WolframLang Tutorial for Shell Tasks

The following is a tutorial on WolframLang on shell tasks. Shell tasks are the type of things that Bash or PowerShell do.

Also, these tasks are best done in a text terminal by running it with WolframScript

Navigate Directory

• Navigate Directory

List Files

• List Files

Get Dir Path, File Name, File Extension, Join Path

• File Path Functions

Date and Time

• Date Time

Delete Directory

DeleteDirectory returns Null if it succeeds in deleting a directory, and $Failed if it fails.

DeleteDirectory

(* delete a dir only if empty *)
DeleteDirectory["c:/Users/x09908"]

(* delete a dir and all its files and subdirs *)
DeleteDirectory["c:/Users/x09908",DeleteContents->True]

Check is File or Dir

DirectoryQ["c:/Users/xah/abc.txt"]
(* False *)

DirectoryQ["c:/Users/xah/"]
(* True *)

(* is file *)
FileType[ "c:/Users/xah/web/xahlee_info/M/WolframScript.html" ] === File

(* is dir *)
FileType[ "c:/Users/xah/" ] === Directory

(* doesn't exist *)
FileType[ "c:/Users/xah/tt" ] === None

Check File/Dir Existence

(* check file exist *)
FileExistsQ["c:/Users/xah/abc.txt"]
(* True *)

(* works on dir too *)
FileExistsQ["c:/Users/xah/"]
(* True *)

Get File Date

get file date:

FileDate["c:/Users/xah/documents", "Creation"] //DateString
(* Thu 7 Jan 2021 23:27:29 *)

FileDate["c:/Users/xah/documents", "Modification"] //DateString
(* Wed 27 Oct 2021 10:14:25 *)

FileDate["c:/Users/xah/documents", "Access"] //DateString
(* Mon 22 Nov 2021 20:42:58 *)

File Size

get file size:

FileSize["c:/Users/xah/abc.txt"] // Print
(* Quantity[4.681, Kilobytes] *)

Print File Content

print whole file:

FilePrint["c:/Users/xah/abc.txt"]

print just first 9 lines:

FilePrint["c:/Users/xah/abc.txt", 9]

print last 9 lines:

FilePrint["c:/Users/xah/abc.txt", -9]

read/get file content

ReadString["c:/Users/xah/some.html"]

write to file

WriteString[ "c:/Users/xah/some.txt", "something" ]

replace string

StringReplace["some elephant and wolfs", "elephant"->"tiger"]

replace multiple pairs of strings:

(* replace multiple pairs of strings. replacement does not depend on previous replacement. *)

StringReplace["abc", {"a"->"x", "b"->"y", "x"->"H"}]
(* xyc *)

File Hash

FileHash[path]

return integer hash code of file content at path.

FileHash[path, typeStr]

use hash algorithm typeStr. Supported type includes "MD5", "SHA256", "SHA3-256" and more.

FileHash[ "c:/Users/xah/web/xahlee_info/M/WolframScript.html" ]
(* sample return 196936574075229334718916868727866708509 *)

map function to files

FileSystemMap

load WolframScript

load, eval a WolframScript

(*
content of the file is
f =  (x|-> x+1)
*)

(* load the file *)
Get["c:/Users/xah/x1/xx.m"]

Print[f[3]]
(* prints 4 *)