aron@garnet.berkeley.edu (Aron Roberts) (01/03/90)
(The original posting asked:
How would one "send a list of all files under [in and subordinate to]
the current directory under macOS," as in the case of "find . -print | lp". )
(One response suggested the Finder's "Print Directory..." command.)
(In subsequent articles, Wayne Folta (folta@tove.umd.edu) and
David D. Levine (davidl@leonardo.intel.com) both pointed out that the
"Print Directory..." command does not print the contents of a directory
hierarchy. David further indicated that he didn't "believe that there
is any way to do this on the Mac.")
There is at least one early (c. 1986) Macintosh utility, FileTree 1.5,
which can generate a complete listing of files and folders starting at
any arbitrary point in the Mac's directory hierarchy and working
downward (upward?) from that point. This utility generates a text file
which can be printed with any Mac text editor or word processing
program. The utility is copyrighted by Jody S. Kravitz, but can be
freely distributed for any noncommercial purpose.
Here is some sample output from this program:
date Size type crtr File Name
------------ ------ ---- ---- --------------------
HD40:Graphics:
12-Nov-1988 . Canvas Color Tables:
12-Nov-1988 2374 drwC DAD2 . . Apple System Colors
[...]
19-Jul-1988 2374 drwC DAD2 . . Gray Pallette
7-Oct-1988 86921 BIFF DAD2 . Canvas Help
15-Apr-1989 587402 APPL DAD2 . Canvas* 2.0
13-May-1989 . Color Demos:
13-May-1989 10250 ZIVM LZIV . . Mesmer
13-May-1989 4843 ZIVM LZIV . . Rainbow
[...]
There is a similar program from William Woody, Directory 1.0 (dated
1988), which can send recursive directory listings directly to the
printer, although I believe this program cannot begin at an arbitrary
point in the directory hierarchy, but rather insists on providing
complete listings for the file systems on all mounted volumes. This
utility is also a copyrighted program which is freely distributable for
noncommercial purposes.
Finally (although this probably leaves out even more ways of
accomplishing this goal), there is a "freeware" HyperCard XFCN (also
from 1988), Files 1.1, by Guy de Picciotto, which provides a list of
files and folders in the current HFS directory. The stack in which
this XFCN is packaged also provides a "List all files" button which,
through a short but effective HyperTalk script, generates a
hierarchical listing of all files and folders at and below the current
directory in a HyperCard field, from which this list could then be
sent to a text file or printed directly from HyperCard.
Although it is true that the capability to generate a listing such
as that of "find . -print | lp" (or "tree /f > lpt1" in MS/PC-DOS) is
not an integral capability of the Macintosh Operating System, there do
exist freely distributable tools for the Mac which--in at most a few
simple steps--can perform this identical function.
The question of whether this capability "should" be provided by the
Mac OS, or whether PC/MS-DOS' disk/file/text handling tools
are superior to those provided by Apple, is beyond the scope of this
posting. Suffice it to say that "real-world" computer users--from
just-past-novice to experienced--will eventually find and use any tools
which are available and appropriate for the job, even if such tools
do not bear the Apple logo. And there is a rich collection of such
tools available for the Mac, enough to compete head-to-head with any
other contemporary OS.
Aron Roberts Workstation Support Services . 219 Evans Hall
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
aron@garnet.berkeley.edu . ucbvax!garnet!aron
aron@ucbgarne.bitnet . (415) 642-5974oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (01/03/90)
I use dir-acta-ry, which makes a copy of the directory hierarchy as a single Acta file.