One-stop Windows command line tool Swiss File Knife has just been updated to version 1.7.7.
A new sfk web command allows sending a web request to a server, filtering and displaying the results.
For example, you might use sfk web domain.com +xex “_<head>**</head>_” to extract an HTML Head tag, or pass sfk a file to batch process every URL it contains.
The sfk calc command acts as a simple calculator for two values (sfk calc “7.8*2.3”).
The Filter switch has got smarter, with options to read only the first (-head=n) or last (-tail=n) lines of a text file.
Run sfk without any switches for a list of commands
The sfk pause command now has a -keyrc switch which sets the shell return code to the ASCII code of the pressed key.
A new sfk update command checks for sfk updates.
Assorted other improvements include better and wider environment variable handling, various bug fixes, and new examples for sfk help.
If you’ve not used sfk before, it has much more depth and power than the usual scripting addon. The program has a fromclip switch which reads text from the clipboard, for instance, but it doesn’t stop there. Add some of sfk’s other switches and tools and you can have something like this, which stays running, captures text pasted to the clipboard and appends it to a file.
sfk fromclip -wait -clear +tee toterm +tofile -append cliplog.txt +loop
That’s just the start. The tool can also list or search for files, create directory trees, copy or sync files, process and convert text in various ways, run instant HTTP or FTP servers, download files from the web, cut video and binary files, extend your batch files and scripts, and a whole lot more.
Perhaps the best feature of sfk is this is all documented in great detail. Enter a command like sfk httpserv -h and sfk displays the various switches, explains each one, displays relevant extra points, lists related commands and gives you a link to a support website. Superb.
Swiss File Knife is available now for Windows XP and later, OS X and Linux.
Your Comments & Opinion