using Windows command line, e.g. to find files on disk

ExecuteScriptText

•print ExecuteWinCmd("echo hello, world!")
  hello, world!
•print SearchWindowsPath("miktex")
  C:\Programme\MiKTeX 2.7\miktex\bin;
•print FindFilesOnDisk("c", "latex.exe")
  looking for latex.exe on drive c: - please stand by, this may take a long time!
  C:\Programme\MiKTeX 2.7\miktex\bin\latex.exe;

function/S ExecuteWinCmd(command)
string command
	string IPUFpath = SpecialDirPath("Igor Pro User Files",0,1,0)	// guaranteed writeable path in IP6
	string batchFileName = "ExecuteWinCmd.bat", outputFileName = "ExecuteWinCmd.out"
	string outputLine, result = ""
	variable refNum

	NewPath/O/Q IgorProUserFiles, IPUFpath
	Open/P=IgorProUserFiles refNum as batchFileName	// overwrites previous batchfile
	fprintf refNum,"cmd/c \"%s > \"%s%s\"\"\r", command, IPUFpath, outputFileName
	Close refNum
	ExecuteScriptText/B "\"" + IPUFpath + "\\" + batchFileName + "\""
	Open/P=IgorProUserFiles/R refNum as outputFileName
	do
		FReadLine refNum, outputLine
		if( strlen(outputLine) == 0 )
			break
		endif
		result += outputLine
	while( 1 )
	Close refNum
	return result
end

function/S SearchWindowsPath(str)
string str
	return ListMatch(ExecuteWinCmd("path"),"*"+str+"*")
end

function/S FindFilesOnDisk(driveName, fileName)
string driveName, fileName
	string fileNotFoundString = "_file not found_"	// change this to "", if you prefer an empty string

	// allow user to specify "c" or "C:", or even "" (converted to "C:") as the driveName
	switch( strlen(driveName) )
		case 0:
			driveName = "c"	// fall through
		case 1:
			driveName += ":"
		case 2:
			break
		default:
			Abort "illegal drive specification"
	endswitch
	
	// attrib/s is the fastest way to find a file with a given name (with wild cards) anywhere on a disk
	// but it can still take a long time, especially with large hard disks!
	print "looking for "+fileName+" on drive "+driveName+" - please stand by, this may take a long time!"
	
	// here we go... this command returns only when Windows has finished with it
	string found = ExecuteWinCmd("attrib /s "+driveName+"\\"+fileName)

	// convert line break characters to ";" to make the answer an Igor list
	found = ReplaceString("\r", found, ";")
	
	string str, result = ""
	variable n, nmax = ItemsInList(found) - 1
	
	// if we get only one item, then it's possible that the file was not found
		// attrib/s then returns something like "file C:\bla.bla not found" 
		// unfortunately, that message is in the local language of the OS !
	if( nmax == 0 )
		str = found[0, strsearch(found, driveName, 0, 2) - 1]	// if the characters before the file name ...
		if( strsearch(str, UpperStr(str), 0) < 0 )		// ... contain lower case characters ...
			return fileNotFoundString			// ... we assume the file was not found
		endif
	endif
	
	// the file was probably found, maybe even more than once	
		// attrib/s then returns something like "A  HR  C:\jack\data\bla.bla"
		// the length of the attribute list seems unpredictable, but it's all uppercase
	for( n = nmax; n >= 0; n -= 1 )
		str = StringFromList(n, found)					// for each item
		str = str[strsearch(str, driveName, 0, 2), strlen(str)-1]	// excise file path
		result = AddListItem(str, result)				// add to result list
	endfor
	return result
end

FindFilesOnDisk