Command Line Interface
ES is the command-line interface to search
Everything from a command prompt or PowerShell.
Download
Requirements
Usage
Search options
Sort options
Journal options
Download
Download
ES from the
Downloads page.
Requirements
- Everything must be installed and running.
Usage
es.exe [options] search text
- options
- Optional flags to change search behavior, sorting, or output formatting.
- search text
- Optional search query using the Everything search syntax.
For example:
es.exe -highlight Everything ext:exe;ini
Search options
- -r <search>
- -regex <search>
- Search using a regular expression.
- -i
- -case
- Enable case-sensitive matching.
- -w
- -ww
- -whole-word
- -whole-words
- Match whole words only.
- -p
- -match-path
- Match against the full path.
- -a
- -diacritics
- Enable diacritics matching.
- -prefix
- Match the start of words.
- -suffix
- Match the end of words.
- -ignore-punctuation
- Ignore punctuation in filenames.
- -ignore-whitespace
- Ignore whitespace in filenames.
- -n <num>
- -count <num>
- Limit the maximum number of results to <num>.
- -path <path>
- Search for files and folders within the specified path.
- -parent-path <path>
- Search for files and folders within the parent directory of path.
- -parent <path>
- Search for files and folders with the specified parent path.
- /ad
- Search for folders only.
- /a-d
- Search for files only.
- /a<attributes>
- Search by file attributes using DIR-style flags:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|
| R | Read-only |
| H | Hidden |
| S | System |
| D | Directory |
| A | Archive |
| V | Device |
| X | No scrub data |
| N | Normal |
| T | Temporary |
| L | Reparse point |
| C | Compressed |
| O | Offline |
| I | Not content indexed |
| E | Encrypted |
| U | Unpinned |
| P | Pinned |
| M | Recall on data access |
| - | Prefix a flag with - to exclude (for example: /a-h for non-hidden) |
Sort options
- -s
- Sort results by full path.
- -sort <property-name[-ascending|-descending]>
- Sort results by the specified property name and direction.
Supported sort property names:
- name
- path
- size
- extension
- date-created
- date-modified
- date-accessed
- attributes
- filelist-filename
- run-count
- date-recently-changed
- date-run
Any Everything 1.5 property name can also be used as the sort property name.
- /on
- /o-n
- /os
- /o-s
- /oe
- /o-e
- /od
- /o-d
- Sort results using DIR-style order flags:
| Flag | Description |
|---|
| N | Name |
| S | Size |
| E | Extension |
| D | Date modified |
| - | Sort in descending order (for example: /o-s for size descending) |
Journal options
- -j [filename filter]
- -journal [filename-filter]
- Show index journal changes.
Any journal option below also shows journal changes.
Wildcards are supported in the filename-filter.
The whole final filename is matched case-insensitively.
Use a path separator to match full paths and names.
- -get-journal-id
- Return the current journal ID.
- -get-journal-pos
- Return the current journal ID and next change ID.
- -action-filter <actions>
- Show only changes with the specified actions.
Use a semicolon (;) to separate multiple actions.
Actions can be one or more of the following:
- folder-create
- folder-delete
- folder-rename
- folder-move
- folder-modify
- file-create
- file-delete
- file-rename
- file-move
- file-modify
- -watch
- Return when a matching journal change is found and display the journal position.
- -from-journal-pos <journal-id> <change-id>
- -from-journal-id <journal-id>
- -from-change-id <change-id>
- Show changes starting from the specified position.
- -from-date <date>
- Show changes starting from the specified ISO-8601 date.
- -from-yesterday
- Show changes starting from the beginning of yesterday.
- -from-today
- Show changes starting from the beginning of today.
- -from-now
- Show changes starting from the current time.
- -to-journal-pos <journal-id> <change-id>
- -to-journal-id <journal-id>
- -to-change-id <change-id>
- Show changes up to the specified journal position (exclusive).
- -to-date <date>
- Show changes up to the specified ISO-8601 date (exclusive).
- -to-today
- Show changes up to the start of today (exclusive).
- -to-tomorrow
- Show changes up to the start of tomorrow (exclusive).
- -to-now
- Show changes up to the current time (exclusive).
- -after-journal-pos <journal-id> <change-id>
- Show changes after the specified journal ID and change ID.
- -changed-today
- Show changes from the start of today until the start of tomorrow.
Same as -from-today -to-tomorrow
- -changed-yesterday
- Show changes from the start of yesterday until the start of today.
Same as -from-yesterday -to-today
General Command Line Options
These options will work with any version of Everything.
- -r <search>
- -regex <search>
- Search using regular expressions.
Escape spaces with double quotes.
- -i
- -case
- Match case.
- -w
- -ww
- -whole-word
- -whole-words
- Match whole words.
- -p
- -match-path
- Match full path and file name.
- -h
- -help
- Display this help.
- -o <offset>
- -offset <offset>
- Show results starting from the zero based offset.
- -n <num>
- -max-results <num>
- Limit the number of results shown to <num>.
- -s
- Sort by full path.
Everything 1.4 Command Line Options
The following switches require Everything 1.4 or later.
-a
-diacritics
Match diacritical marks.
-name
-path-column
-full-path-and-name
-filename-column
-extension
-ext
-size
-date-created
-dc
-date-modified
-dm
-date-accessed
-da
-attributes
-attribs
-attrib
-file-list-file-name
-run-count
-date-run
-date-recently-changed
-rc
Show the specified column. The full path and name column will be used if no name, path or full path and name column is specified.
Columns are displayed in the order specified.
-sort name
-sort path
-sort size
-sort extension
-sort date-created
-sort date-modified
-sort date-accessed
-sort attributes
-sort file-list-file-name
-sort run-count
-sort date-recently-changed
-sort date-run
-sort-name
-sort-path
-sort-size
-sort-extension
-sort-date-created
-sort-date-modified
-sort-date-accessed
-sort-attributes
-sort-file-list-file-name
-sort-run-count
-sort-date-recently-changed
-sort-date-run
-sort name-ascending
-sort name-descending
-sort path-ascending
-sort path-descending
-sort size-ascending
-sort size-descending
-sort extension-ascending
-sort extension-descending
-sort date-created-ascending
-sort date-created-descending
-sort date-modified-ascending
-sort date-modified-descending
-sort date-accessed-ascending
-sort date-accessed-descending
-sort attributes-ascending
-sort attributes-descending
-sort file-list-file-name-ascending
-sort file-list-file-name-descending
-sort run-count-ascending
-sort run-count-descending
-sort date-recently-changed-ascending
-sort date-recently-changed-descending
-sort date-run-ascending
-sort date-run-descending
-sort-name-ascending
-sort-name-descending
-sort-path-ascending
-sort-path-descending
-sort-size-ascending
-sort-size-descending
-sort-extension-ascending
-sort-extension-descending
-sort-date-created-ascending
-sort-date-created-descending
-sort-date-modified-ascending
-sort-date-modified-descending
-sort-date-accessed-ascending
-sort-date-accessed-descending
-sort-attributes-ascending
-sort-attributes-descending
-sort-file-list-file-name-ascending
-sort-file-list-file-name-descending
-sort-run-count-ascending
-sort-run-count-descending
-sort-date-recently-changed-ascending
-sort-date-recently-changed-descending
-sort-date-run-ascending
-sort-date-run-descending
Specify the sort. Results are sorted by name ascending if not specified.
-sort-ascending
-sort-descending
Set sort order. For example, sort by size ascending: -sort size -sort-ascending
If the sort order is not specified: size is sorted largest first, dates latest first and run count largest first, All other sorts are sorted alphabetically.
-instance <name>
Connect to the unique Everything instance name.
See Multiple Instances for more information.
-highlight
Highlight results.
Highlighting many results can decrease the performance of "Everything".
-highlight-color <color>
<color> can be one of the following color codes:
Highlight color 0x00-0xFF.
The default highlight color is 0x0a (light Green on Black).
-csv
-efu
-txt
-m3u
-m3u8
Change display format.
Use > to redirect to a file or | to pipe to another application.
See -export options below to also write to a file.
-export-csv <out.csv>
-export-efu <out.efu>
-export-txt <out.txt>
-export-m3u <out.m3u>
-export-m3u8 <out.m3u8>
Export to a file. No output is displayed on screen.
-export-efu will only export indexed information. Combine -export-efu with -size, -date-modified, -date-created and/or -attributes to gather this information.
UTF-8 encoding is used for exporting as txt and csv.
Don't write the CSV header.
-utf8-bom
Write the UTF-8 byte order mark at the start of the export file.
-size-format <format>
Format can be one of the following values:
| Value | Description |
|---|
| 0 | Auto |
| 1 | Bytes (default) |
| 2 | KB |
| 3 | MB |
-date-format <format>
Format can be one of the following values:
| Value | Description |
|---|
| 0 | System format (default) |
| 1 | ISO-8601 |
| 2 | Windows FILETIME in decimal |
| 3 | ISO-8601 as UTC |
-pause
-more
Pause after each page of output.
-hide-empty-search-results
Don't show any results when the search is empty.
-empty-search-help
Show help when no search is specified.
-timeout <milliseconds>
Timeout after the specified number of milliseconds to wait for the Everything database to load before sending a query. The default timeout is 0 milliseconds.
-filename-color <color>
-name-color <color>
-path-color <color>
-extension-color <color>
-size-color <color>
-date-created-color <color>
-dc-color <color>
-date-modified-color <color>
-dm-color <color>
-date-accessed-color <color>
-da-color <color>
-attributes-color <color>
-file-list-filename-color <color>
-run-count-color <color>
-date-run-color <color>
-date-recently-changed-color <color>
-rc-color <color>
<color> can be one of the following color codes:
Set the column color 0x00-0xFF.
-filename-width <width>
-name-width <width>
-path-width <width>
-extension-width <width>
-size-width <width>
-date-created-width <width>
-dc-width <width>
-date-modified-width <width>
-dm-width <width>
-date-accessed-width <width>
-da-width <width>
-attributes-width <width>
-file-list-filename-width <width>
-run-count-width <width>
-date-run-width <width>
-date-recently-changed-width <width>
-rc-width <width>
Set the column width 0-200.
-size-leading-zero
-run-count-leading-zero
Format the number with leading zeros, use with -no-digit-grouping.
-no-digit-grouping
Don't group numbers with commas.
-path <path>
Search for subfolders and files in path.
-parent-path <path>
Search for subfolders and files in the parent of path.
-parent <path>
Search for files with the specified parent path.
/o[sort]
DIR style sorts.
sort must be one the following sorts:
| Sort | Description |
|---|
| N | Name ascending. |
| -N | Name descending. |
| S | Size ascending. |
| -S | Size descending. |
| E | Extension ascending. |
| -E | Extension descending. |
| D | Date modified ascending. |
| -D | Date modified descending. |
/ad
Folders only.
/a-d
Files only.
/a[attributes]
DIR style attributes search.
attributes can be any one or more of the following attributes:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|
| R | Read only. |
| H | Hidden. |
| S | System. |
| D | Directory. |
| A | Archive. |
| V | Device. |
| N | Normal. |
| T | Temporary. |
| P | Sparse file. |
| L | Reparse point. |
| C | Compressed. |
| O | Offline. |
| I | Not content indexed. |
| E | Encrypted. |
To exclude an attribute prefix it with a -
For example, find files with no read-only attribute set: es.exe /a-r
The Directory attribute is determined by the result being a file or folder in Everything, not the file attribute. Search for attributes:d for the true directory attribute.
-set-run-count <filename> <count>
Set the run count for the specified filename. No search is performed.
-inc-run-count <filename>
Increment the run count for the specified filename by one. No search is performed.
-get-run-count <filename>
Display the run count for the specified filename. No search is performed.
-get-result-count
Display the total result count for the specified search.
No filenames are displayed. -n is ignored.
-save-settings
-clear-settings
Save or clear settings. No search is performed.
Settings are stored in es.ini in the same location as your es.exe.
-version
Display ES major.minor.revision.build version and exit.
-get-everything-version
Display Everything major.minor.revision.build version and exit.
-save-db
Save the Everything database to disk.
Returns after saving completes.
-reindex
Force Everything to reindex.
Returns after indexing completes.
-no-result-error
Set the error level if no results are found.
Limitations
ES does not have access to bookmarks or filters.
Examples
Export all mp3 files to an Everything file list named mp3.efu
es.exe *.mp3 -export-efu mp3.efu
Show the top 10 largest files:
Show the last 10 modified files:
Highlight the search terms foo bar
es.exe foo bar -highlight
Make ES show the size column, date modified column and set some pretty colors and make them the default settings:
es.exe -size -dm -sizecolor 0x0d -dmcolor 0x0b -save-settings
Return Codes
ES can return one of the following errorlevel codes:
| Errorlevel | Description |
|---|
| 0 | No known error, search successful. |
| 1 | Failed to register window class. |
| 2 | Failed to create listening window. |
| 3 | Out of memory. |
| 4 | Expected an additional command line option with the specified switch. |
| 5 | Failed to create export output file. |
| 6 | Unknown switch. |
| 7 | Failed to send Everything IPC a query. |
| 8 | Everything IPC window not found. Please make sure the Everything search client is running. |
Notes
Dashes (-) inside switches can be omitted, for example, instead of using -no-digit-grouping, use: -nodigitgrouping
Switches can also start with a /
Use double quotes to escape spaces and switches.
Switches can be disabled by prefixing them with no-, eg: -no-size.
Use ^ to escape \, &, |, >, < and ^.
ES source code is included with the download.
See also
