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A Path Plan is an optionally named
collection of filenames, wildcards, and @ Rules that produces a list of
files and/or folders. Path Plans were designed to encompass the common
ways in which programs enable you to specify the files you want to
process (and a few not so common ways):
- By name.
- By wildcard, or mask. You can use one or more masks to
search for files in a folder, and optionally, its sub-folders. You
can also use one or more named Mask Sets wherever a mask is
required.
- By response file. A response file contains a list of files
to process.
- By reference to projects and files currently open in
Microsoft Visual C++, version 5 and 6, and Microsoft Visual Studio
.NET.
- By reference to folders defined by the Windows Shell, such as <Desktop>,
your desktop folder, and by reference to environment variables that
designate folder names, such as %windir%. Using these Path
Variables in your Path Plans instead of the actual folder names
allows you to move or rename the folders without needing to update
your Path Plans to reflect the new names. It also gives your Path
Plans a better chance of working in other machines or user profiles.
- By searching file contents and properties, through the use of the
Windows Indexing Service.
- By reference to other Path Plans. You can compose a Path Plan out
of other Path Plans.
While you can define a Path Plan file by file or folder by folder,
it's often more convenient to give one or more overly inclusive rules
and limit their application through:
- Exceptions, which allow you to exclude files and folders
based on absolute paths, partial paths, and masks.
- Advanced Filters, which allow you to select files based on
time, size, file attributes, and Indexing Service queries.
Path Plans provide a consistent interface to these methods, which
every Eluent Tools program makes available to you.
The easiest way to create a Path Plan is to use the Path
Plan Editor, which appears at the bottom of every Eluent Tools Task
Dialog
Box.
Next: The Path Plan
Editor >>
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