Thread: Looking for a file in the HardDisk

Oky, I have to find a file on the harddrive, where ever it is..
I've built a little program but it doesn't work well.
On my system (xp pro) it works but it doesn't find the file I'm looking for if I put it in the Document Folder..
I let some friends to try and on theyre pc it works in a different way, it seems that the program cant's scan for the file in some folders..but that folders are randomly "choosen" on every pc.. I dont know why, because there are no restrictions.

The file, once executed prints to the dos window
"i've found the file in the xxxx folder" ( in italian )
and repeat it for every yyy ( in that case prova.txt ) files that it found.

The sources are:

Code:

#include <stdio.h> 
#include <stdlib.h> 
#include <windows.h> 

//Ricerca di un File by BianConiglio// 

int _look4aFile (char* _strStartPath)  
{ 
   HANDLE _hFileSearch; 
   WIN32_FIND_DATA _hFileSearchData; 

   int lastError = 0; 
   char* _currentSearchPattern = (char*) malloc( MAX_PATH ); 
   char* _reservedBuffer; 

   if (_currentSearchPattern) 
   { 
      if (!_strStartPath) 
         _strStartPath = "C:\\"; 

      strcpy (_currentSearchPattern, _strStartPath); 
      strcat (_currentSearchPattern, "*"); 

      if ( (_hFileSearch = FindFirstFile(_currentSearchPattern, &_hFileSearchData)) != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE ) 
      { 
         do { 
            if ( strcmp(_hFileSearchData.cFileName, ".") && strcmp(_hFileSearchData.cFileName, "..") ) 
            { 
               if ( _hFileSearchData.dwFileAttributes == FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY ) { 

                  _reservedBuffer = (char*) malloc( MAX_PATH+1 ); 
                  if ( _reservedBuffer ) 
                  { 
                     strcpy (_reservedBuffer, _strStartPath); 
                     strcat (_reservedBuffer, _hFileSearchData.cFileName); 
                     strcat (_reservedBuffer, "\\"); 

                     lastError = _look4aFile (_reservedBuffer); 

                     free (_reservedBuffer); 

                  } else 
                     lastError = -1; 
        
               } else { 
                                      
                  if ( !strcmp(_hFileSearchData.cFileName, "prova.txt" )) 
                  
                  printf ("Ho trovato un file \"%s\" nella cartella \"%s\"\n", _hFileSearchData.cFileName, _strStartPath); 
                    
                 } 
            } 
              
         } 
    
          while ( FindNextFile(_hFileSearch, &_hFileSearchData) ); 
      } else 
         lastError = 1; 

      free (_currentSearchPattern); 
      FindClose (_hFileSearch); 

   } else 
      lastError = -1; 

   return lastError; 
} 


int main() 

{ 

  _look4aFile (NULL); 
  
  system("PAUSE");    
  return 0; 
}

Can someone tell me WHY it works randomly ??
In that source i'm looking for the file "prova.txt"

what I have to change in the source ?

thanx

Code:

if ( _hFileSearchData.dwFileAttributes == FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY ) {

A directory may have other attributes, in which case this will fail. Therefore use a bitmask to test the directory attribute:

Code:

if ( _hFileSearchData.dwFileAttributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY ) {

Code:

if ( !strcmp(_hFileSearchData.cFileName, "prova.txt" ))

strcmp() is case sensitive. Therefore this will not find "Prova.txt". Consider using stricmp().

On a style note, why are your variables and functions names prepended with an underscore?

I LOVE you It works !!

The underscore ?? Mh I don't remember ! Maybe only for fun I did it mounths ago

Not sure if this is the problem, but when you say:

char temp[100]="\0";

that is making a dangerous assumtion that the file path will only be 100 chars long. If you are using windows then you can use the constant MAX_PATH here instead which should be safe, although I'm not sure if there would be problems if ms decided to change the maximum chars allowed in a path. If you are using a different OS there should be some other way of retriving the maximum path, but you'll have to look it up yourself. Anyway, that's all I have time to look at now, but I hope it helps.

thank u everyone ! it works !!

now i have a quite small problem...

ok it works but...if I execute it, it looks for "prova.txt" and creates "user_info.sah" in every folder where prova.txt it is found.....

then I shut down all, I delete all (prova.txt and user_info.sah) and execute again my file...he says me no prova.txt found and it's ok..BUT if I look in the folder where there WERE BEFORE prova.txt, I found recreated the files user_info.sah !!! ( but no prova.txt coz i've deleted it before!! )

It seems that there is a sort of "memory" of the OLD positions (the strStartPath) of the files.

Do I have to call ghostbusters for that ???
What do u think ?

PS: great forum with great ppl, finally i've found a nice place !!

Originally posted by BianConiglio
thank u everyone ! it works !!

now i have a quite small problem...

ok it works but...if I execute it, it looks for "prova.txt" and creates "user_info.sah" in every folder where prova.txt it is found.....

then I shut down all, I delete all (prova.txt and user_info.sah) and execute again my file...he says me no prova.txt found and it's ok..BUT if I look in the folder where there WERE BEFORE prova.txt, I found recreated the files user_info.sah !!! ( but no prova.txt coz i've deleted it before!! )

It seems that there is a sort of "memory" of the OLD positions (the strStartPath) of the files.

Do I have to call ghostbusters for that ???
What do u think ?

PS: great forum with great ppl, finally i've found a nice place !!

Look at

Code:

                  if ( !stricmp(hFileSearchData.cFileName, "prova.txt" )) 
                  
                 printf ("Ho trovato un file \"%s\" nella cartella \"%s\"\n", hFileSearchData.cFileName, strStartPath); 
        
                strcpy (temp,strStartPath);  //  <-- I COPY THE PATH FOUND
                strcat (temp,"\\user_info.sah");  //  <-- I ADD TO THE PATH THE NAME OF THE FILE I WANT TO CREATE
                userinfo = fopen(temp, "wb"); // <-- I CREATE THE EMPTY FILE
                fclose(userinfo); // <-- CLOSED

The if() statement prints the message only if you found the file. All of the other stuff is executed whether you found the file or not!

use if() {
//stuff
//stuff
//stuff
}

Dave

Oh, yeah. I didn't know you could do this:

Code:

strStartPath = "C:\\";

I thought you had to use strcpy().

Dave

Originally posted by Prelude
>I thought you had to use strcpy().
Not if strStartPath is a pointer. Which is the case since it is a function parameter. As long as the string is not modified, all will be well.

Thanks, again, for useful knowledge.

Dave

ok i've put the

Code:

if
{
bla bla bla
}

and now it works...i was stupid I havent' thought about that !!

anyway now i'v found that i've created an user_info.sah in EVERY DAMN folder of my system lol !!