What recls.NET Offers Above .NET's Search Facilities
You may be reading this and thinking "but there have been standard facilities for recursive filesystem search since CLR version 2". And you'd be right. DirectoryInfo's GetFiles() and GetDirectories() methods have a third overload that takes a parameter of type System.IO.SearchOption, which has the enumerators TopDirectoryOnly and AllDirectories. And it's the same for Directory's GetFiles() and GetDirectories() methods.
So what does recls 100% .NET provide that is not available in the standard libraries?
- Multi-part patterns. Passing "*.dll|*.exe" to Directory.GetFiles() will throw an argument exception, and passing "*.dll;*.exe" will simply return no results.
- Depth-control. With the CLR facilities you have only two choices: no recursion or infinite recursion.
- IEntry - so you don't have to ask twice (DirectoryInfo.GetFiles()/GetDirectories() do return arrays of FileInfo/DirectoryInfo)
- Filtering of hidden & system files. DirectoryInfo.GetFiles() always includes hidden and system files.
- Ignoring inaccessible directories. An UnauthorizedAccessException is thrown by DirectoryInfo.GetFiles() when asking for all files for a directory that contains an inaccessible subdirectory (like the "System Volume Information" directory sitting in the root level on each local hard drive). Recls allows you to handle this, by specifying handler (via delegate or interface), or to skip any such items via specifying SearchOptions.IgnoreInaccessibleNodes.
- Search-relative path. When I'm writing non-trivial filesystem manipulation programs -- such as recursive comparisons, recursive copying, and so on -- I find the SearchRelativePath invaluable. Writing such programs without it would be burdensome, to say the least.
The Future
As mentioned earlier, recls 100% .NET does not currently provide FTP searching. That's something that might be added in a later version, though at this stage it looks doubtful. Without a commercial imperative to do so it's likely to languish at the end of one of my long to-do lists.
Also, the new version does not support the specification of multiple patterns where one or more includes a sub-directory, as in:
FileSearcher.Search(@"C:\Windows", "system/*.dll|system32/*.dll");
This will be added in a future version.
I am considering a future facility to treat the patterns parameter as a regular expression, which would probably be indicated by a new SearchOptions flag. (The main reason I haven't yet is I'm still in two minds about whether (and how) to handle multiple patterns in that form. I'm definitely interested in opinions from users/readers on the subject.)
Finally, other languages will be getting the recls 100% treatment, probably starting with Ruby or Python next year.
Obtaining recls 100% .NET
recls 100% .NET is available, from http://recls.net. The download includes the library (which incorporates all the core functionality discussed in this article) along with documentation (Intellisense XML and CHM), and example projects.
Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank my .NET posse -- Chris Oldwood, Garth Lancaster, John O'Halloran and Joy Chan -- for their assistance in keeping me to the point and making it interesting. Any failures are my own fault for inadequately addressing their concerns.
References
[1] The recls project; http://recls.org/
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FxCop
[3] Introducing recls, Matthew Wilson, C/C++ Users Journal, November 2003
[4] Extended STL, volume 1: Collections and Iterators, Matthew Wilson, Addison-Wesley, 2007
[5] Quality Matters, Part 1: Introductions, and Nomenclature, Matthew Wilson, Overload 92, August 2009
[6] Code Complete, 2nd Edition, Steve McConnell, Microsoft Press, 2004
[7] An Enhanced ostream_iterator, Matthew Wilson, Dr. Dobb's Journal, June 2007
[8] C# In Depth, Jon Skeet, Manning, 2008
[9] More Effective C#, Bill Wagner, Addison-Wesley, 2009
