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Swiss File Knife Changelog

What's new in Swiss File Knife 1.9.9.0

Aug 16, 2023
  • Improved scripting and network functions. detail improvements and bugfixes.
  • CHG: SYNTAX CHANGE: option -keepchain is now active by default. this means a chain like sfk sel -today mydir +run ... +tell ... no longer stops at the 2nd command if no files are found. command +run just skips to +tell. use option -stoponempty for the old behaviour, or set SFK_CONFIG=stoponempty. the new default allows to use sfk sel -today mydir1 +sft server cput +then sel -today mydir2 +sft server cput without stopping inbetween because mydir1 has no recent files.
  • add: sfk if ... begin ... +elseif ... +else ... +endif.
  • add: sfk webproxy, a simple http proxy for analysis of traffic, and for routing workarounds.
  • add: sfk web: option -headerstovar to put received http headers into a variable.
  • add: sfk web: option -headertovar to put content of a single http header into a variable.
  • add: sfk udpsend: return code support.
  • add: sfk utoa, wtoa: option -showfail to list the input codes which fail to convert.
  • add: the sfk tcp toolkit, consisting of commands like accept, connect, send, receive, to write simple tcp test scripts. for info: sfk help tcp
  • add: sfk list: option -xsize to show mixed size infos depending on file size
  • add: udpdump: option -time to tell receive time.
  • add: udpdump: support for multiple -[not]from.
  • add: touch: option -delay=n to wait per file.
  • add: sysinfo: extended by bool size info.
  • add: help color: SFK_COLORS shortcuts b and w.
  • add: sfk sleep: support for 1s[ec], 1m[inute].
  • add: sfk batch: improved function templates, extra perline template.
  • add: sfk samp c tmp.c: full rework of template code for an instant c or c++ program, including basic tool functions.
  • add: sfk help env: list supported environment vars.
  • add: sfk encode -base64: option -linechars=n.
  • add: sfk unsetvar, delete an sfk variable.
  • add: sfk loop: optional delay time.
  • add: sfk fjoin: join files with any filename.
  • add: sfk -var: #(isempty(a)) now tells if variable a is not set or empty
  • fix: sfk perline no longer removes %1 to %9 in text when used directly. in a script, these are still replaced by parameters given to sfk label, which can be changed by -prefix= option.
  • fix: sfk treesize: -gb did not work with -quiet.
  • fix: filter of multiple files: unexpected context.
  • fix: sfk ip: memory leak when used repeatedly.
  • fix: sfk ftpserv: now sends a correct error reply if client requests a non existing file.
  • chg: sfk knxdump: support ga1 value up to 31.
  • fix: sfk knxdump: wrong output with 14 byte text.
  • doc: sfk stat: fixed wrong example text.
  • doc: sfk olist: how to view contents of selected office files in a folder directly with dview.
  • doc: sfk view: -office option, view office example
  • doc: sfk xex: info about overlapping char groups.
  • doc: sfk call: more details on recursion limit.
  • doc: sfk basic: infos on slash and quote caveats.
  • doc: sfk deblank: improved description.
  • doc: sfk label, call, wtou: improved help.
  • doc: sfk video: improved example.
  • dep: deprecated sfk media removed from help. joining files should now be done by fjoin.
  • dep: sfk ... +tif +tcall +fcall +tend +fend are deprecated as they are too complex and cause errors.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.8.2 (Sep 20, 2022)

  • Summary: added clipboard access on desktop linux and mac. copy to clipboard is now faster. detail improvements and bugfixes.
  • Add: sfk fromclip/toclip on Macintosh, through the pbcopy/pbpaste tool.
  • Add: sfk fromclip/toclip on desktop linux, through the xclip tool.
  • Add: "if" now accepts text "1" or "0" to execute or skip the following command or block.
  • Add: sfk incvar, decvar to increase or decrease the value of a numeric variable.
  • Add: sfk unzip -asdir x renames the top level folder from a zip file on extraction.
  • Add: sfk ping: option -noterm to allow writing of ping output to a file.
  • Add: sfk make-random-file: option -char c to create a file filled with character c
  • Add: sfk load: option -force to continue script on missing file
  • Add: sfk calc: -hex to print hexadecimal result.
  • Add: sfk sft ... putx: alias for put -setexec=*
  • Add: option -maxsub=n to include up to n subdir levels in commands like list.
  • Add: sfk knxsend, knxdump: more data types.
  • Opt: sfk toclip: massive performance improvement with larger data, if -trim etc. options are not used.
  • Opt: sfk fromclip: performance improvement if following command can receive binary, like xed or xex.
  • Chg: sfk toclip: now receives binary and text data, to avoid unwanted conversions.
  • Fix: hexfind: -maxdump was ignored in sfk ose.
  • Fix: sfk batch vedit.bat: join of videos now works with ffmpeg 4.4.1 or higher
  • Fix: sfk ... +hexdump -offlen too much output.
  • Fix: sfk data: symbols like $1foo did not reuse.
  • Fix: make-random-file: sometimes added LfLf instead of just CrLf line endings.
  • Doc: more details on -deacc search option.
  • Doc: alias: xclip example for windows.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.6.2 (Feb 25, 2020)

  • FIX: sfk 64 bit: wrong crc checksum calculations. sfk zip created wrong crc checksums. sfk unzip showed wrong crc error messages. sfk crc, crcgento, crccheck produced wrong results.
  • CHG: OUTPUT CHANGE: sfk ip under windows: now gives a list of all possible ip's if more than one network interface exists. the preferred ip can now be filtered by environment variable SFK_OWN_NET. for batch files the output of 'sfk ip' can also be predefined by SFK_OWN_IP.
  • Add: calc: now tolerates whitespace text.
  • Add: udpdump: sfk for windows: when listening for multicast traffic sfk now listens on all network interfaces.
  • Doc: xed: reasons for unexpected line breaks.
  • Fix: compile: vc14 (vs2015) support. Initial Release:
  • Rel: 08.02.2020, Major Update
  • Sum: important bugfixes for file selection. improved help for general options. improved web server and scripting.
  • FIX: multi directory file selection using -dir ... -subdir ... -dir ... [-file] selected far too few files, or stopped with an error if another -file was given. check your scripts for this combination.
  • FIX: crash on some -dir -subdir usages in two subsequent chain commands.
  • Chg: httpserv: improved page layout with more compact file list output. added option -wide for old format.
  • Add: script: system variables sys.ownscript.name sys.ownscript.text to get the filename and text data of the current running script.
  • Add: crccheck -sane to skip files which are newer than the crc list.
  • Fix: option -fileset stopped the command chain, following commands like +filter were ignored.
  • Chg: select: can now use a list of filenames given by -flist.
  • Chg: xfind: now accepts filenames produced by a previous command (just as extract and xhexfind already did), allowing to run a nested search.
  • Chg: ascii: alignment of first hex codes, change of headline text.
  • Chg: sfk web: download limit default size increased from 30 to 100 mb.
  • Doc: full rework of sfk help options.
  • Doc: select, zip: -flist examples.
  • Doc: stat: option -flist.
  • Doc: xfind: how to run a nested search with xfind -names ... +xfind.
  • Doc: xfind: how to get result text and filename within the same line.
  • Doc: xfind: example how to search a mail inbox.
  • Add: support for zip extension .jmod

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.6.0 (Feb 11, 2020)

  • FIX: multi directory file selection using -dir ... -subdir ... -dir ... [-file] selected far too few files, or stopped with an error if another -file was given. check your scripts for this combination.
  • FIX: crash on some -dir -subdir usages in two subsequent chain commands.
  • Chg: httpserv: improved page layout with more compact file list output. added option -wide for old format.
  • Add: script: system variables sys.ownscript.name sys.ownscript.text to get the filename and text data of the current running script.
  • Add: crccheck -sane to skip files which are newer than the crc list.
  • Fix: option -fileset stopped the command chain, following commands like +filter were ignored.
  • Chg: select: can now use a list of filenames given by -flist.
  • Chg: xfind: now accepts filenames produced by a previous command (just as extract and xhexfind already did), allowing to run a nested search.
  • Chg: ascii: alignment of first hex codes, change of headline text.
  • Chg: sfk web: download limit default size increased from 30 to 100 mb.
  • Doc: full rework of sfk help options.
  • Doc: select, zip: -flist examples.
  • Doc: stat: option -flist.
  • Doc: xfind: how to run a nested search with xfind -names ... +xfind.
  • Doc: xfind: how to get result text and filename within the same line.
  • Doc: xfind: example how to search a mail inbox.
  • Add: support for zip extension .jmod

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.5.2 (Aug 29, 2019)

  • Add: sfk jsonform, reformat JSON data for easy reading and searching
  • Add: SFKTray V1.1 now supports display of patterns up, down, left, right, all instead of just a single slot. for documentation and example see: sfk status
  • Add: SFKTray Full V1.1 now supports up to 3 instances running in parallel, with a total of up to 27 lights.
  • Add: sfk sft(serv) option -notify=h to show an up or down arrow in SFKTray on file transfer
  • Add: tdifflines to use chain text together with a file name
  • Add: difflines option -swap to change order of input data
  • Add: windows: snapto -slow option to run with a lower process priority.
  • Add: windows: fromclip option -tofile x.
  • Chg: hexdump: can now use -pure -recsize=n to dump n input bytes per output record.
  • Fix: crash when using -i with empty input
  • Fix: mac compile
  • Initial Release:
  • Sum: sfk snapto can now include text from office files like .docx .xlsx .odt, allowing fast loading and browsing of the output file by Depeche View.
  • Add: sfk olist, list only office files within a folder.
  • Add: snapto: option -office to include text from office files like .docx .xlsx .odt
  • Add: snapto, ofind: option -justoffice to read only office files, but not plain text files.
  • Chg: no longer loading binaries with commands like snapto just due to a file mask, but still by .extension. use option -wlbin for the old behaviour.
  • Add: difflines: option to read from stdin.
  • Fix: difflines: example with variables.
  • Fix: require: if no version info was found it produced a non speaking error. now it assumes version 0.0.0
  • Fix: sfk ose: missing office file support.
  • Doc: help office: snapto examples.
  • Doc: sfk view: dview office notes.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.5.0 (Jun 5, 2019)

  • Add: sfk olist, list only office files within a folder.
  • Add: snapto: option -office to include text from office files like .docx .xlsx .odt
  • Add: snapto, ofind: option -justoffice to read only office files, but not plain text files.
  • Chg: no longer loading binaries with commands like snapto just due to a file mask, but still by .extension. use option -wlbin for the old behaviour.
  • Add: difflines: option to read from stdin.
  • Fix: difflines: example with variables.
  • Fix: require: if no version info was found it produced a non speaking error. now it assumes version 0.0.0
  • Fix: sfk ose: missing office file support.
  • Doc: help office: snapto examples.
  • Doc: sfk view: dview office notes.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.4.3 (Mar 22, 2019)

  • Fix: simple expressions: crash when using many [ortext] in the same search pattern.
  • Chg: name: no longer searches in meta data by default, e.g. sfk name 1234 no longer produces unexpected results because their filesize is 1234.
  • Add: name: option -withmeta and -meta to also search in meta data of index.
  • Add: name: -spat support.
  • Add: sfk fileserv, alias of sfk sftserv.
  • Add: sfk ... +put, alias of +sft ... cput.
  • Add: sfk ... +putall, alias of +sft ... mput.
  • Fix: rand: first value per process start contained very few random
  • Add: rand: now supports larger values, hex output, and setting a seed
  • Add: treesize: option -gb[yte] to list all sizes in gigabytes.
  • Add: ping: option -time to display reply time when pinging a single host
  • Doc: ping: info on graphical ping output
  • Revision 2:
  • Rel: 16.02.2019, Major Update
  • Sum: Improved office file text search with options to produce UTF-8 output.
  • Fix: .xlsx content loading showed wrong output text in some cases.
  • Add: ofind, oload, ofilter: option -utfout to keep UTF-8 encoding on output text.
  • Add: ofind: option -utfin to allow use of UTF-8 encoded search terms with -utfout.
  • Add: oload: option -raw to show xml content.
  • Chg: oload, ofilter: no longer shows zip file comment. Initial Release:
  • Rel: 10.02.2019, Major Update
  • Sum: SFK can now search and load office file text contents, in Open Office format files like .docx .xlsx .ods .odt. Search functions now search only in text files by default.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: xfind now only searches in plain text files, but not in binaries. use xfindbin to search also binary files.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: find now only searches in plain text files, but not in binaries. use findbin to search also binary files.
  • Add: ofind, search text in office files like .docx .xlsx .ods .odt and plain text files.
  • Add: ofilter, filter text of an office file.
  • Add: oload, load text of an office file for display or further processing.
  • Add: sfk help office, for details about supported office file extensions.
  • Add: sfk alias, mkcd: support for SFK_PATH environment variable, to write batch files only into this folder.
  • Chg: sfk getdv: now also suggests to save to SFK_PATH if given.
  • Add: echo: option -stream for best output transfer to setvar or xed.
  • Dep: xtext is deprecated (redundant to xfind)
  • Dep: ftext is deprecated (redundant to find)
  • Fix: zipto: crash on sub folder names containing accent characters, especially on select ... +zipto.
  • Chg: sfk data: max content per symbol is now 8 kbytes instead of 1.
  • Fix: xed: sfk ... +xed without any patterns created unwanted color output.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.4.2 (Feb 18, 2019)

  • Fix: .xlsx content loading showed wrong output text in some cases.
  • Add: ofind, oload, ofilter: option -utfout to keep UTF-8 encoding on output text.
  • Add: ofind: option -utfin to allow use of UTF-8 encoded search terms with -utfout.
  • Add: oload: option -raw to show xml content.
  • Chg: oload, ofilter: no longer shows zip file comment. Initial Release:
  • Sum: SFK can now search and load office file text contents, in Open Office format files like .docx .xlsx .ods .odt. Search functions now search only in text files by default.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: xfind now only searches in plain text files, but not in binaries. use xfindbin to search also binary files.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: find now only searches in plain text files, but not in binaries. use findbin to search also binary files.
  • Add: ofind, search text in office files like .docx .xlsx .ods .odt and plain text files.
  • Add: ofilter, filter text of an office file.
  • Add: oload, load text of an office file for display or further processing.
  • Add: sfk help office, for details about supported office file extensions.
  • Add: sfk alias, mkcd: support for SFK_PATH environment variable, to write batch files only into this folder.
  • Chg: sfk getdv: now also suggests to save to SFK_PATH if given.
  • Add: echo: option -stream for best output transfer to setvar or xed.
  • Dep: xtext is deprecated (redundant to xfind)
  • Dep: ftext is deprecated (redundant to find)
  • Fix: zipto: crash on sub folder names containing accent characters, especially on select ... +zipto.
  • Chg: sfk data: max content per symbol is now 8 kbytes instead of 1.
  • Fix: xed: sfk ... +xed without any patterns created unwanted color output.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.4.0 (Feb 12, 2019)

  • CHG: Syntax Change: xfind now only searches in plain text files, but not in binaries. use xfindbin to search also binary files.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: find now only searches in plain text files, but not in binaries. use findbin to search also binary files.
  • Add: ofind, search text in office files like .docx .xlsx .ods .odt and plain text files.
  • Add: ofilter, filter text of an office file.
  • Add: oload, load text of an office file for display or further processing.
  • Add: sfk help office, for details about supported office file extensions.
  • Add: sfk alias, mkcd: support for SFK_PATH environment variable, to write batch files only into this folder.
  • Chg: sfk getdv: now also suggests to save to SFK_PATH if given.
  • Add: echo: option -stream for best output transfer to setvar or xed.
  • Dep: xtext is deprecated (redundant to xfind)
  • Dep: ftext is deprecated (redundant to find)
  • Fix: zipto: crash on sub folder names containing accent characters, especially on select ... +zipto.
  • Chg: sfk data: max content per symbol is now 8 kbytes instead of 1.
  • Fix: xed: sfk ... +xed without any patterns created unwanted color output.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.3.4 (Dec 20, 2018)

  • sum: improved scripting support.
  • the free SFKTray lite can now display 4 status lights.
  • add: SFKTray Lite now supports 4 status slots.
  • add: windows: fromclip +copy/move support. allows to mark filenames in cmd.exe then copy/move the marked names.
  • add: sfk sel a.txt b.txt +copy out support.
  • add: sfk filt in.txt -+pat +copy out support.
  • add: addtovar: option -noline to not append extra linefeeds.
  • add: setvar: support slash patterns by -spat.
  • add: getvar: option -tofile to write variable content to a file.
  • add: num: support of negative numbers.
  • add: dir -juststat to show just statistics.
  • add: ftpserv: -verbose now shows path info on invalid path error, -verbose=2 shows dump of input line.
  • chg: ftp client: now -quiet no longer tells "no filenames from previous commands".
  • fix: rmtree: short confirm "rmtree." did not work.
  • fix: dir repeated with +loop showed wrong number of total bytes.
  • chg: sfk dir now supports -noname.
  • doc: setvar: examples for string editing.
  • doc: xtext: find lines not matching a pattern.
  • doc: filter: file copy examples.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.3.3 (Nov 2, 2018)

  • FIX: sfk batch: script did not work within folder names containing spaces, like C:usersFoo Barmyscript.bat. now sfk script "%~f0" with quotes is used. fixed also related commands like sfk samp sfk, sfk samp sfkbash.
  • CHG: chaining: if chaining is stopped due to missing filenames it now shows a notice again by default, to avoid unexpected chain stops without any infos. the notice can no longer be suppressed by -quiet, but as always by -nonote.
  • Fix: option -quiet did not work globally.
  • Chg: chaining: -verbose no longer tells how the command chain is stepped. use -tracechain instead.
  • Add: general option -keepchain to never stop the command chain, even if commands that expect filenames get none.
  • Add: label: support for all general options.
  • Add: setglobalopt to set global options.
  • Add: chaining support with where, index, script, home.
  • Add: encode -base64: option -nowrap to keep output as one long line.
  • Fix: getcol: unexpected set of global -upat option.
  • Chg: sfk chars: now supports multiple code parameters.
  • Add: ffilter: warning on wrong parameter sequence.
  • Fix: copy -ltarg under windows showed source name.
  • Chg: zip reading: better error message on missing file.
  • Doc: tell: example how to print text starting with '+'.
  • Doc: wtou: added perline example.
  • Doc: if: info about limited nesting.
  • Doc: end: was not searchable.
  • Doc: status: infos about limited colors.
  • Doc: label: more detailed info about global options.
  • Doc: help opt: -tracechain.
  • Doc: help chain: info on "no files, stopping x".
  • Revision 2:
  • Rel: 03.10.2018, Major Update
  • Sum: added easy installation under windows by a double click on sfk.exe, then key 1. this copies sfk.exe to a folder c:tools and creates a shell icon on the desktop.
  • Add: sfk base: optional installation when running sfk by double click from windows explorer.
  • CHG: Data Change: sfk index, name under windows no longer use files directly within C: but only in a folder C:zz-index, to avoid user local storage in a VirtualStore folder. use sfk name -useold to read old index files. the new behaviour allows one C:\ index file for all users on the same windows machine.
  • Add: predefined variable: sys.sfkver for sfk version
  • Add: predefined variable: sys.numcols for number of columns available in console
  • Fix: getcol, tabcol: caused unexpected double execution of following chain commands.
  • Add: clipsrc: -h help option
  • Del: clipxml: does not work, no longer documented. Initial Release:
  • Rel: 18.09.2018, Major Update
  • Sum: added sfk addtovar to collect text lines in a variable, sfk crc to create crc-32 checksums, sfk difflines to list different unique lines between two text files. improved ftp client compatibility. many detail improvements for scripting, like new variable functions.
  • Chg: Syntax Change: command chaining no longer allows data tunneling through non consuming commands. in a chain like cmd1 +cmd2 +cmd3 +cmd4 +cmd5 it is no longer possible to send data from cmd1 to cmd3/4/5 if cmd2 uses no chain data (e.g. if, tell). this tunneling was inconsistent and caused endless conflicts by unwanted chain data in cmd3/4/5. use -keepdata or SET SFK_CONFIG=keepdata for the old behaviour which was inconsistent and worked only sometimes.
  • Chg: Syntax Change: sfk if: no longer passes through any chain data, as this behaviour was ambiguous and caused endless unwanted chain input. this means combinations like +xed /a/b/ +if ... +xed /b/c/ are no longer possible. use '+tif' instead, or global option -keepdata.
  • Add: sfk ... +tif for conditional execution requesting text and stream data explicitely.
  • Add: sfk ... +tgoto to jump to a label passing text and stream data explicitely.
  • Chg: Syntax Change: sfk md5: now only prints the checksum without filename if only a single filename is given. use option -name for the old behaviour.
  • Chg: Data Change: sfk getvar -line no longer appends CR or LF at extracted line.
  • Chg: Data Change: web: no longer produces shell return code 9 on error, but 1, to be consistent with command chaining rc.
  • FIX: linux: case insensitive pattern match and text extraction did not work, esp. with xed or xex.
  • CHG: improved scripting: combinations like sfk echo foo +setvar a=text sfk echo foo +setvar a +if ... setvar b=text sfk echo foo +xex ... +setvar b=1 no longer require 'then' in many cases.
  • Add: Simple Expressions: tag [skip] at the start of a pattern now skips this text completely and does not count it as a hit.
  • Chg: archive file extensions: extended the list of archive files recognized by -[q]arc by more office file extensions. for full details type: sfk help opt
  • Chg: no longer activating archive file read implicitely with most functions. use -[q]arc instead.
  • Fix: ftpserv, httpserv: unwanted listing of zip file contents instead of zip file itself.
  • Add: sfk addtovar, append text as lines to a variable
  • Add: variables: #(strpos(a,b)) and #(contains(a,b)) now searches content of variable b within text of variable a.
  • Add: variables: #(begins(a,'word')) now tells if text of variable a starts with word.
  • Chg: scripts: #(rsubstr(s,o,l)) now also supports offset/length beyond string length, producing an empty string instead of error.
  • Fix: scripts: #(substr(a,n)) with n beyond length of a stopped the script with "invalid variable expression". now it evaluates to an empty string.
  • Add: sfk variables: function #(numlines(a)) to tell number of lines in variable a.
  • Add: sfk md5var, create md5 hash from sfk variable content.
  • Add: sfk difflines, show text lines that differ between two text files or variables
  • Add: sfk crc, crcgento, crccheck to create and verify crc32 checksums (the same as used in zip files).
  • Add: sfk list: now sets return code if any matching files or dirs were found.
  • Add: sfk web: now sets return code 1 on any error.
  • Add: sfk sft: now sets return code if any files were sent.
  • Add: del[tree] now sets return code on failure
  • Add: deltree now retries a failed folder deletion 2 times with a 100 msec wait inbetween.
  • Add: del[tree] option -stoponerr to stop chain execution if deletion fails
  • Chg: del[tree] now produces a warning if deletion is incomplete.
  • Fix: ftp client: 30 second wait after listing of directory or file download with some servers.
  • Fix: run: -printcmd was ignored.
  • Chg: zip reading: invalid zip file now produces a warning instead of an error.
  • Fix: xfind, replace functions, xrename: variables were not expanded for dir parameters.
  • Chg: sfk run: now shows a notice if no filenames are processed on chaining.
  • Chg: xed, xrename now ignore empty pattern parameters instead of stopping with an error. useful for scripting with optional parms.
  • Chg: command chaining: -verbose now shows a notice "chaining stops before ...: no data" if execution stops due to no data.
  • Chg: command chaining: no longer showing "chaining stops ...: no filenames" unless -verbose is given.
  • Chg: sfk batch out.sh under linux: added exit after sfk call.
  • Chg: sfk sft cput: if no files are sent then -quiet no longer tells anything.
  • Add: copy -flat2 to copy all files of a dir tree to an output folder with relative names.
  • Add: make-random-file -lock option, to keep a file locked for testing.
  • Fix: xfind with -justrc: chaining to if was not possible if nothing was found.
  • Fix: xfind -showrc produced an error.
  • Add: ifnotexist, check if a file does not exist.
  • Add: swap, reverse chain text character order
  • Add: Windows: sfk clock: pressing enter now resets the relative time.
  • Add: Windows: sfk clock3 shows overall start time and, when pressing Enter, relative time since overall start in a second column.
  • Add: sfk clock2 to show just a relative time.
  • Add: sft client: multi file send: now showing total mb info.
  • Add: xed: option -tolines to force line output.
  • Fix: xed: listing of mem leaks if given filename cannot be read, or input too large.
  • Doc: end: xed -tolines reference
  • Doc: tofile: addtovar reference
  • Doc: sft: upload loop example.
  • Doc: index: reworked linux examples.
  • Doc: xfind: -showrc removed, wrong context.
  • Doc: filter: difflines reference.
  • Doc: help opt: new list of archive extensions and -qarc info
  • Doc: xed: reference to sfk swap
  • Doc: sfk help chain: data tunneling notice.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.3.2 (Oct 3, 2018)

  • Add: sfk base: optional installation when running sfk by double click from windows explorer.
  • CHG: Data Change: sfk index, name under windows no longer use files directly within C: but only in a folder C:zz-index, to avoid user local storage in a VirtualStore folder. use sfk name -useold to read old index files. the new behaviour allows one C:\ index file for all users on the same windows machine.
  • Add: predefined variable: sys.sfkver for sfk version
  • Add: predefined variable: sys.numcols for number of columns available in console
  • Fix: getcol, tabcol: caused unexpected double execution of following chain commands.
  • Add: clipsrc: -h help option
  • Del: clipxml: does not work, no longer documented. Initial Release:
  • Chg: Syntax Change: command chaining no longer allows data tunneling through non consuming commands. in a chain like cmd1 +cmd2 +cmd3 +cmd4 +cmd5 it is no longer possible to send data from cmd1 to cmd3/4/5 if cmd2 uses no chain data (e.g. if, tell). this tunneling was inconsistent and caused endless conflicts by unwanted chain data in cmd3/4/5. use -keepdata or SET SFK_CONFIG=keepdata for the old behaviour which was inconsistent and worked only sometimes.
  • Chg: Syntax Change: sfk if: no longer passes through any chain data, as this behaviour was ambiguous and caused endless unwanted chain input. this means combinations like +xed /a/b/ +if ... +xed /b/c/ are no longer possible. use '+tif' instead, or global option -keepdata.
  • Add: sfk ... +tif for conditional execution requesting text and stream data explicitely.
  • Add: sfk ... +tgoto to jump to a label passing text and stream data explicitely.
  • Chg: Syntax Change: sfk md5: now only prints the checksum without filename if only a single filename is given. use option -name for the old behaviour.
  • Chg: Data Change: sfk getvar -line no longer appends CR or LF at extracted line.
  • Chg: Data Change: web: no longer produces shell return code 9 on error, but 1, to be consistent with command chaining rc.
  • FIX: linux: case insensitive pattern match and text extraction did not work, esp. with xed or xex.
  • CHG: improved scripting: combinations like sfk echo foo +setvar a=text sfk echo foo +setvar a +if ... setvar b=text sfk echo foo +xex ... +setvar b=1 no longer require 'then' in many cases.
  • Add: Simple Expressions: tag [skip] at the start of a pattern now skips this text completely and does not count it as a hit.
  • Chg: archive file extensions: extended the list of archive files recognized by -[q]arc by more office file extensions. for full details type: sfk help opt
  • Chg: no longer activating archive file read implicitely with most functions. use -[q]arc instead.
  • Fix: ftpserv, httpserv: unwanted listing of zip file contents instead of zip file itself.
  • Add: sfk addtovar, append text as lines to a variable
  • Add: variables: #(strpos(a,b)) and #(contains(a,b)) now searches content of variable b within text of variable a.
  • Add: variables: #(begins(a,'word')) now tells if text of variable a starts with word.
  • Chg: scripts: #(rsubstr(s,o,l)) now also supports offset/length beyond string length, producing an empty string instead of error.
  • Fix: scripts: #(substr(a,n)) with n beyond length of a stopped the script with "invalid variable expression". now it evaluates to an empty string.
  • Add: sfk variables: function #(numlines(a)) to tell number of lines in variable a.
  • Add: sfk md5var, create md5 hash from sfk variable content.
  • Add: sfk difflines, show text lines that differ between two text files or variables
  • Add: sfk crc, crcgento, crccheck to create and verify crc32 checksums (the same as used in zip files).
  • Add: sfk list: now sets return code if any matching files or dirs were found.
  • Add: sfk web: now sets return code 1 on any error.
  • Add: sfk sft: now sets return code if any files were sent.
  • Add: del[tree] now sets return code on failure
  • Add: deltree now retries a failed folder deletion 2 times with a 100 msec wait inbetween.
  • Add: del[tree] option -stoponerr to stop chain execution if deletion fails
  • Chg: del[tree] now produces a warning if deletion is incomplete.
  • Fix: ftp client: 30 second wait after listing of directory or file download with some servers.
  • Fix: run: -printcmd was ignored.
  • Chg: zip reading: invalid zip file now produces a warning instead of an error.
  • Fix: xfind, replace functions, xrename: variables were not expanded for dir parameters.
  • Chg: sfk run: now shows a notice if no filenames are processed on chaining.
  • Chg: xed, xrename now ignore empty pattern parameters instead of stopping with an error. useful for scripting with optional parms.
  • Chg: command chaining: -verbose now shows a notice "chaining stops before ...: no data" if execution stops due to no data.
  • Chg: command chaining: no longer showing "chaining stops ...: no filenames" unless -verbose is given.
  • Chg: sfk batch out.sh under linux: added exit after sfk call.
  • Chg: sfk sft cput: if no files are sent then -quiet no longer tells anything.
  • Add: copy -flat2 to copy all files of a dir tree to an output folder with relative names.
  • Add: make-random-file -lock option, to keep a file locked for testing.
  • Fix: xfind with -justrc: chaining to if was not possible if nothing was found.
  • Fix: xfind -showrc produced an error.
  • Add: ifnotexist, check if a file does not exist.
  • Add: swap, reverse chain text character order
  • Add: Windows: sfk clock: pressing enter now resets the relative time.
  • Add: Windows: sfk clock3 shows overall start time and, when pressing Enter, relative time since overall start in a second column.
  • Add: sfk clock2 to show just a relative time.
  • Add: sft client: multi file send: now showing total mb info.
  • Add: xed: option -tolines to force line output.
  • Fix: xed: listing of mem leaks if given filename cannot be read, or input too large.
  • Doc: end: xed -tolines reference
  • Doc: tofile: addtovar reference
  • Doc: sft: upload loop example.
  • Doc: index: reworked linux examples.
  • Doc: xfind: -showrc removed, wrong context.
  • Doc: filter: difflines reference.
  • Doc: help opt: new list of archive extensions and -qarc info
  • Doc: xed: reference to sfk swap
  • Doc: sfk help chain: data tunneling notice.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.3.0 (Sep 19, 2018)

  • Sum: added sfk addtovar to collect text lines
  • in a variable, sfk crc to create crc-32 checksums,
  • sfk difflines to list different unique lines
  • between two text files. improved ftp client
  • compatibility. many detail improvements
  • for scripting, like new variable functions.
  • Chg: Syntax Change: command chaining no longer allows
  • data tunneling through non consuming commands.
  • in a chain like cmd1 +cmd2 +cmd3 +cmd4 +cmd5
  • it is no longer possible to send data from
  • cmd1 to cmd3/4/5 if cmd2 uses no chain data
  • (e.g. if, tell). this tunneling was inconsistent
  • and caused endless conflicts by unwanted chain data
  • in cmd3/4/5. use -keepdata or SET SFK_CONFIG=keepdata
  • for the old behaviour which was inconsistent
  • and worked only sometimes.
  • Chg: Syntax Change: sfk if: no longer passes through
  • any chain data, as this behaviour was ambiguous
  • and caused endless unwanted chain input.
  • this means combinations like
  • +xed /a/b/ +if ... +xed /b/c/
  • are no longer possible. use '+tif' instead,
  • or global option -keepdata.
  • Add: sfk ... +tif for conditional execution
  • requesting text and stream data explicitely.
  • Add: sfk ... +tgoto to jump to a label passing
  • text and stream data explicitely.
  • Chg: Syntax Change: sfk md5: now only prints the
  • checksum without filename if only a single
  • filename is given. use option -name
  • for the old behaviour.
  • Chg: Data Change: sfk getvar -line no longer
  • appends CR or LF at extracted line.
  • Chg: Data Change: web: no longer produces shell
  • return code 9 on error, but 1, to be
  • consistent with command chaining rc.
  • FIX: linux: case insensitive pattern match
  • and text extraction did not work,
  • esp. with xed or xex.
  • CHG: improved scripting: combinations like
  • sfk echo foo +setvar a=text
  • sfk echo foo +setvar a +if ... setvar b=text
  • sfk echo foo +xex ... +setvar b=1
  • no longer require 'then' in many cases.
  • Add: Simple Expressions: tag [skip] at the start
  • of a pattern now skips this text completely
  • and does not count it as a hit.
  • Chg: archive file extensions: extended the list
  • of archive files recognized by -[q]arc by
  • more office file extensions.
  • for full details type: sfk help opt
  • Chg: no longer activating archive file read
  • implicitely with most functions.
  • use -[q]arc instead.
  • Fix: ftpserv, httpserv: unwanted listing of
  • zip file contents instead of zip file itself.
  • Add: sfk addtovar, append text as lines to a variable
  • Add: variables: #(strpos(a,b)) and #(contains(a,b))
  • now searches content of variable b within
  • text of variable a.
  • Add: variables: #(begins(a,'word')) now tells if
  • text of variable a starts with word.
  • Chg: scripts: #(rsubstr(s,o,l)) now also supports
  • offset/length beyond string length,
  • producing an empty string instead of error.
  • Fix: scripts: #(substr(a,n)) with n beyond
  • length of a stopped the script with
  • "invalid variable expression".
  • now it evaluates to an empty string.
  • Add: sfk variables: function #(numlines(a))
  • to tell number of lines in variable a.
  • Add: sfk md5var, create md5 hash
  • from sfk variable content.
  • Add: sfk difflines, show text lines that differ
  • between two text files or variables
  • Add: sfk crc, crcgento, crccheck to create
  • and verify crc32 checksums (the same as
  • used in zip files).
  • Add: sfk list: now sets return code if any
  • matching files or dirs were found.
  • Add: sfk web: now sets return code 1 on any error.
  • Add: sfk sft: now sets return code if any
  • files were sent.
  • Add: del[tree] now sets return code on failure
  • Add: deltree now retries a failed folder deletion
  • 2 times with a 100 msec wait inbetween.
  • Add: del[tree] option -stoponerr to stop chain
  • execution if deletion fails
  • Chg: del[tree] now produces a warning
  • if deletion is incomplete.
  • Fix: ftp client: 30 second wait after listing
  • of directory or file download with some servers.
  • Fix: run: -printcmd was ignored.
  • Chg: zip reading: invalid zip file now produces
  • a warning instead of an error.
  • Fix: xfind, replace functions, xrename: variables
  • were not expanded for dir parameters.
  • Chg: sfk run: now shows a notice if no filenames
  • are processed on chaining.
  • Chg: xed, xrename now ignore empty pattern parameters
  • instead of stopping with an error.
  • useful for scripting with optional parms.
  • Chg: command chaining: -verbose now shows a notice
  • "chaining stops before ...: no data"
  • if execution stops due to no data.
  • Chg: command chaining: no longer showing
  • "chaining stops ...: no filenames"
  • unless -verbose is given.
  • Chg: sfk batch out.sh under linux: added exit after sfk call.
  • Chg: sfk sft cput: if no files are sent
  • then -quiet no longer tells anything.
  • Add: copy -flat2 to copy all files of a dir tree
  • to an output folder with relative names.
  • Add: make-random-file -lock option, to keep
  • a file locked for testing.
  • Fix: xfind with -justrc: chaining to if
  • was not possible if nothing was found.
  • Fix: xfind -showrc produced an error.
  • Add: ifnotexist, check if a file does not exist.
  • Add: swap, reverse chain text character order
  • Add: Windows: sfk clock: pressing enter
  • now resets the relative time.
  • Add: Windows: sfk clock3 shows overall start time
  • and, when pressing Enter, relative time since
  • overall start in a second column.
  • Add: sfk clock2 to show just a relative time.
  • Add: sft client: multi file send: now showing
  • total mb info.
  • Add: xed: option -tolines to force line output.
  • Fix: xed: listing of mem leaks if given filename
  • cannot be read, or input too large.
  • Doc: end: xed -tolines reference
  • Doc: tofile: addtovar reference
  • Doc: sft: upload loop example.
  • Doc: index: reworked linux examples.
  • Doc: xfind: -showrc removed, wrong context.
  • Doc: filter: difflines reference.
  • Doc: help opt: new list of archive extensions
  • and -qarc info
  • Doc: xed: reference to sfk swap
  • Doc: sfk help chain: data tunneling notice.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.2.0 (Jul 6, 2018)

  • sum: added sfk move to move files, getcol and tabcol to easily get a column from space or tab separated text. improvements of xed, getvar, scripting. fixed context cleanup of perline.
  • chg: Syntax Change: sfk zip: no longer adds .zip to output filename if it contains any dot '.'. this allows to create zip files with any extension, like .odt or .jar. use option -zipext for the old behaviour.
  • add: checkzip: option -md5 to show md5 checksums of zip file contents
  • add: general option -more to pause output per page.
  • add: xhexfind: option -context=n to show n bytes of context around results.
  • add: sfk for: now supports counting down, negative start/end values, and optional step size.
  • add: sfk zip: option -rel to strip top level folder name of filenames within zip.
  • add: sfk xed: option -write to rewrite a given file with changed output.
  • fix: sfk if: now supports expression starting with plus like: if "+a = +a" ...
  • fix: perline: context and options were not fully reset between two lines, e.g. load files.txt +perline "list #qtext" -yes produced wrong output.
  • add: sfk move: move files between two folders.
  • add: sfk mkdir: option -forfile to create dir tree for a given filename
  • add: scripts: #(substr(s,o,l)) now also supports variable (names) for o and l.
  • add: scripts: #(rsubstr(s,o,l)) to get substring from the right side in left direction.
  • add: sfk getcol, tabcol to get one column from whitespace or tab separated text. alias of sfk filter.
  • add: sfk ping: option -every to ping every n sec.
  • add: make-random-file: output folder creation.
  • add: sfk times, alias for sfk list -times.
  • add: list: now also accepts -times with 's'.
  • add: sfk getvar: option -numline=n to get a line by number.
  • add: zip/unzip: option -offtime to support file times which are one hour off.
  • fix: xtext: with -to out$file it produced error -4 during simulation.
  • fix: xtext: -to out$file no longer writes :file headers into output files.
  • fix: rand: missing range check.
  • fix: ifexist file stop -all ... was not possible.
  • fix: windows mingw g++ compile.
  • chg: sfk if: improved "need a command" error info.
  • doc: list: example how to keep only existing filenames from a list of filenames
  • doc: count: example for filter/setvar/count.
  • doc: copy: reference to move.
  • doc: xtext: how to extract text starting at a line.
  • doc: help var: new (r)substr behaviour.
  • doc: addcr: example for current folder.
  • doc: sfk times example.
  • doc: sfk zip: example to unzip/zip an .odt file.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.1.3 (May 19, 2018)

  • doc: book: the Swiss File Knife book, Second Edition, is now available as a 368 pages paperback. Search on Amazon: 100 Command Line Tools
  • add: copy: option -flat to copy all files into a single output dir without sub folders.
  • doc: zipto: removed redundant example.
  • doc: name: copy -flat example.
  • doc: filter: -tolower/upper notice correction.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.1.2 (Apr 19, 2018)

  • sum: Better support for folder zipping if no sub folder contents are needed. Added script command ifexist to check if a file or folder exists.
  • fix: sfk zip: created empty subdir entries with -nosub.
  • add: sfk ifexist to check if a file or folder exists.
  • fix: sfk getvar +tofile produced unwanted empty lines.
  • doc: sfk zip: option -nosub
  • doc: sfk list: option -nosub

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.1.0 (Apr 13, 2018)

  • add: sfk zip, create zip file from folder.
  • add: sfk zipto, zip selected file list.
  • add: sfk unzip, list or extract zip file.
  • add: sfk checkzip, verify zip file content.
  • add: sfk run: quick confirm by sfk run. (with a dot)
  • chg: sfk getdv unter windows no longer does a direct download, but shows an info text and then opens a web browser to download dview.
  • add: scripts with -var: #(sys.slash) creates under windows, / under linux.
  • add: require: option -nostop to continue chain.
  • fix: sfk xfind -names ... +run etc. also printed the names to terminal.
  • fix: rand: when chained with other random generator commands like make-random-file the seed was permanently reinitialized, producing redundant number sequences.
  • fix: script: command chaining stopped after md5gento, make-random-file, snapto, joinlines, bin-to-src, deblank, color, fixfile, split, join, partcopy, setbytes, media, rename
  • add: ftpserv: better windows 10 ftp client support by replying to OPTS UTF8 ON.
  • chg: sfk num: little endian conversion is now always done as 32 bits, even with small numbers. use option -small for old behaviour.
  • fix: sfk num: text output chaining did not work.
  • add: sfk num: option -show x to print just a single format instead of all formats.
  • chg: hexdump: now supports -off n with chain data.
  • doc: xed: [2 chars] explained.
  • doc: xed: example to swap char groups.
  • doc: run: time measurement example.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.9.0.0 (Mar 5, 2018)

  • add: sfk help nocase, about case insensitive search.
  • add: sfk listcodes, list all characters that can be searched case insensitive with your Windows codepage.
  • add: sfk help chars, about locale specific characters.
  • add: general option -nocasemin to match only latin chars a-z case insensitive without any accents.
  • add: sfk wtou and utow, convert UCS-2 wide character text to 8-bit UTF-8 text and vice versa.
  • fix: xex: option -case was ignored.
  • fix: xtext, xfind: error -1 on output with files of 2 or 3 gbytes size.
  • add: xfind, xtext: now shows an improved progress indicator by default. use -quiet for old behaviour.
  • add: sfk make-zero-file, create a file full of zero bytes to clean unused space on a filesystem.
  • add: sfk status: new field layout=n to change SFKTray layout to 2, 4 or 9 slots display. requires SFKTray 1.0.2.
  • add: sfk strings: option -allchars to extract all printable chars from binary files.
  • add: snapto: option -binallchars to extract all printable chars from binary files.
  • add: sysinfo: display of SFK_CONFIG variable.
  • add: xtext: display of written file with -to outdir$file.
  • fix: xtext: error message with -to outdir$file as long as in simulation, without text output.
  • chg: option -nocconv can now be used locally per command.
  • dep: option -iso is deprecated/ignored.
  • dep: option -umlauts is deprecated/ignored.
  • doc: main help title changed from: The Swiss File Knife File Tree Processor to: The Swiss File Knife Multi Function Tool.
  • doc: sfk index, name now reference sfk home.
  • doc: sfk setvar, load, storetext, stop in main help.
  • doc: wtoa, wtou in main help.
  • doc: xrep: notice to use [eol] to replace line endings.
  • doc: filter: reference to help nocase, help unicode.
  • doc: find, replace: reference to help nocase.
  • doc: general option -binallchars - doc: sfk ose: xfind help did not show expression syntax.
  • doc: sfk ren: top reference to sfk renfile.
  • doc: sfk copy: single file copy example.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.9.2 (Jan 15, 2018)

  • sum: improved scripting error messages. better rename support in scripts. added filter option to skip first lines.
  • add: sfk renfile, rename just a single file, for use in sfk scripts.
  • add: filter -skipfirst=n to skip first n lines.
  • chg: -nocol given locally at a command no longer changes the global color mode.
  • chg: scripts: every command given like +cmdname can now be used in a script, no longer producing the error "does not support input chaining".
  • add: sfk ren, xren: option -quiet to print nothing.
  • add: sfk ren, xren: now tells number of changed files. option -[no]stat to show or hide statistics.
  • add: sfk rmtree: option -quiet to print nothing, option -stat to show statistics with -quiet.
  • fix: scripts: unknown commands were ignored silently, they now produce an error "unknown command".
  • fix: -memlimit=3000 did not work.
  • fix: sfk prompt help text.
  • doc: improved prompt example.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.9 (Dec 7, 2017)

  • sum: improved scripting with if begin ... endif. better display of windows filenames with more codepages. sfk rand to create random numbers. sfk prompt to allow user input. fixed xex return code handling and stop of script after sfk status.
  • chg: windows: improved display of european filenames using non latin characters in the own codepage.
  • chg: sfk batch tmp.bat: the example is now a short number game with status lights.
  • add: scripting: +if expr +begin ... +endif to execute multiple commands as one block if given expression is true.
  • add: scripting: easy check if a variable text contains a phrase by: if "#(contains(mystr,'text'))"
  • add: if: support for if "rc1" to check if command rc is different to a value.
  • add: sfk rand to create a random number.
  • add: sfk prompt to ask for user input.
  • chg: sfk status: no longer requires protocol version.
  • fix: xex: return code was always 1 if previous command set it, no matter if xex found data.
  • fix: fixfile: option -dewide displayed invalid date 1900... in simulation preview.
  • fix: possible crash on setvar with empty value.
  • fix: status: silent stop of command chain with some following commands like +list
  • chg: windows OSE compile support for MSVC 14.
  • chg: chaining from +tell to other commands like +setvar no longer requires +then.
  • chg: improved tracing of variable expansion by -debug like +tell -debug "#(strlen(a))"
  • doc: xex: how to check if a variable contains a word.
  • doc: help var: how to search a variable in a variable.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.8 Revision 2 (Sep 22, 2017)

  • sum: improved scripting with perline and getvar commands.
  • add: perline: option -setvar x to put whole line text into variable x, for easy call of sub functions without parameters.
  • add: getvar: option -line to extract first line matching a pattern. allows fast table lookups by a unique id if text is in a variable.
  • add: hexdump: option -nolf for -pure format.
  • doc: touch: how to touch a single dir.
  • doc: filetime: how to list a single dir.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.8 (Sep 22, 2017)

  • sum: added new GUI tool to display status infos by several lights in the system tray. added sfk status command to control these lights. added more flexible rename for files and folders.
  • add: sfk xrename, a flexible rename for files and folder names, supporting full SFK Simple Expressions and many patterns per command.
  • add: sfk status, send a colored status to the SFKTray Windows GUI tool for display.
  • fix: fromnet: when used with command chaining it called following commands endless even with no input at all. now e.g. fromnet +filter ... will block until actual input data is received. use new option -nowait for old behaviour.
  • fix: sfk web: input conflict error after some commands like setvar.
  • chg: web download limit default is now 30 mb.
  • add: sfk if: warning on "rc = 0" comparison which should be "rc=0".
  • chg: syntax change: stat: further command name chars like "sfk statistics" are no longer supported.
  • doc: sfk rename: -spat example and xrename reference.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.7.2 (Jul 17, 2017)

  • sum: further improvements of http and udp message sending for easier scripting and convenience.
  • chg: web: option -cweb renamed to -chainweb to avoid ambiguities with new commands. old -cweb is kept for compatibility, but no longer documented.
  • fix: sfk update: always told there was a newer version if new version info contained a trailing dot.
  • add: cweb, an alias for web -nodump -quiet to call web url's quick without any output.
  • add: udp, an alias for udpsend, but does not use any chain input data.
  • add: cudp, call udp quickly without any output. same as udp -quiet.
  • chg: wget: improved error message when trying https.
  • chg: ftp server: SIZE command on non existing file now returns code 550 instead of 213.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.7 (Jul 10, 2017)

  • sum: syntax corrections with sfk web, addhead and addtail. easier web automation in sfk scripts.
  • CHG: SYNTAX CHANGE: command +web no longer uses chain input text by default, so commands like sfk filter ... +web ... will no longer work. use instead +tweb like sfk filter ... +tweb ... to explicitely read chain text, or set global option -cweb for the old behaviour. if you need your old scripts to run without any changes, set environment variable: SET SFK_CONFIG=cweb reason: in sfk scripts +web is used most of the time with an URL given as a parameter, but not read from chain text input, so permanent writing of +then web was required. the new default makes web automation scripts much easier.
  • CHG: OUTPUT CHANGE: sfk addhead, addtail no longer add blanks between added words by default. use option -blank for the old behaviour.
  • add: sfk addhead, addtail: command chaining support.
  • add: sfk load: load text or data for further processing in a command chain. just like xex or filter, but more intuitive in scripts if you do not want to apply any filtering.
  • add: web: -delay option to wait per request
  • add: tweb, an alias of web that reads url's from chain text of previous command.
  • add: global options -cweb and -nocweb to change +web chain input default.
  • add: sort: -skiphead to keep table headers
  • add: echo: option -joinline to reformat quoted multi line parameters with full trim. includes option -noblank which is now deprecated but kept for compatibility.
  • add: sfk data: now supports multi line template in scripts.
  • add: sfk data: support for $minute, $second
  • add: doc: sfk help chain, script: reference to load.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.6.3 (Jun 10, 2017)

  • sum: detail improvements of calc and partcopy.
  • add: sfk partcopy: option -fromtoinc to include the end offset in output.
  • fix: sfk calc: expressions starting with a negative number were not supported.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.6.2 (Jun 5, 2017)

  • Sum: fixed output formatting of multiple variables in the same command.
  • FIX: Output Change: when formatting multiple variables in the same command like "#(3.3a) #(b) #(c)" then the formatting of the first variable was applied to all following. now only the given formatting per variable is applied.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.6 (May 31, 2017)

  • sum: added easy variable output formatting like #(05i) which pads i to 5 characters with leading zeros. calculator now supports long expressions with many values.
  • add: variable formatting on output in C-style notation like #(3.5varname) allowing to fill text with leading blanks or zeros, and to limit text to a given number of characters. for details see "sfk help var"
  • add: sfk run, perline: now support ufile, upath or qufile, qupath to use unix slashes "/". useful to create html output.
  • add: sfk calc: now supports long expressions with more than two values.
  • chg: sfk calc: if chain input is used as #text it now fills in the whole text, no longer ignoring characters after first whitespace.
  • fix: sfk touch: did not support chaining to following commands.
  • fix: sfk httpserv: truncated bad formatted url's like "foo bar.txt" with unencoded blank as "foo". now these produce code 404 only.
  • doc: sfk for: example how to copy files.
  • doc: sfk perline: example how to create an html file listing images.
  • chg: variable functions lpad, rpad are no longer documented but still supported. padding by the new C-style notation is easier.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.5.3 (May 21, 2017)

  • Rel: 18.05.2017, Minor Update
  • Sum: sfk version output fixed, which was wrong especially under linux.
  • Fix: sfk version: did not work esp. on linux.
  • Add: ftpserv: console connect time infos.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.5.2 (May 7, 2017)

  • Sum: reduced ftp terminal output on error replies.
  • Chg: ftp server: no longer printing 5xx replies to terminal by default. added option -showerror to print them, except for 550 no such file.
  • Chg: ftp: protocol info is now shown only with ftp(server) but not with sft commands.
  • Doc: xed: example how to replace a line by file content.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.5 (Apr 27, 2017)

  • Major Update:
  • sum: fix of FTP server which blocked folder transfers with many ftp clients. rework of FTP server and client for improved connectivity under Windows. improved scripting by for loop. added listle to list line end infos for text files. detail improvements of udpdump, list, setbytes.
  • CHG: FTP Client Change under Windows: when using "sfk ftp" with an sfk ftp server, via port 21, the client now uses plain FTP protocol by default to avoid firewall restrictions. use option -sft or SFK_CONFIG=usesft for the old behaviour if no firewall interferes.
  • FIX: ftp server: transfer of folders with most ftp clients was blocked as CWD /mydir/ was not possible, since sfk 1.8.4. (side effect from dir traversal fix)
  • fix: ftp server: unexpected close connection errors at client on QUIT command. QUIT now produces a reply 221 before closing the connection.
  • fix: ftp client: missing display of error reply from server on ftp put, mput, sel ... +ftp mput.
  • add: ftp client: options -raw to force plain ftp and -sft to allow sft even via port 21.
  • chg: ftp server: 5xx error replies are now always shown on console unless -quiet is given.
  • chg: ftp: now tells protocol used (ftp/sft) on every file transfer.
  • add: ftp server: display of verify in verbose mode.
  • add: sfk for, like for var from s to e +... +endfor.
  • add: sfk listle, list line end infos for text files.
  • fix: sfk for windows: absolute paths with forward slash like /tmp were not detected with some commands like sfk sel /mydir +copy -ltarg /outdir
  • add: sfk setbytes: option -repeat=n to repeat data n times.
  • add: sfk list: option -abs to list full absolute paths.
  • add: sfk udpdump: now accepts both "," or blank separator for multi ip mask.
  • add: sfk udpdump: warning on wrong chars in ip mask.
  • chg: sfk view: changed some colors to look more like the white color theme.
  • fix: sfk ask -abs used only -ab
  • doc: sfk replace: help now always lists the possible shell return codes.
  • doc: sfk script: improved infos on parameter name collision.
  • doc: sfk filter: -format examples improved.
  • doc: sfk udpdump: examples for multi ip filtering.
  • doc: sfk xfind: windows return code handling example.
  • doc: sfk addcr/remcr: reference to listle.
  • doc: sfk ftpserv and ftp: help text rework.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.4 Revision 2 (Mar 12, 2017)

  • rel: 09.03.2017, Minor Update
  • sum: version command can now list standard windows version infos contained in .exe files.
  • chg: hextobin: no longer tells conversion statistics when output is sent to another command
  • add: sfk version: support for windows binary version infos.
  • doc: encode/decode was not contained in dumphelp.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.4 (Mar 1, 2017)

  • sum: security fix for windows ftp and http server. added encoding and decoding of base64, hex and url text formats. added setbytes command to set bytes directly in a file. improved scripting.
  • FIX: ftpserv and httpserv under Windows: with option -rw write to a forbidden absolute path like C:thedir... was not blocked.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: sfk ... +hexdump no longer expects filename lists from previous commands, but only text and binary data. use +hexfile or +fhexdump for the old behaviour. this fixes issues that data sent by the command chain was always misinterpreted as filename lists, producing file open errors.
  • add: sfk clock, permanent display of absolute and relative time.
  • add: sfk hexdump: automatic highlight of line end chars with pure text input data.
  • fix: sfk for windows: repeated calls of sfk sft ... in scripts not possible.
  • add: sfk old, alias for sfk list -old to show oldest files of a folder.
  • add: sfk small, alias for sfk list -small to show smallest files of a folder.
  • add: sfk chars now supports command chain input.
  • add: ftp client in sft mode: display of 55x error replies on file send, also without -verbose.
  • add: sfk encode and decode, convert data to and from base64, hex or prefixed hex data.
  • add: sfk setbytes, write a byte sequence into a file at a given offset.
  • del: the undocumented +text and +files keywords in command chaining are no longer supported.
  • chg: sfk base: sfk sel ... +extract was not enabled.
  • chg: sfk base+xd: sfk sel ... +xrep demo was not enabled.
  • chg: echo -literal -noline ... followed by a command accepting binary data, like xed, no longer appends (CR)LF.
  • add: echo -pure as an alias for -literal -noline, to prepare chain input data as unchanged as possible.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.3 Revision 3 (Feb 8, 2017)

  • sum: improved scripting, better error messages, small bug fixes.
  • add: linux: main help info for more output columns.
  • add: diverse cannot open file error messages: detail infos if filename contains cr/lf characters.
  • chg: sfk fromnet: renamed -nocache to -raw, with -nocache still being supported.
  • add: udpsend is now chainable and may send chain input.
  • add: udpdump option -text for easy plain text display.
  • chg: Syntax Change: "sfk ... +list" no longer lists the whole content of the current folder if previous command did not send a list of filenames. use "sfk ... +list ." instead.
  • chg: Syntax Change: sfk spell: no longer prints spelling table by default, but shows help text. use option -table for old behaviour.
  • add: sfk spell: support for chain text input, spelled output is now prefixed by input words.
  • fix: sfk ... +toclip now tells an error instead of blocking without notice if previous command provides no input data.
  • fix: sfk colortest under windows did not restore default color after test.
  • fix: xe: knxdump didn't work.
  • add: sfk ruler, to measure console text width.
  • ren: sfk diskspace primary name is now sfk space. sfk fsinfo primary name is now sfk filesys. old names are supported for compatibility.
  • chg: scripting: these commands can now be called without previous +then although they never use chain input data: fromnet, color, make-random-file, time, data, home, space, filesys, ruler.
  • doc: sfk getvar

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.3 Revision 2 (Feb 1, 2017)

  • Minor Update
  • sum: fix of unexpected stop of sfk scripts after commands like xex or filter.
  • fix: unexpected stop of scripts after some commands like web ... +xex ...

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.3 (Jan 22, 2017)

  • sum: detail improvements for index file handling, udp message sending, text filter, windows/linux unified scripts. easier scripting by sfk tell which never sends given text to following commands. scripts can now call more nested sub functions. bug fixes for run, tail, hexdump.
  • chg: option
  • upat now also support "/" for start of name comparison as in
  • subdir :/tmp or
  • file :/tmp
  • chg: "sfk lindex" renamed to "sfk index" for easier use. sfk lindex is still supported for compatibility.
  • add: "sfk iname" renamed to "sfk name" for easier use. sfk iname is still supported for compatibility.
  • add: sfk udpsend: if a short ip is expanded the full target ip is now shown. option
  • showip to force showing of ip instead of host in sent info.
  • add: sfk ip: optional expansion of given short ip. chaining support to pass ip text to other commands.
  • add: sfk filter
  • toupper,
  • tolower to convert a-z to upper- or lowercase. does not convert any special characters like accents or umlauts.
  • add: file selection option
  • tomake outdir$base.ext to select all files having no or an older counterpart file in output folder outdir. see "sfk run" for an example of .wav to .mp3 conversion with ffmpeg.
  • fix: sfk udpsend, tonetlog could net send to different targets in the same command chain or script.
  • add: sfk tell, same as echo but only prints to terminal and never sends given text to following commands, allowing scripts with fewer "+then" statements.
  • add: sfk data, create random test data records.
  • chg: reduced stack load per call and perline allowing more nested calls.
  • fix: sfk dumphelp: now prints main help text first.
  • fix: sfk run with a single string containing # or $ did nothing.
  • fix: sfk tail under windows: handling of files > 2 GB without option
  • altsize.
  • fix: sfk ... +hexdump unexpected dump of all files of current folder.
  • chg: sfk knxdump, knxsend: GA support up to 31/7/255, support to send to unicast address.
  • doc: updated list, run, help opt, echo/tell, xed, filter, media, call, perline, dupfind

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.2 (Nov 17, 2016)

  • sum: sfk xfind, a powerful text search tool for the command line, is now open source. compared to grep it features an easy, human readable pattern syntax based on the english language. improved scripting by string functions like substr and direct access to environment variables.
  • chg: sfk OSE: xfind, xhexfind, xtext and extract are now open source.
  • add: sfk variable functions like #(substr(a,3,2)). type "sfk help var" for details.
  • add: access to environment variables like #(env.varname). type "sfk help var" for details.
  • chg: error text "incomplete replacement pattern" changed to "imcomplete search pattern" with improved correction hints.
  • fix: ftpserver with -usedir: empty listing in ftp clients like cyberduck due to invalid rwx attribute infos.
  • fix: sfk ose compile: sfkbase.hpp did not define SFKOSE.
  • doc: xfind, xtext help reworked. improved "see also" list, -enddir before -text is not needed, -text is listed before -pat.
  • doc: marked find, hexfind as basic commands with reference to xfind, xhexfind.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.1.4 (Oct 20, 2016)

  • Minor Update
  • sum: improved scripting with sfk if. improved sfk count.
  • chg: sfk batch, sfk samp sfkbat with windows: now using %~f0 instead of %0 to insert the full absolute batch name including extensions. this allows to type "mycmd" instead of "mycmd.bat" to run a script.
  • add: sfk count: direct file reading support.
  • fix: sfk if: now also accepts expressions starting like an option, like "-yes = -yes".
  • add: sfk tail: option -nowait to avoid blocking in a command chain using +loop.
  • fix: progress info output after wget even with -quiet=2.
  • fix: sfk web: error message "wrong date/time" because web server uses a different locale than client. now there is only a notice if -verbose is used.
  • doc: sfk goto: infos about broken chain data flow.
  • doc: sfk batch: improved template batch with help text display on empty parameters.
  • doc: wget info on -quiet=2.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.1.3 (Oct 12, 2016)

  • sum: improved scripting with a generic if and goto.
  • fix: sfk call, perline: error "missing or wrong script parameter" with empty parameters.
  • fix: sfk run and other: empty parameter before dir parameter list produced errors.
  • doc: info about no variable support with -bylist.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.1.2 (Oct 8, 2016)

  • sum: improved scripting with a generic if and goto.
  • ADD: sfk if with generic comparison of parameters, variables, strings and numbers.
  • CHG: sfk script: empty parameters and variables which are not surrounded by quotes are now removed.
  • add: sfk (x)hexfind, (x)replace, extract: option -fullheader to show offset/length infos of found hits both with decimal and hexadecimal.
  • add: sfk goto, jump to a local label.
  • add: sfk label: option -var to enable variable use for all following commands.
  • fix: xhexfind: results >= 4048 bytes were not printed.
  • add: xhexfind: option -maxdump=n to show only n bytes.
  • fix: call mylabel called mylabel2 if present.
  • fix: sfk update: did not detect new version if 1.8.1 is compared with 1.8.1.2
  • fix: command chaining: when using short file selection in a command then using long file selection in following commands produced an error sometimes.
  • doc: sfk web: script example for access with connection error handling.
  • doc: sfk label: info about global options.
  • doc: sfk script: info about -var after label.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.1 (Sep 30, 2016)

  • sum: added support for sfk variables, allowing to store data from a command and to reuse it in other commands. massive improved scripting.
  • ADD: sfk variables. type "sfk help var" for infos. allows to store data produced by one command, and to reuse it in another command like #(name)
  • ADD: sfk perline, run sfk commands per text input line. similar to sfk run, but without starting an external program, and with full access to sfk variables produced by previous commands.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: sfk call, if: no longer clears chain text after command. call will now flush chain text before entering the label.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: sfk echo ... +call +xex no longer passes text of echo as chain data through to xex. use tcall for that.
  • CHG: Syntax Change: sfk gettext output changed with text produced by storetext -append. more below.
  • add: sfk samp http, create an example script for web access automation.
  • add: sfk xed, xex, xreplace, simple expressions: [setvar name]...[endvar] to set an sfk variable, [getvar name] to fill in data from an sfk variable.
  • add: sfk xed, simple expressions: keyword [ortext] to search literals OR combined. can only be used between literals.
  • add: sfk xed, simple expressions: keyword [keep] to search text that should be kept in input, without consume or replace.
  • add: sfk echo -lines to print every string as one line.
  • add: sfk xed: option -firsthit to use only first matching result.
  • add: sfk filter: option -line=n to read nth line from input.
  • add: sfk web: option -showreq, similar to -status.
  • add: sfk find: option -head=n to read only n lines.
  • add: sfk batch, alias of sfk samp sfkbat. may also create .sh files under windows.
  • add: sfk xf, alias for xmlform.
  • fix: command chaining: unexpected drop of data when chaining to echo, fromclip, var, gettext, getvar. e.g. sfk echo foo +echo bar +tofile out.txt dropped "foo", now it is printed.
  • add: command chaining: +tcall to consume text data and +tend to return text data.
  • fix: sfk script -from begin: if script contained a label begin2 this was called.
  • chg: sfk xex, xed: improved help examples, separate examples for xex and xed.
  • chg: sfk samp sfkbat, sfkbash now use %0 or $0 instead of the script filename.
  • chg: Simple Expressions: now support zero length tokens like in "/[start][0 chars][1 char]/"
  • chg: sfk samp: path now allowed in output file with some language types.
  • add: sfk xex, xed: option -justrc to just set return code without printing any output.
  • add: sfk ... +tovoid to drop current chain text.
  • add: sfk stop: optional text to print, info on rc 9 to stop a script from within call. dump of chain text on rc >= 9.
  • add: sfk call: improved help text.
  • FIX: sfk script, call: missing parameters produced errors or even crashed. now these are just empty.
  • fix: sfk ... +run was blocked with http:// url's.
  • fix: sfk web -status=... +xex didn't work.
  • fix: sfk echo: quoted multi line parms output contained unwanted CR characters and trailing blank line.
  • fix: sfk web: always produced rc 9.
  • fix: run -stoprc: did not work in a script.
  • fix: script: +if ... stop -all didn't work, as "if" misinterpreted options.
  • fix: script: +stop no longer requires +then stop.
  • fix: gettext: missing linefeeds on terminal output after multiple storetext -append. workarounds appending with "n" must be changed.
  • fix: sfk version -own +filter didn't work.
  • fix: expression part info didn't show # chars.
  • chg: sfk samp sfkbat, sfkbash new templates.
  • add: sfk knxsend: support for alternative IP group, send of search request.
  • add: sfk knxdump: option -verbose to print search response verbosely.
  • doc: extended echo help.
  • doc: reworked help for sfk script.
  • doc: help text for sfk then.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.8.0 (Aug 31, 2016)

  • sum: sfk xed, a powerful stream text editor, is now free and Open Source. it allows text and binary editing with a simple, human readable syntax. improved handling of multi line parameters in sfk scripts.
  • CHG: SYNTAX CHANGE: sfk script and sfk label: quoted multi line parameters are now trimmed by default, no longer requiring option -qtrim. see "sfk script" for details. scripts requiring the old behaviour may now need option -qraw after "sfk label".
  • chg: the SFK Mobile Booklet was fully reworked and now covers the latest SFK version, including an 38 page tutorial. see stahlworks.com/pdf for details.
  • chg: sfk script: support for quoted multi line parms with filter -rep, filter -form, web, wget, rename
  • add: sfk windows: clipsrc, clipphp, clipjava to convert clipboard text to source code. type "sfk bin-to-src" for documentation.
  • fix: linux: autoconf compile didn't work.
  • fix: compile: -DSFKOSE no longer necessary to produce a Base/OSE binary info.
  • fix: web -nodump missing option documentation.
  • fix: xmlform: unwanted blank lines in output, lost lines on some multi line tags.

New in Swiss File Knife 1.7.7 (Jul 30, 2016)

  • sum: easy web data access with functions sfk web, wfilter, xex. added sfk calc to do simple calculations. improvements of wget, ftpclient, udpdump, find, xfind, script. diverse bug fixes.
  • inf: Compatibility Notice: sfk scripts with quoted multi line parameters will change their default behaviour in the future. see "sfk label" options -qtrim and -qraw.
  • dep: Deprecation Warning: sfk webreq should no longer be used. use sfk web instead.
  • chg: Compatibility Notice: sfk pause: no longer sets a non zero shell return code if Esc key is pressed (which was undocumented).
  • add: sfk update: check for SFK updates.
  • add: sfk pause: option -keyrc to set the shell return code by ascii code of the pressed key.
  • add: sfk filter: option -head=n to read only first n lines of text files.
  • add: sfk filter: option -tail=n to read only last n lines of text files.
  • add: web access support with sfk filter, xex. help text examples for web access.
  • add: xe: sfk xreplace: option -astext to print search/replace hits as plain text.
  • add: sfk web, send a simple web request. new implementation replacing webreq.
  • add: sfk label: option -qtrim to strip whitespace from quoted multiline parameters.
  • add: sfk ftpserv: support for environment variables SFK_FTP_SUSER, SFK_FTP_SPW, SFK_FTP_SRUNPW which are used only by sfk ftpserv, not sfk ftp.
  • add: sfk ftp: support for environment variables SFK_FTP_CUSER, SFK_FTP_CPW which are used only by sfk ftp, not sfk ftpserv.
  • add: main help now lists the most important active environment variables.
  • add: full documentation of option -upat for using unix patterns : and # under windows.
  • add: option -upat2 to use sfk linux wildcard % instead of * under windows
  • add: sfk windows: set SFK_CONFIG=upat or upat2 support to use unix syntax in bash files
  • add: sfk for windows now also supports environment variable option SFK_CONFIG=wildstar:c to support a different wildcard character.
  • add: sfk calc, do a simple calculation of two values.
  • add: xfind, xhexfind: option -names to show just the names of files containing hits.
  • fix: udpsend: no error on missing port or data.
  • fix: find: option -justrc produced blank lines.
  • add: udpdump: option -from now supports multiple ip patterns separated by comma.
  • add: udpdump: option -notfrom.
  • add: wget: auto expansion of url to http://url
  • chg: ftp client: "server speaks sft" message is now shown only with -verbose.
  • chg: ftp client: "using SFK_FTP_PW" message is now shown only with -verbose.
  • add: wget: option -maxwait to stop on timeout.
  • opt: wget: no longer sends head request.
  • add: httpserv: -raw option to send content without any reply headers.
  • fix: wget: download from a primitive server that sends no http headers produced incomplete first text line.
  • fix: sfk gettext: did not work in many cases.
  • chg: sfk if, sfk call: no longer consume chain text without any output.
  • add: sfk fromclip -h: example how to append clipboard changes to a logfile in a loop.