Comments on: Tip: Saving Folder Contents to a Plain text file http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/2007/05/02/tip-saving-folder-contents-to-a-plain-text-file/ Help for the Switcher and New Apple Macintosh User Mon, 21 May 2012 17:18:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Matt Beckwith http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/2007/05/02/tip-saving-folder-contents-to-a-plain-text-file/comment-page-1/#comment-4893 Matt Beckwith Fri, 04 May 2007 13:22:42 +0000 http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/?p=374#comment-4893 Michelle, great freeware tip. I can see how that would be helpful. Eric, thanks for the terminal directions - nice and easy! Michelle, great freeware tip. I can see how that would be helpful.

Eric, thanks for the terminal directions – nice and easy!

]]> By: CntrySigns http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/2007/05/02/tip-saving-folder-contents-to-a-plain-text-file/comment-page-1/#comment-4891 CntrySigns Fri, 04 May 2007 01:28:23 +0000 http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/?p=374#comment-4891 Err... I don't think I'm brave enough to open terminal and try this, but maybe I'll give it a try. Thanks! Err… I don’t think I’m brave enough to open terminal and try this, but maybe I’ll give it a try.
Thanks!

]]> By: Eric Vought http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/2007/05/02/tip-saving-folder-contents-to-a-plain-text-file/comment-page-1/#comment-4889 Eric Vought Thu, 03 May 2007 22:24:25 +0000 http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/?p=374#comment-4889 Err... I guess you could do it that way. OS X has a UNIX core and a very powerful command-line. Getting a file listing is very easy. 1) open a terminal 2) type "ls [space]" and drag the folder to the terminal (the full path will be pasted in for you) then [enter]. This will list all the files in that folder. Cut and paste. You can also type "ls [folder] > listing.txt" to dump the file list straight into "listing.txt". You can do all kinds of incredible things with simple combinations of commands, or things that might take hours to do in the GUI with a short script: cat docs/**/*.txt > bigfile.txt which takes each text file that is anywhere under the docs folder and dumps them all into one file. This kind of thing becomes especially powerfull combined with commands like grep (finds files or lines in files matching patterns) or diff (finds differences between files head or tail (removes the beginning or end of files) and so forth. OS X has a lot of power under the hood. Err… I guess you could do it that way. OS X has a UNIX core and a very powerful command-line. Getting a file listing is very easy.

1) open a terminal
2) type “ls [space]” and drag the folder to the terminal (the full path will be pasted in for you) then [enter]. This will list all the files in that folder. Cut and paste.

You can also type “ls [folder] > listing.txt” to dump the file list straight into “listing.txt”. You can do all kinds of incredible things with simple combinations of commands, or things that might take hours to do in the GUI with a short script:

cat docs/**/*.txt > bigfile.txt

which takes each text file that is anywhere under the docs folder and dumps them all into one file. This kind of thing becomes especially powerfull combined with commands like grep (finds files or lines in files matching patterns) or diff (finds differences between files head or tail (removes the beginning or end of files) and so forth. OS X has a lot of power under the hood.

]]> By: George Starcher http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/2007/05/02/tip-saving-folder-contents-to-a-plain-text-file/comment-page-1/#comment-4883 George Starcher Wed, 02 May 2007 16:35:21 +0000 http://typicalmacuser.com/wordpress/?p=374#comment-4883 Nice tip! Just found it works in Textmate too. Nice tip! Just found it works in Textmate too.

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