The Tools of TEXTFILES.COM

People often ask me what I use to keep track of all these files. The answer is that over the years I've written a number of small tools that make my life a lot easier. Since some people have requested to take a look, I've thrown them all onto this page to allow them to see what I use. Keep in mind: These work for me, I don't really need them debugged, or changed, and you're more than welcome to use them in any way you can. Also, be aware these are all specifically made for textfiles.com, so any other use may end up being another textfiles.com.

Filename
Size
Description of the Tool

downyago 142
Convert the current directory filenames to lowercase
Useful when a pile of files come in, all with all sorts of funky uppercase and lowercase letters. Only goes after the files in the directory; directories are left alone.

ferret 5944
Create a directory of files, with descriptions, sizes, and summary
The heart of textfiles.com, the Ferret does almost all the hard work. It looks for a .descs directory, which has a bunch of lines in the form of filename description. It also looks for a .header and .footer file to put before and after. In perl. Runs fast.

ferret4 5954

findabsolute.sh 240

finddup 5405

hammerslam 522

holdbin.sh 173

move 2271
Move a given file and its description to another directory
Obviously, UNIX has the mv command, but if you move a described file to another directory, you won't move over the description in the current directory. This script does that extra step for you, re-running the ferret each time so both directories will have the new information.
movers 2218
Moves a list of files from one directory to another
Meant to be a little more bad-ass version of the move command, this script will take a list of files (with the filnames and descriptions) and move ALL of them over to the second directory. You can generate this file using the grep command or an editor. It's a little weird, I know, but it does the hob.
musicate 499

pound 677
Take the # character out of filenames
Web addresses are not allowed to have # characters in them; browsers see them as an "index" within a document. This script changes all the # characters to - characters.
rapists 299

roundabout 596
Go through each of the files in a directory, and ask you to describe them
This script will show you the files in a directory and ask you to describe them. After you describe them, the file-description pair is added to the end of the .descs files (which ferret uses) and then the next file is shown. Obviously, it's only really good for textfiles. This script also takes an argument that will limit the looping to the argument. For example, roundabout f will look at all files that start with f.
stealth 2122

universe 2195
Compare all the current files to a global file list and remove duplicates
Takes forever, even on a fast machine. Finds all the doubles regardless of the filenames, and puts them into a TRASH directory. Keep in mind you have to generate the global file first, using universe.sh.
universe.sh 209
Generate the file that universe reads to compare files
This generates the list of files and line counts used by the universe script to compare current files against.
upyago 119
Convert the directories in the current location to uppercase
This converts all the directories to uppercase. In textfiles.com, directories are uppercase, filenames are lowercase. Makes my life a little easier.

There are 17 files for a total of 29,585 bytes.

Filename	Size	Description of the Tool
downyago	142	Convert the current directory filenames to lowercase Useful when a pile of files come in, all with all sorts of funky uppercase and lowercase letters. Only goes after the files in the directory; directories are left alone.
ferret	5944	Create a directory of files, with descriptions, sizes, and summary The heart of textfiles.com, the Ferret does almost all the hard work. It looks for a .descs directory, which has a bunch of lines in the form of filename description. It also looks for a .header and .footer file to put before and after. In perl. Runs fast.
ferret4	5954
findabsolute.sh	240
finddup	5405
hammerslam	522
holdbin.sh	173
move	2271	Move a given file and its description to another directory Obviously, UNIX has the mv command, but if you move a described file to another directory, you won't move over the description in the current directory. This script does that extra step for you, re-running the ferret each time so both directories will have the new information.
movers	2218	Moves a list of files from one directory to another Meant to be a little more bad-ass version of the move command, this script will take a list of files (with the filnames and descriptions) and move ALL of them over to the second directory. You can generate this file using the grep command or an editor. It's a little weird, I know, but it does the hob.
musicate	499
pound	677	Take the # character out of filenames Web addresses are not allowed to have # characters in them; browsers see them as an "index" within a document. This script changes all the # characters to - characters.
rapists	299
roundabout	596	Go through each of the files in a directory, and ask you to describe them This script will show you the files in a directory and ask you to describe them. After you describe them, the file-description pair is added to the end of the .descs files (which ferret uses) and then the next file is shown. Obviously, it's only really good for textfiles. This script also takes an argument that will limit the looping to the argument. For example, roundabout f will look at all files that start with f.
stealth	2122
universe	2195	Compare all the current files to a global file list and remove duplicates Takes forever, even on a fast machine. Finds all the doubles regardless of the filenames, and puts them into a TRASH directory. Keep in mind you have to generate the global file first, using universe.sh.
universe.sh	209	Generate the file that universe reads to compare files This generates the list of files and line counts used by the universe script to compare current files against.
upyago	119	Convert the directories in the current location to uppercase This converts all the directories to uppercase. In textfiles.com, directories are uppercase, filenames are lowercase. Makes my life a little easier.