using Windows command line, e.g. to find files on disk

•print ExecuteWinCmd("echo hello, world!")
  hello, world!
•print SearchWindowsPath("miktex")
  C:\Programme\MiKTeX 2.7\miktex\bin;
•print FindFilesOnDisk("c", "latex.exe")
  looking for latex.exe on drive c: - please stand by, this may take a long time!
  C:\Programme\MiKTeX 2.7\miktex\bin\latex.exe;

function/S ExecuteWinCmd(command)
string command
    string IPUFpath = SpecialDirPath("Igor Pro User Files",0,1,0)   // guaranteed writeable path in IP6
    string batchFileName = "ExecuteWinCmd.bat", outputFileName = "ExecuteWinCmd.out"
    string outputLine, result = ""
    variable refNum

    NewPath/O/Q IgorProUserFiles, IPUFpath
    Open/P=IgorProUserFiles refNum as batchFileName // overwrites previous batchfile
    fprintf refNum,"cmd/c \"%s > \"%s%s\"\"\r", command, IPUFpath, outputFileName
    Close refNum
    ExecuteScriptText/B "\"" + IPUFpath + "\\" + batchFileName + "\""
    Open/P=IgorProUserFiles/R refNum as outputFileName
    do
        FReadLine refNum, outputLine
        if( strlen(outputLine) == 0 )
            break
        endif
        result += outputLine
    while( 1 )
    Close refNum
    return result
end

function/S SearchWindowsPath(str)
string str
    return ListMatch(ExecuteWinCmd("path"),"*"+str+"*")
end

function/S FindFilesOnDisk(driveName, fileName)
string driveName, fileName
    string fileNotFoundString = "_file not found_"  // change this to "", if you prefer an empty string

    // allow user to specify "c" or "C:", or even "" (converted to "C:") as the driveName
    switch( strlen(driveName) )
        case 0:
            driveName = "c" // fall through
        case 1:
            driveName += ":"
        case 2:
            break
        default:
            Abort "illegal drive specification"
    endswitch
   
    // attrib/s is the fastest way to find a file with a given name (with wild cards) anywhere on a disk
    // but it can still take a long time, especially with large hard disks!
    print "looking for "+fileName+" on drive "+driveName+" - please stand by, this may take a long time!"
   
    // here we go... this command returns only when Windows has finished with it
    string found = ExecuteWinCmd("attrib /s "+driveName+"\\"+fileName)

    // convert line break characters to ";" to make the answer an Igor list
    found = ReplaceString("\r", found, ";")
   
    string str, result = ""
    variable n, nmax = ItemsInList(found) - 1
   
    // if we get only one item, then it's possible that the file was not found
        // attrib/s then returns something like "file C:\bla.bla not found"
        // unfortunately, that message is in the local language of the OS !
    if( nmax == 0 )
        str = found[0, strsearch(found, driveName, 0, 2) - 1]   // if the characters before the file name ...
        if( strsearch(str, UpperStr(str), 0) < 0 )      // ... contain lower case characters ...
            return fileNotFoundString           // ... we assume the file was not found
        endif
    endif
   
    // the file was probably found, maybe even more than once  
        // attrib/s then returns something like "A  HR  C:\jack\data\bla.bla"
        // the length of the attribute list seems unpredictable, but it's all uppercase
    for( n = nmax; n >= 0; n -= 1 )
        str = StringFromList(n, found)                  // for each item
        str = str[strsearch(str, driveName, 0, 2), strlen(str)-1]   // excise file path
        result = AddListItem(str, result)               // add to result list
    endfor
    return result
end