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Author Topic: Query re FIND [..foldername] problem in Locate32 (and Windows Explorer)  (Read 3242 times)

IainB

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I have been trialling Locate32 (latest 64-bit version) for a while, and yesterday I was puzzled because some files that I had just created and that would have been indexed by Locate32 in its latest database update were not showing up in Locate32's results page. At the same time I got an error - which was not repeatable.

I wrote to the developer of Locate32 per email:
​I was using Locate32 and searching for files/folders named ..Audio
After sorting the results list, I got this error message:
CLocateDlg::SortNewItem:Something is wrong! Contact jmhuttun@{redacted}
I have established that Locate32 seems to be unable to catalogue/index folders with a preceding dot (.) or preceding two dots (..) in the folder name, and it cannot seem to catalogue/index the files within such folders either.
System is Win7-64 Home Premium.

He replied:
​Looks like that you are trying to something strange. I should recommend not using '.', because it's meaning is quite vague in GUI programs.

However, I see nothing strange about it. Windows File System allows for preceding 1 or more full stops in file/folder names and quite a lot of programs use at least 1 preceding full stop in file-naming - e.g. Google Picasa. I have been using folder names with preceding dot(s) (.) for years with no issue until now - and my File Manager is xplorer² (I rarely - if ever - need to use Windows Explorer).

This is an example of a typical filename and path that seems to be causing difficulty for Locate32:
C:\Workdata.007 (Media 1)\..Audio\Personal + Family\2012-01-31 224456 - Meeting notes at Labour MP office (9m 48s).amr

Puzzled, I did a comparison, using different tools to do the searching:
  • 1. Using the FIND command for files/folders in Windows Explorer and also using Regex ".*.*" or "..*.*" seems to indicate that it is partially blind. That is, it:
    (a) can find non-specific folders with preceding full stops (1 or 2) with no problem, but
    (b) cannot find a specific ..foldername or specific filename.ext within that ..foldername, but
    (c) can find files with specific .ext but a non-specific filename within those folders;
    (d) can find a specific or non-specific foldername within those folders.

  • 2. Using Locate32, it cannot seem to find those specific ..foldername folders, nor non-specific ones, and cannot find any files - specific or non-specific - within those ..foldername folders. It seems to be "blind" to the ..foldername and any files/folders nested within it.

  • 3. Using FIND in xplorer², it can find specific and non-specific ..foldername folders and any files/folders (specific or non-specific) nested within them, with no difficulty.

Q1: Am I doing something wrong here, or have I tripped over some kind of a bug in Windows and Locate32?

I rather like Locate32 because it is fast, but if it fails to actually catalogue certain undefined and apparently legitimate types of file/folder names in NTFS without your knowledge, then I shall have to use an alternative, or go back to using xplorer² (which, though it seems to be fail-proof in this context, is slower, as it does a real-time search the first time you search for something). If I can possibly avoid it, I certainly don't want to have to change my long-established folder-naming conventions to accommodate Locate32.

Q2. What alternatives are there to Locate32 that would not have this ..foldername problem?

(Thanks in anticipation.)

4wd

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Everything seems to handle .xxx and ..xxx OK, listing those folders and whatever is in them.

2013-08-24 13_38_53-..test_ - Everything.png

2013-08-24 13_45_33-another .txt - Everything.png

I'm using the latest beta which has yet to give any problems on my machines.

IainB

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@4wd: Many thanks for taking the trouble to test that out for me to prove it on Everything.
I have uninstalled Locate32 and downloaded and installed Everything-1.3.3.658b.x64.exe. It's very fast. Works a treat.

4wd

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If it's searches you do often, you may want to check out Everything's bookmark feature and set one up for that particular search.

eg.

Entering apf: (Audio Personal Family) would limit to specific folder, filetype and sort method.

You could then enter apf: meet to get any file in a particular folder, of a particular type with meet in the name.

IainB

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^^ Thanks for the tips. I shall have to start learning about Everything's feature set now, and how best to use those features.

Meanwhile, a remaining issue seems to be the curious conditional "blindness" bug that I had tripped over that is displayed when using Windows Find and Locate32 - a bug that xplorer² and Everything do not display.
I would have thought that the Windows OS Search/Find would be certain to be able to find any and every filename in NTFS that it had let you create, but apparently not, even in Win7-64.     :tellme: