[Workaround] Update selected files in a filelist to remove them if missing

[Herkules97]

I may have already asked about this before..I vaguely remember that the idea was to modify any efus I want to dupe-from to all point to the same folder. Maybe first by combining them into one efu.
I'm sure there is a regex line one can make to unify them all to point to the same folder if files are across hundreds of root folders..

But being able to re-read all file locations that are selected and removing any entries for that instance or temporarily-loaded efu that it can't find would probably fit more scenarios and if sentimental like me wouldn't produce any more copies I'd want to keep.

It should at least be an option in the top menus bar if it's ever added, as right-clicking takes forever and that's not even time used to do the task. Plus if you ever click away, its progress almost vanishes. Right-clicking again right after might be faster, but still much slower than not relying on right-click menu for anything.

Maybe monitor changes is used for this situation, I am not sure what it means by reloading the filelist.
Does it overwrite the existing efu on deleting a file? Or does it achieve a non-retroactive removal of entries while the efu is loaded?
Being able to re-read selected file locations would mean it can also apply to temporarily loaded efus that unloads on window exit..But I guess it could also have a "monitor changes" button in the load file pop-up.
Even if that is how it works, maybe it could miss changes if too much is deleted in a period of time. Idk.
Not really feeling like making copies of thousands of files just to delete them to test and find out maybe. Unnecessary R/W.

[void]

To update filelists:
Right click the EFU file list and click Edit.
In the File List Editor, from the Tools menu, click Update.
This will scan all the roots in the file list and rescan them. New and modified files are added, deleted files are removed.

Monitoring changes to file lists means if the file list is modified outside of Everything, the file list is reindex by Everything.
Everything never writes to indexed file lists.

File Lists

[Herkules97]

Not what I am looking for.
Only looking for when you select x files and then want to rescan them to remove whatever it doesn't find.
You can then continue without nearly as much rescanning to find further duplicates instead of finding more of what you already removed.
If at the point after rescan you want to save the new version for some reason, then you can do that then. No need to involve the editor.

Idk what the point of the editor's update thing even is when you can just export the live folder again. Doing that removes the need to rescan...Saving time spent waiting and unnecessary disk reads.
If one has no live instance for the device the folder is on but still wants to rescan an export from said device? Then you're better off making a new live instance if the original was lost and going from there.

Another improvement that could be made is if dupe-from could be used for any folder matching the current string.
If I number folders, Numbered1 and Numbered2 would be matched if something like dupe-from*:"C:\Numbered" is used.
Could've tested if it already existed when I was comparing last time, but I only realised it while writing this message.
Like the above or dupe-from:"C:\Numbered*", *dupe-from:"C:\Numbered" or dupe-from:"C:\Numbered"*.

Don't have anything more so if it never gets added I'll just have to either update the smallest efu every time I want it to have only currently live files or make a copy of the live instance and add efus into it. Then it would be updating the live folders. Not ideal, but unless the update selected files mechanic gets added there is no other way from what I know.
That would also mean dupe-from could be used multiple times as the folders being removed from is updated every deletion.
Maybe one would have to modify the ini directly to say that it's monitoring whatever device the live instance was monitoring..Or start it once, open options to add it then force-exit and load it again. At least that's what I would do, Idk how it would actually play out.

[void]

There's no option to remove stale files from a file list opened in Everything.


To find files that have been deleted, include the following in your search:

!EXISTSONDISK($filename:)

This search is rather slow, so combine with other searches.



To remove these files from your index:
Create a bookmark to remove these items:
From the Bookmark menu, click Add to bookmarks.
Change the Name to:

Remove from index

Change the Search to:

/command 40405

Click OK.
Select all your files.
Open this bookmark.
Everything will prompt to remove the selected files from your index.
The files are removed from your index, not the physical file list.



EXISTSONDISK()
/command
UI_ID_FILE_REMOVE_SELECTION_FROM_INDEX (40405)

[Herkules97]

To remove these files from your index:
Create a bookmark to remove these items:
From the Bookmark menu, click Add to bookmarks.
Change the Name to:

Remove from index

Change the Search to:

/command 40405

Click OK.
Select all your files.
Open this bookmark.
Everything will prompt to remove the selected files from your index.
The files are removed from your index, not the physical file list.

After trying it out, it seems to be what I was looking for. It removes entries from loaded file lists that are only in RAM.
If you exit the window nothing is saved. Presumably if you have a db with file lists added, the entries will not return but that's the point. Everything should stay in RAM. If in the further future I want to do more I'll make a new export for the folder I want to delete from. But it beats making a new efu after every deletion.

Can selection be kept after deleting so I can then right away use the command on the same files?
It wasn't "edit_move_caret_to_selection_end" set to false apparently. I presume caret is the thing behind whatever you type next so it has nothing to do with the results list anyway. But wanted to try before I asked just in case.

Any reason updating automatically couldn't be added? Just priority of what you want to code in?
It's not like you ever say "I don't feel like adding it in". "It doesn't exist" isn't as explicit. Is it meant to be "It doesn't exist, Idk if I will ever add it as I don't know the future"?

[void]

Can selection be kept after deleting so I can then right away use the command on the same files?

To keep the selection after deleting:

• In Everything 1.5, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the Advanced tab on the left.
• To the right of Show settings containing, search for:
  delete
• Select: focus_next_after_delete
• Set the value to: false
• Click OK.

edit_move_caret_to_selection_end controls the behavior when there's a selection in the search box.
If you select some text in the search box and press

Left

arrow key, the caret moves to the start of the selection, instead of moving the caret from the current position.

Any reason updating automatically couldn't be added? Just priority of what you want to code in?

File lists are meant to be static.
Use folder indexing if you want live results.

[Herkules97]

I see, I can't use folder indexing as the old folders aren't in their original states, I archive stuff to save space.
The exports are the pre-archived states, hence why I need to use them.

But this workaround works fine as long as that focus next option works as intended, I'll probably find out within a month when I have more I want to de-dup.