is it possible to make a relative link to a file?

[Deleted]

i want to make a link on my desktop that goes to the most recent simcraft GUI executable, without having to manually update it every time a new version arrives. is that possible, even with multiple simcraft versions in my documents? windows 7 64 bit.

[ispano]

If they're in different locations or with different names, no. Shortcuts and Sym/Hard Links can't link to more than one filename/location.

[Deleted]

I'm thinking a .bat file... But i might be far from track.

[Puri]

I had the same problem with a different tool, and wrote a batch file for it. I adapted it for SimCraft. It will look for all simulationcraft.exe files beginning in the current directory recursively through all subdirectories, and then start the latest exe found.
Just copy the code in a batch file, and place it in the directory all your simcraft folders are in, and you can put a shortcut to this file on your desktop.

@echo off
del sclist.txt 2> nul
dir simulationcraft.exe /b/-d/s/x >sclist.txt
for /f "delims=" %%i in (sclist.txt) do (
set lastsc="%%i"
)
for %%i in (%lastsc%) do set scpath=%%~di%%~pi
cd "%scpath%"
start "" ""%lastsc%"
set lastsc=
set scpath=

[Deleted]

thanks puri. thing is, i don't always delete the previous simcraft folder (so i can revert to the previous version if something goes wrong). will your batch file always execute the most recently updated (i.e. the most recent version) simulationcraft.exe by default? for example: 4.20 revision 7 is dated to 31/8, while revision 9 has last changed 16/09. will this batch file launch revision 9 in this case, revision 7 or is it random?

[ispano]

thanks puri. thing is, i don't always delete the previous simcraft folder (so i can revert to the previous version if something goes wrong). will your batch file always execute the most recently updated (i.e. the most recent version) simulationcraft.exe by default? for example: 4.20 revision 7 is dated to 31/8, while revision 9 has last changed 16/09. will this batch file launch revision 9 in this case, revision 7 or is it random?

You did read what he said, right?

I had the same problem with a different tool, and wrote a batch file for it. I adapted it for SimCraft. It will look for all simulationcraft.exe files beginning in the current directory recursively through all subdirectories, and then start the latest exe found.

[Deleted]

i read that, but i interpreted that as the latest exe the file finds. so if he finds version 9 first and then version 7, he finds 7 latest. but if he means latest as in "last updated", then i'm just interpreting his answer wrong.

edit: i tried the batch file, and it worked. now i just need to make the shortcut. thanks for the help.

[Puri]

It will use the latest file found by dir /od. There is no way to read a fileversion without additional tools.
There are three dates associated with a file, creation, last access and last write access. You can add the switch /TC, /TA or /TW to change the date to sort for, if you add /TC it should work fine.
Btw, there is a small bug: It doesn't sort correctly, it lists files in the order they were written to the disk (which actually might work just fine, even better than to sort for a specific date).
Probably better is:

@echo off
del sclist.txt 2> nul
dir simulationcraft.exe /b/od/s/x/tc >sclist.txt
for /f "delims=" %%i in (sclist.txt) do (
set lastsc="%%i"
)
for %%i in (%lastsc%) do set scpath=%%~di%%~pi
cd "%scpath%"
start "" "%lastsc%"
set lastsc=
set scpath=