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

Igor can send commands to the Windows command line via ExecuteScriptText, but the manual says it cannot read results back. Here's a little snippet to do just that. You can use this to find directories in the Windows path variable, or to find files (with wild cards) on a disk drive:
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;

Here's the code you need to paste in your Procedure window:
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

I would be happy about feedback from testers, especially of the FindFilesOnDisk routine since it contains some assumptions about international Windows systems (see code documentation).

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