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EXCEPT - Exclude files from a command

 
 Purpose:    Perform a command on all available files except those 
             specified. 
             
 Format:     EXCEPT (file ) command 
             
             file :  The file or files to exclude from the command. 
             command :  The command to execute, including all appropriate 
             arguments and switches. 
 
 See also:  ATTRIB and File Exclusion Ranges. 
 File Selection 
 Supports extended wildcards, ranges, multiple file names, and include 
 lists.  Ranges must appear immediately after the EXCEPT keyword. 
 Usage 
 EXCEPT provides a means of executing a command on a group of files and/or 
 subdirectories, and excluding a subgroup from the operation. The command 
 can be an internal command or alias, an external command, or a batch 
 file. 
 You may use wildcards to specify the files to exclude from the command. 
  The first example erases all the files in the current directory except 
 those beginning with MEMO, and those whose extension is .WKS.  The second 
 example copies all the files and subdirectories on drive C to drive D 
 except those in C:\MSC and C:\DOS, using the COPY command: 

 
         [c:\] except (memo*.* *.wks) erase *.*
         [c:\] except (c:\msc c:\dos) copy c:\*.* d:\ /s
 
 
 Date, time, and size ranges can be used immediately after the word EXCEPT 
 to further qualify which files should be excluded from the command.  If 
 the command is an internal command that supports ranges, an independent 
 range can also be used in the command itself. 
 When you use EXCEPT on an HPFS drive, you must quote any file names 
 inside the parentheses which contain whitespace or special characters. 
 For example, to copy all files except those in the "Program Files" 
 directory to drive E:\: 

 
         [c:\] except ("Program Files") copy /s *.* e:\
 
 
 EXCEPT prevents operations on the specified file(s) by setting the hidden 
 attribute, performing the command, and then clearing the hidden 
 attribute.  If the command is aborted in an unusual way, you may need to 
 use the ATTRIB command to remove the hidden attribute from the file(s). 
 Caution:  EXCEPT will not work with programs or commands that ignore the 
 hidden attribute or which work explicitly with hidden files, including 
 DEL /Z, and the /H (process hidden files) switch available in some 
 CMD.EXE file processing commands. 
 File exclusion ranges provide a faster and more flexible method of 
 excluding files from internal commands, and do not manipulate file 
 attributes, as EXCEPT does.  However, exclusion ranges can only be used 
 with CMD.EXE internal commands; you must use EXCEPT for external 
 commands. 
 Date, time, and size ranges can be used immediately after the word EXCEPT 
 to further qualify which files should be excluded from the command.  If 
 the command is an internal command that supports ranges, an independent 
 range can also be used in the command itself.  You can also use a file 
 exclusion range within the EXCEPT command; however, this will select 
 files to be excluded from EXCEPT, and therefore included in execution of 
 the command. 
 You can use command grouping to execute multiple commands with a single 
 EXCEPT.  For example, the following command copies all files in the 
 current directory whose extensions begin with .DA, except the .DAT files, 
 to the D:\SAVE directory, then changes the first two characters of the 
 extension of the copied files to .SA : 

 
         [c:\data] except (*.dat) (copy *.da* d:\save & ren *.da* *.sa*)
 
 
 If you use filename completion (see Filename Completion) to enter the 
 filenames inside the parentheses, type a space after the open parenthesis 
 before entering a partial filename or pressing Tab.  Otherwise, the 
 command-line editor will treat the open parenthesis as the first 
 character of the filename to be completed. 

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