combines many functions in a single, portable executable that belongs onto every USB stick.Search and convert text files, instant simple FTP/HTTP server, find duplicate files, compare folders, treesize, run own commands on all files of a folder - it's all within a single tool.Read the list of highlight features. | |
Download SFK for Windows here or from SourceForge.For SFK x64 read more here.You may also download the .zip file with all binaries and source code for Windows (7/Vista/XP), Linux and Mac, the Intel Linux binary for 64 bits Ubuntu, for 32 bits Intel Linux, the binary for libc5 systems like DSL, for 32 bits ARM Linux like on Raspberry Pi, the Mac OS X binaries as i686 exe or for PowerPC. No installation, instant use. |
Get the Five Dollar Book!All commands in a 300 page PDF, for convenient reading on your tablet, smartphone,or for self printing. Includes a 60 page tutorial for the most important functions. |
Windows: after download, open a command line (CMD.exe) then CD into the download folder and type 'sfk' for the help text. Mac/Linux: after download, open a command line or terminal, then rename to sfk like 'mv sfk-mac-64.exe sfk', make it executable by 'chmod +x sfk' and type './sfk'
Individual Zip files in a folder of files. To have WinZip Command Line Support Add-On create individual Zip files of each file in a folder, open a Command Prompt window and change directories (CD) to the folder where the files to be zipped are located. 7-Zip can be used to compress, extract, test run-list, add, and update archive files. The 7z.exe version works with Windows, while 7-Zip is the command-line version for Linux, Mac OS X, and UNIX. The 7z format has several main features that include open architecture, high ratio, and secure AES – 256 encryption options. Windows: after download, open a command line (CMD.exe) then CD into the download folder and type 'sfk' for the help text. Mac/Linux: after download, open a command line or terminal, then rename to sfk like 'mv sfk-mac-64.exe sfk', make it executable by 'chmod +x sfk' and type './sfk'. Open/Extract LZH/LHA File on Windows. Easy 7-Zip opens/extracts LZH/LHA file easily on Windows. The Easy 7-Zip was developed based on 7-Zip. 7-Zip is a famous open source file archiver. The Easy 7-Zip is an easy-to-use version of 7-Zip. After opening it, you can view some or all of the contents by highlighting the files and pressing Command+Y. Follow these steps to open zip files on Mac: Click the Unzip button. From the drop down menu, choose to unzip your files to this Mac, iCloud Drive, Dropbox or Google Drive. A 'Finder style' window will open.
Windows | Linux | Mac OS X |
Intense users may be interested in Swiss File Knife Plus. It features a high performance replace command for large text and binary files, can access https:// encrypted web URLs, and comes bundled with SFKTray Full to show 27 status lights in the system tray. Read more here.
The current version is 1.9.7.2. Read the list of recent changes here.
You may place questions in the sfk forums.
For software download sites: the SFK PAD file is available here.
SFK Icons and example code for linking can be found here.
Now follows the SFK for Windows syntax overview.(On Mac OS X and Linux, replace every ! character by :, and every $ by #. Type wildcardswith a preceeding slash: * and ?)Get the Five Dollar Book!All commands in a 300 page PDF, for convenient reading on your tablet, smartphone,or for self printing. Includes a 60 page tutorial for the most important functions. |
ZIP files are necessary for combining multiple files together into one downloadable file. You can get many files in one lump while also compressing the file to allow for a quicker download. This has become a necessary method of downloading portable files for USB or other uses. While it’s necessary to unzip these files with a tool like WinRAR or 7-Zip, it always must be done manually. Today, however, we’ll look at how to set up a few things to automatically unzip a compressed file so you can get to the files within in much quicker.
The steps necessary to automatically unzip ZIP files is to run a batch file that uses 7-Zip against a download location so it extracts the contents and then discards the original ZIP file. This is done with a folder monitoring software. While these steps may seem daunting at first, they are simply using versatile utilities that must be adapted for this project, and therefore must be precise.
Walk through these step by step and you’ll have no problem setting it up.
Set Up 7-Zip
7-Zip is necessary for using the command line operations of its extraction capabilities.
Step 1: Install 7-Zip from this link here.
Step 2: Open the System Properties by right-clicking Computer from the Start menu and choosing Properties.
Step 3: Click Advanced system settings from the left pane. This will open the System Properties window.
Step 4: Click the Advanced tab and then choose Environment Variables.
Step 5: Double-click the variable called PATH and enter a semicolon at the end of the value. Immediately following the semicolon, enter the path to the 7-zip installation directory. The path in this example is C:Program Files7-Zip, but yours may be slightly different.
Ensure to OK out of all the open windows to save the variable change. This step is necessary for when we call the 7-Zip program from the command line.
Create a Batch File that Extracts a ZIP File Using 7-Zip
Now that 7-Zip has been installed, it’s necessary to create a small program that will extract any ZIP file in a certain folder.
Before starting, it’s important to note where your downloads go. Whether you’re using Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc., every downloaded file is either automatically sent to a certain folder or the browser asks you where the download should go.
Cool Tip:Visit this link for a few download managers you can use in Chrome.If the downloads go to the same folder every time, identify this folder and jot it down. If you choose where every downloaded file will go, simply ensure you choose a common one and then use that location in the below command.
Step 1: Open Notepad and enter the following for the first line:
7z x –oDOWNLOAD-LOCATION* EXTRACT-LOCATION*.zipFor example, this is what my first line of commands is:
7z x -oC:UsersJonDownloadsDownloadedFiles* C:UsersJonDownloadsDownloadedFiles*.zipNote: There is not a space after the command 7z x –o and before the DOWNLOAD-LOCATION section. There also cannot be any spaces in the pathname to the downloads folder.At this point, when the batch file runs, any ZIP file in the downloads folder will extract automatically and land in a folder in the same directory with the same name as the compressed file. However, the original ZIP file still remains. This is unnecessary and may even cause issues when we move on to the remaining steps. Therefore, we must include a command to either remove the ZIP file or move it out of the way and into its own folder.
Step 2: If you’d like to move the downloaded ZIP to another folder, create a folder called ZIP-Originals and place it in your downloads folder.
Step 3: Add the following under the existing commands in Notepad:
move DOWNLOAD-LOCATION*.zip DOWNLOAD-LOCATIONZIP-OriginalsThis is what mine ends up as:
move C:UsersJonDownloadsDownloadedFiles*.zip C:UsersJonDownloadsDownloadedFilesZIP-OriginalsAlternatively, if you’d like to simply remove the downloaded ZIP file, use this command instead:
del DOWNLOAD-LOCATION*.zipStep 4: Save this file anywhere as one with a .bat extension under the All Files file type.
Run the Batch File When a ZIP File is Downloaded
To automatically run a batch file upon the criteria of a new download, it’s necessary to use a program called Directory Monitor.
Step 1: Download Directory Monitor from this link here.
Cool Tip:Osx Extract Zip Command Line
Learn how Watch 4 Folder can also monitor folder activity.Step 2: Open the program and choose the three small dots to browse for a download directory.
Find the folder and click the Select Folder button.
Step 3: Right-click the newly added directory and click Edit.
Step 4: Ensure the New Files checkbox is checked under the Events and Options section. Move down a bit further under Execute Applications to browse for the batch file you created in Step 4 above. Next to Only execute, enter a small number like 3 or 5 so the batch file is sure to run only when the file has been completely downloaded.
Step 5: Return to the main menu after saving the changes and open File > Options.
Choose to load the program at system start and then add .zip as a global include pattern in the bottom right text area. This ensures that ZIP files are included in the criteria to launch the batch file.
Note: ZIP files aren’t the only file types 7-Zip can handle. Therefore, if you would like to set these steps up with a RAR, 7Z, DMG, etc. compressed file, simply change every instance of ZIP with the preferred extension type.Conclusion
Extracting ZIP files shortly after download without intervening in the process will surely make using the files that much quicker. The task is fully automatic and can be left alone after setting it up.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
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