Richard Owlett wrote: >songbird wrote: ... >> use find. sometimes trying to make a square peg >> fit in a round hole isn't worth it. >> > > The annoying facet of the problem is that > "Applications->Accessories->Search for files" retrieves exactly the data > I want and can sort it so that it visually groups data > 'productively'{right word??}. > > But it can only be saved as an image. I need ASCII text. > > In my reading I found references that internally it uses "find" &/or > "locate" but I don't look forward to formatting the output of either. > > Although I've done some coding years ago, in no way would I refer to > myself as a programmer.
can you specify which order you'd like things in and what you are looking for? like are you looking for directories,files,links, etc and how would you like them notated? i'm sure a bash/etc script could be cooked up to do it... find doc says these are searchable: ===== " -type c File is of type c: b block (buffered) special c character (unbuffered) special d directory p named pipe (FIFO) f regular file l symbolic link; this is never true if the -L option or the -follow option is in effect, unless the symbolic link is broken. If you want to search for symbolic links when -L is in effect, use -xtype. s socket D door (Solaris) " ===== can do each on a different search and sort to get a list order as required then put them back together in a final list... formatting output is not usually an issue (awk,sed) other than fiddling about. songbird