Command Line to Automate Processing

The following are some useful commands that can help with electronic records processing. For a useful introduction to using the command line interface for both Mac and Windows, please reference this resource: http://www.avpreserve.com/papers-and-presentations/an-introduction-to-using-the-command-line-interface-to-work-with-files-and-directories/

Learning commands can especially be useful in previewing files in directories without having to open click through and open every directory to get a sense of the content contained therein.

To Batch Delete Files in a Directory

• 1. In command line or terminal, navigate to the directory you want to work on

  2. Type: del *.pdf, or del /s *.pdf. All files ending with the extension “.pdf” will be deleted

To Copy Files in Batch from one Directory to another

• 1. In command line or terminal, navigate to the directory where the files you want to move are stored.

  2. Type: Xcopy /I SourceDirectory Destination Directory. This would copy only the immediate files in the source directory to the destination. It would not copy files from subdirectories.

*Note: make sure to type the exact file path where the files you want to copy are located, as well as the path of the directory where you want the files moved. If the directories or file titles include spaces, add quotations - “” - to limit the files source and destination.

For moving files embedded in subdirectories, use /E instead of /I

To Find every File Type in a Record Series

• 1. In command line or terminal, type: dir /b/s | fndstr .pdf (will give you the path for every PDF file)

To Copy all Directories and Subdirectories without copying files

• 1. In command line or terminal, navigate to the directory where the files you want to move are stored.

  2. Type: Xcopy /T /E SourceDirectory Destination Directory. This would copy all folders and sub-folders without moving any file. It will also copy empty folders. To copy only folder containing files, remove “/E” from the command.