Short: Gives wildcard support to commands Author: Chris Young Uploader: chris unsatisfactorysoftware co uk (Chris Young) Type: util/batch Version: 1.0 Architecture: generic This ARexx script gives wildcard support to commands which don't support wildcards. It is similar to SPat, however SPat works by expanding the wildcards and calling the command multile times. Cowpat expands the wildcard and submits it as a list of files on a single command line. There are two variations - cowpat.rexx and cowpat2.rexx. The only difference is that cowpat2 will put the arguments before the filenames. Example: cowpat.rexx gifsicle #?.gif >output.gif Often ported commands need switches before all the filenames. In this case, use cowpat2: cowpat2.rexx gifsicle #?.gif -l >output.gif Be a bit careful - you may find the output filename needs to be the last on the line. In this case, use cowpat.rexx as cowpat2.rexx re-arranges the arguments and the last filename will be an existing one. INSTALLATION ============ Copy cowpat.rexx and cowpat2.rexx to somewhere in your path (probably REXX:) KNOWN BUGS ========== Commands or patterns with spaces in them won't work. ARexx's command line parsing is a bit rubbish so I couldn't get this to work without breaking the usual case. You can add '"' between the variable names on the parse arg line, and enclose everything in quotes when calling Cowpat if you need to specify spaces. DISCLAIMER ========== I will not accept responsibility for any damage, loss of data either directly or indirectly caused by use of this script ("cowpat.rexx" and "cowpat2.rexx"). All use is at your own risk. -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- Version: 2.6.3in iQB7AwUAS26ZebO1+24s2ZO5AQEcHQMrB8LPEtfay/4EuGFwZHef0soN3Q+VGRjc I5ETu4FAeIypVuZHHCKPorVm/Ml6T/x3IPRaQRUBJ/H8P7HsTmnVGp8PHUFPM5Wr zSFs+fTZFvNceJsQov1lZztX5yjHNBaMQQ1Qjx2Z =19RI -----END PGP MESSAGE-----