reference this file from the source code. Place the following someplace in the unit:
{$R <name of res>.res}
Instead of loading from a file stream, load from a resource stream:
StringData := TResourceStream.Create(HInstance, 'STRING_DATA', RT_RCDATA);
try
List.LoadFromStream(StringData);
finally
StringData.Free;
end;
If you do command-line automated builds, I would suggest you keep the .rc file under source control and build the .res during the build process. This way you can also keep the stringdata.txt file under source control and any edits are automatically caught on the next build without having to explicitly build the .res file each time the .txt file changes.
What Delphi version are you using? Some older versions had a bug in the memory manager that can cause an access violation when trying to reallocate an array to a size that's too large.
Try adding FastMM4 to your project to replace the old memory manager and see if that helps.
Also, you're probably better off keeping the list in an external file. Yes, it's another file, but it also means that you can change the list without having to recompile the entire program. This also makes creating (and distributing!) updates easier.
Mason is probably right for the cause of the AV; this is quite a large array to grow.
On a side note, when doing such a long processing on a StringList, it's recommended to surround it by BeginUpdate/EndUpdate to avoid firing any update event.
Even if you don't have any now, they might be added later and you'll get problems.
Set list.capacity to the number of items you plan to add, immediately after you create the list. Alternatively, place the list in an RC file (named other than with the name of your project) and add it to your project. This gets compiled into your application, but does not involve executable code to create the list.
I would also worry about compiler integrity with a 14,000 line procedure. People have found other cases where going beyond anything reasonable breaks the compiler in various ways.
You may also want to try THashedStringList, could see a speed boost (although not in this function), although I'm not sure if the add method is a whole lot different.
try using the following instead of your code to add the strings to the StringList
var
Str: string;
begin
Str := '125-AMPLE' + #13#10;
Str := Str + 'TCUMSON' + #13#10;
Str := Str + 'ATLV 4300' + #13#10;
Str := Str + '150T-15' + #13#10;
................
List.Text := Str;
end;
Can I create Windows XP's Compressed (Zipped) Folder using Delphi?
If you are using Delphi X2, just use TZipFile from System.Zip:
To Zip a folder, use:
TZipFile.ZipDirectoryContents('ZipFile.zip', 'C:\Zip\this\right\now');
To Zip files, use:
Zip := TZipFile.Create;
try
Zip.Open('ZipFile.zip', zmWrite);
Zip.Add('FileToBeZipped.txt');
Zip.Add('ThisWillBeCompressedAgainForSureAndBecomeSmaller.zip');
finally
Zip.Free;
end
According to a thread in eggheadcafe, you can use CreateFile Function with FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS to create a Compressed Folder.
For shell extensions route, take a look at Using Windows XP "Compressed Folder" shell extension to work with .zip files by Namespace Edanmo, which is written in VB.
I just found the similar question asked on C++. Take a look at Creating a ZIP file on Windows (XP/2003) in C/C++. I have a feeling the easiest route is buying ZipForge. See Zip a file in Delphi code sample.
Some time ago, I've tried all of the Delphi compression libraries that I could find, and eventually I ended up using KaZip by Kiril Antonov.
My requirements were:
Free;
Open source;
Native Delphi code;
No external dependencies (dll, exe). My most important requirement;
Small memory footprint;
Easy to use;
I use it mainly to turn .kml files into .kmz, and it does that amazingly fast.
Here's an example of how I use it:
uses
KaZip;
...
// replaces a .kml file with a .kmz file
procedure KmlToKmz(const aFileName: string);
var
FS: TFileStream;
KaZip:TKaZip;
KmzFileName:TFileName;
begin
KmzFileName := ChangeFileExt(aFileName, '.kmz');
KaZip := TKaZip.Create(nil);
try
// create an empty zipfile with .kmz extension:
FS := TFileStream.Create(KmzFileName, fmOpenReadWrite or FmCreate);
try
KaZip.CreateZip(FS);
finally
FS.Free;
end;
KaZip.Open(KmzFileName); // Open the new .kmz zipfile
KaZip.Entries.AddFile(aFileName); // add the .kml
KaZip.Close;
DeleteFile(aFileName); // delete the .kml
finally
KaZip.Free;
end;
end;
Take a look at this OpenSource SynZip unit. It's even faster for decompression than the default unit shipped with Delphi, and it will generate a smaller exe (crc tables are created at startup).
No external dll is needed. Works from Delphi 6 up to XE. No problem with Unicode version of Delphi. All in a single unit.
I just made some changes to handle Unicode file names inside Zip content, not only Win-Ansi charset but any Unicode chars. Feedback is welcome.
You could use TurboPower Abbrevia which is now open source.
A "zipped" folder in Windows is nothing more than a .ZIP file compressed using any standard zip library. Compressed folders are a different animal and require an NTFS disk format.
For the "Zip" file, I strongly suggest the Turbo Power Abbrevia, which is open source and works well. You might want to check this alternate site if your using Delphi 2009 as it might be a more recent copy.
If your wanting to use the compressed folders option, you will need to modify the directory flags on the directory handle. This will only impact NEW files added to that directory and will not automatically compress existing files. If you have an existing directory you are trying to compress, then rename each existing file, and load and save it back to the original name deleting the original file when complete with each one. Yozey had a good link to the MSDN documentation. Just remember that this only works with NTFS formatted disks, so you will need to add a check for that in your code.
You can use some command line version of any compressor like 7zip and do the task using ShellExecute, or you can use a free or comercial component like anyone of these.
I had used ZipMaster and it behaves very well for my purpose. I don't know what are your size, space and performance requirements.
Take a look at these:
File Compression
FSCTL_SET_COMPRESSION
The TZipFile.ZipDirectoryContents method did not work for me, so I created my own implementation using TZipFile.add(). I am posting it here if anyone needs it.
procedure CreateZipOfDirectory(directory: string);
var
zip: TZipFile;
Arr: tarray<string>;
str: string;
function GetAllFilesInDir(const Dir: string): tarray<string>;
var
Search: TSearchRec;
procedure addAll(arr: tarray<string>; parent: string);
var
tmp: string;
begin
for tmp in arr do
begin
setlength(result, length(result) + 1);
result[length(result) - 1] := IncludeTrailingBackslash(parent) + tmp;
end;
end;
begin
setlength(result, 0);
if FindFirst(IncludeTrailingBackslash(Dir) + '*.*', faAnyFile or faDirectory, Search) = 0 then
try
repeat
if (Search.Attr and faDirectory) = 0 then
begin
setlength(result, length(result) + 1);
result[length(result) - 1] := Search.Name;
end
else if (Search.Name <> '..') and (Search.Name <> '.') then
addAll(GetAllFilesInDir(IncludeTrailingBackslash(Dir) + Search.Name), Search.Name);
until FindNext(Search) <> 0;
finally
FindClose(Search);
end;
end;
begin
Zip := TZipFile.Create;
try
Zip.Open('Foo.zip', zmWrite);
arr := GetAllFilesInDir(directory); // The Delphi TZipFile.ZipDirectoryContents does not work properly, so let's create our own.
for str in arr do
zip.Add(directory + str, str); // Add the second parameter to make sure that the file structure is preserved.
finally
zip.Free;
end;
end;