# Command Line

Top Previous Next

Agent Ransack's start up values can be altered through information passed in the command line. If an output file is specified then the actual User Interface is not displayed and the results are streamed directly to the file. Alternatively, there is also a console version of the program which displays information on the console instead of through the Windows user interface.

Windows application:

AgentRansack.exe [saved search] | -o [output file] | -oa | -oc | -ol [num] | -oe? | -of? | -ofr:? | -ofrs:? | -ofxslt [XSLT file] | -os | -r | -d [folder name] | -c [containing text] | -f [file name] | -cm | -fm | -s | -fd | -fx | -cr | -pa | -po | -ma [datetime] | -mb [datetime] | -a? | -view [file] | -idxname [name] | -idxpath [path] | -ax [archive list] | -h | -?

Console application:

flpsearch.exe [saved search] | -o [output file] | -oa | -oc | -ol [num] | -oe? | -of? | -ofr:? | -ofrs:? | -ofxslt [XSLT file] | -os | -d [folder name] | -c [containing text] | -f [file name] | -cm | -fm | -s | -fd | -fx | -cr | -pa | -po | -ma [datetime] | -mb [datetime] | -a? | -idxname [name] | -idxpath [path] | -ax [archive list] | -h | -?

Parameters:

| -a? | Attributes: -aa=Archive, -ac=Compressed, -ae=Encrypted, -ai=Index, -af=Folder, -ah=Hidden, -ao=Offline, -ar=ReadOnly, -asys=System, -asp=Sparse
| -ax | Active archive searching. Semi-colon separated archive list, e.g. -ax 7z;zip
| -c | Text to search for in specified files (i.e. the Containing Text field)
| -ce? | Contents expr type: -ceb=Boolean, -cex=Regular Expression, -cexl=Multi-line Regex, -cee=Plain Text, -ceh=Boolean RegEx, -cew=Whole Word, -cefh=File Hash, -cez=Fuzzy
| -cf | Contents expression spans file (only valid with Boolean expressions)
| -cm | Match case when contents searching
| -d | Directory(s) to search (i.e. the Look In field), use -dw for current working directory
| -f | File names to search for
| -fe? | File name expr type: -fed=DOS, -fex=Regular Expression, -feb=Boolean, -fee=Plain Text, -feh=Boolean RegEx, -few=Whole Word, -fez = Fuzzy
| -fm | Match case when comparing file names
| -fx | File name shows the file names to exclude
| -le? | Look In expr type: -leb=Boolean, -lex=Regular Expression, -lee=Plain Text
| -idxname | Name of index to search - case sensitive.
| -idxpath | Path of index to search
| -ma | Modified after date value, pass "now" as the date to use the current date and time
| -mb | Modified before date value, pass "now" as the date to use the current date and time
| -o | Output filename (runs the search without showing the user interface, streaming results directly to the file)
| -oa | Append to output file
| -oc | Output content lines
| -oe? | Output encoding: -oea=ASCII, -oe8=UTF-8, -oeu=Unicode, -oe8nb=UTF8 (no BOM), -oeub=Unicode (big endian)
| -of? | Output format: -oft = Text (default), -ofc = CSV, -ofb = Tab, -ofbs = Tab (Spreadsheet), -ofx = XML, -ofh = HTML, -oflsx = Search Session
| -ofr:? | Output format report: -ofr:files, -ofr:contents, -ofr:keywords, -ofr:file-keywords, -ofr:errors
| -ofrs:? | Output report style: -ofrs:standard, -ofrs:tabulated
| -ofxslt | Output custom format XSL Transform
| -ol | Maximum number of found lines per file to output
| -os | Output surrounding lines of text
| -pa | Always use command line parameters when creating new or opening existing searches Note: This option can be used to force a criteria value to be preset to a certain value whenever the user creates a new search, regardless of the previously used value.

| -pc | Overwrite configuration with configuration stored in saved search criteria file. Note: Configuration settings, such as active compressed file types (e.g Zip) or character processing settings, are not normally loaded from the SRF file. This option forces the loading of the configuration settings from the SRF file, effectively setting Agent Ransack to the identical state it was in when the SRF file was saved.

| -po | Override values from file when loading from file AND specifying command line parameters
| -r | Start search immediately (implied by -o option)
| -re? | Regular expression type: -rep=Perl syntax, -rec=Classic syntax
| -resetconfig | Resets the configuration settings.
| -resetui | Resets the user interface to the default size and position, ie toolbars, menu, docked windows etc. are reset to the installation defaults.
| -s | Search subfolders
| -view | Open a file in the Internal Viewer (use -viewline and -viewcol to specify line and column)
| -h or -? | Show the help dialog

To switch an option off append 'n' to the flag, e.g.

AgentRansack.exe -fmn Switches OFF match case when comparing files

When performing an index search using the -idxXX flags only the -c flag is used to further restrict the search. Other search criteria such as -a, -f, -ma etc. are ignored.

Examples:

To launch Agent Ransack with the Look In field pre-filled with "C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents" the command line arguments would be:

AgentRansack.exe -d "C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents"

To run a search looking for files that match *.sys in the folder C:\WINDOWS without launching the usual user interface but instead streaming the results directly to an output file the command line arguments would be:

AgentRansack.exe -d "C:\WINDOWS" -f "*.sys" -o "c:\temp\results.txt"

To launch Agent Ransack with Search subfolders switched off and Match case on contents searching switched on the command line arguments would be:

AgentRansack.exe -cm -sn

Indexing Utility

Indexes can be created, updated, or recreated via the console application:

flpidx.exe -name [index name] | -path [path to index store] | -recreate | -update | -create | -cf | -d [locations] | -ds | -f [file types] | -fd | -fm | -fma | -fnc | -remove | -delete | -verbose | -help

| -name [index name] | Name of the index to perform the operation on.
| -path [index path] | Path to the location of the index store.
| -addref | Add a reference to an existing index to the list of indexes
| -list | Print the list of indexes
| -recreate | Re-create the index
| -update | Update the index with changes found
| -create | Create a new index

-ab | Allow binary files (ie do not detect binary)
-apcn | Do not allow partial commits
-ax | Compressed file archives (e.g. zip;tar;7z)
-cf | Enable case-sensitive searching
-d [locations] | Semi-colon list of locations to index
-dcn | Do not include subfolders in index
-ds | Index standard document locations
-f [file types] | File types for indexing (e.g. *.doc;*.docx;*.txt)
-fd | Index standard document files types
-fm | Index Outlook PST/MSG files
-fma | Index email attachments
-fnc | Include file names for non-content file types
-i | Index the files now

| -remove | Remove the index reference from the configured index list (use with -delete to delete the index files)
| -scheduler | Start the scheduler process.
| -help | Show help information
| -verbose | Show detailed information of files being indexed

Examples:

To update the 'Emails' index the command line would be:

flpidx.exe -name "Emails" -update

To recreate the index stored in 'C:\Indexes\Shared' the command line would be:

flpidx.exe -path "C:\Indexes\Shared" -recreate

To create a new index stored in 'C:\Indexes\New' the command line would be:

flpidx.exe -create -name "New Index" -path "C:\Indexes\New" -ds -fd -i

Note:

Since flpidx.exe is a console application when you run it you might get an annoying console window popping up. To prevent the console window from displaying you can run flpidx.exe via the IndexManager.exe application using the -exec flag, e.g.

IndexManager.exe -exec -name "Emails" -update

Copyright © 2026 Mythicsoft Ltd. All rights reserved.
Help file version: 9.0
PDF and CHM versions of this help file are available here:
http://mythicsoft.com/filelocatorpro/help