How to get file paths from all open tabs

[Alan Kilborn]

I needed to get the filepaths from all of my open tabs into a text file. I was stumped for a second and thought I must have a script to do this somewhere – a quick search turned up nothing.

Then I thought of a relatively new feature of N++ that could help: The ability to copy pathnames from the Search results window.

Here’s how I did it:

• if Search results panel is open, right click in it, choose Clear all from the popup menu
• run a Find All in All Opened Documents search, with following setup: Find what = \z, Search mode = Regular expression
• right click in the Search results panel, choose Copy Pathname(s) from the popup menu
• paste the pathnames wherever desired

Here’s what it looks like to do it (red dot = right click point):

and the result in the clipboard (after selecting the command in yellow) was:

new 1
new 3

Of course, if these had been real, saved files in the file system, we’d see pathnames here instead of new 1 and new 3.

[Michael Vincent]

@Alan-Kilborn

In a “Perfect World ” everyone would use a scripting language like NppExec to do this sort of thing, “But It’s Alright ” if not. I had a “Couple Days Off ” with the holiday so while I wasn’t “Workin’ for a Livin’ ”, I poured my “Heart and Soul ” into this script:

::buffers
IF "$(ARGC)">"1" THEN
    IF "$(ARGV[1])"~="--gui" THEN
        NPP_MENUCOMMAND Window\Window...
    ELSE IF "$(ARGV[1])"~="--id" THEN
        NPP_SENDMSG NPPM_GETCURRENTBUFFERID 0 0
        ECHO $(MSG_RESULT)
    ELSE IF "$(ARGV[1])"~="help" THEN
        GOTO USAGE
    ENDIF
ENDIF

NPP_SENDMSG NPPM_GETNBOPENFILES 0 0
SET LOCAL BUFFERS = $(MSG_RESULT)
SET LOCAL START = 1

:LOOP
SET LOCAL LINE = 0
IF "$(#$(START))"=="$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)" THEN
    SET LOCAL LINE ~ $(CURRENT_LINE) + 1
ENDIF
IF "$(ARGC)">"1" THEN
    SET LOCAL TEST ~ strfind "$(#$(START))" "$(ARGV[1])"
    IF "$(TEST)"!="-1" THEN
        ECHO $(#$(START)):$(LINE):
    ENDIF
ELSE
    ECHO $(#$(START)):$(LINE):
ENDIF
IF "$(START)"=="$(BUFFERS)" GOTO END
SET LOCAL START ~ $(START) + 1
GOTO LOOP

:USAGE
ECHO Usage:
ECHO   \$(ARGV[0]) [F]   = list filename for all current buffers, in clickable list, matching optional filter F
ECHO   \$(ARGV[0]) --id  = current buffer ID
ECHO   \$(ARGV[0]) --gui = open 'Window\Window...' menu item

:END

Cheers.

[mere-human]

I have another idea. We could make the text from Window > Windows copyable.
It already supports multi-select. The only thing missing is Ctrl+C and put a list of of file paths to clipboard.
What do you think?

[astrosofista]

@mere-human said in How to get file paths from all open tabs:

What do you think?

I think it would be useful, of course it would, so much so that last year I made an AutoHotkey script to get some information like that. From that script I extracted the following:

F4::
WinMenuSelectItem,A,,12&,Windows...
WinActivate ahk_exe notepad++.exe ahk_class Notepad++
if WinExist("Windows") {
	ControlGet, FilesVar, List,, SysListView321, A
	Sleep, 300                      ; needed if there are many files open
	WinClose
} else {
	MsgBox, Failed!
	return
}

Output := ""
Template := "{2}\{1}`n"

For _, files in StrSplit(FilesVar, "`n") {
	ArrFiles := StrSplit(files, "`t")
	Output .= (ArrFiles[2] = "") ? ArrFiles[1] "`n" : Format(Template, ArrFiles*)
}

MsgBox, % Clipboard := Output
return

/* Output:

new 1*
new 2
D:\Applications\npp.7.9.5.portable.x64\change.log
D:\Applications\npp.7.9.5.portable.x64\readme.txt
D:\Applications\npp.7.9.5.portable.x64\license.txt
 */

BR

[TroshinDV]

Using jN plugin …

// trdm  2021-07-08 12:30:21 
function test1() {
	//debugger;
	var vText = '';
	var vFiles = Editor.currentView.files;
	for(var i = 0; i<vFiles.length; i++) {
		if(vText.length == 0) {
			vText = vFiles[i];
        } else 
			vText = vText + '\r\n'+ vFiles[i];
    }
	alert(vText);
	var vFso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
	var vTxt = vFso.CreateTextFile("c:\\testfile.txt",true);
	vTxt.Write(vText);
	vTxt.Close();
}

[mere-human]

https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/10123

[Alan Kilborn]

@mere-human said in How to get file paths from all open tabs:

I have another idea. We could make the text from Window > Windows copyable.
It already supports multi-select. The only thing missing is Ctrl+C and put a list of of file paths to clipboard.

Or how about making it even more explicit and having an additional button in the UI: Copy Pathnames. It could operate on all if nothing is selected, or only what is selected.

The Ctrl+c idea as the only way of doing it is fine, but someone will come along and want just the “name” part of the files to be copied. Thus I’d suggest a dedicated UI element for paths and second UI button Copy Names.