| ATTRIB |
|
| Displays or changes file attributes. |
|
| This command displays, sets, or removes the Read-Only, Archive, System, and |
| Hidden attributes assigned to files or directories. |
|
| Syntax |
|
| ATTRIB [+R|-R] [+A|-A] [+S|-S] [+H|-H][[drive:][path]filename] [/S] |
|
| To display all attributes of all files in the current directory, use the |
| following syntax: |
|
| ATTRIB |
|
| Parameter |
|
| [drive:][path]filename |
| Specifies the location and name of the file(s) you want to process. |
|
| Switches |
|
| +R |
| Sets the Read-Only file attribute. |
|
| -R |
| Clears the Read-Only file attribute. |
|
| +A |
| Sets the Archive file attribute. |
|
| -A |
| Clears the Archive file attribute. |
|
| +S |
| Sets the file as a System file. |
|
| -S |
| Clears the System file attribute. |
|
| +H |
| Sets the file as a Hidden file. |
|
| -H |
| Clears the Hidden file attribute. |
|
| /S |
| Processes files in the current directory and all of its subdirectories. |
|
| Related Command |
|
| For more information about copying files and directories with different |
| attributes, see the XCOPY command. |
|
|
| ATTRIB--Notes |
|
| Combining the Hidden and System attributes |
|
| If a file has both the Hidden and System attributes set, you can clear both |
| attributes only with a single ATTRIB command. For example, to clear the |
| Hidden and System attributes for the RECORD.TXT file, you would type: |
|
| ATTRIB -S -H RECORD.TXT |
|
| Using ATTRIB with groups of files |
|
| You can use wildcards (? and *) with the filename parameter to display or |
| change the attributes for a group of files. If a file has the System or |
| Hidden attribute set, you must clear that attribute before you can change |
| any other attributes for that file. |
|
| Changing the attributes for a directory |
|
| You can display or change the attributes for a directory. To use ATTRIB with |
| a directory, you must explicitly specify the directory name; you cannot use |
| wildcards to work with directories. For example, to hide the directory |
| C:\SECRET, you would type the following: |
|
| ATTRIB +H C:\SECRET |
|
| The following command would affect only files, not directories: |
|
| ATTRIB +H C:*.* |
|
| Viewing archive attributes |
|
| The Archive attribute (a) is used to mark files that have changed since they |
| were previously backed up. The MSBACKUP, RESTORE, and XCOPY commands use |
| these Archive attributes. For information about Archive attributes, see the |
| MSBACKUP , RESTORE , and XCOPY commands. |
|
|
| ATTRIB--Examples |
|
| To display the attributes of a file named NEWS86 located on the current |
| drive, type the following command: |
|
| attrib news86 |
|
| To assign the Read-Only attribute to the file REPORT.TXT, type the following |
| command: |
|
| attrib +r report.txt |
|
| To remove the Read-Only attribute from files in the \PUBLIC\JONES directory |
| on a disk in drive B and from files in any subdirectories of \PUBLIC\JONES, |
| type the following command: |
|
| attrib -r b:\public\jones\*.* /s |
|
| As a final example, suppose you want to give an associate a disk containing |
| all files in the default directory on a disk in drive A except files with |
| the .BAK extension. Because you can use XCOPY to copy only those files |
| marked with the Archive attribute, you need to set the Archive attribute for |
| those files you want to copy. To do this, you would use the following two |
| commands to set the Archive attribute for all files on drive A and then to |
| clear the attribute for those files with the .BAK extension: |
|
| attrib +a a:*.* |
|
| attrib -a a:*.bak |
|
| Next, use the XCOPY command to copy the files from the disk in drive A to |
| the disk in drive B. The /A switch in the following command causes XCOPY to |
| copy only those files marked with the Archive attribute: |
|
| xcopy a: b: /a |
|
| If you want XCOPY to clear each file's Archive attribute after it copies the |
| file, use the /M switch instead of /A, as in the following example: |
|
| xcopy a: b: /m |
|
|
