The "descript.ion" file specification?

Question

Windows software still has a somewhat standard “descript.ion” file that provides metadata for all / some of the files in this directory.

I know that there are various programs that write this file (example: NewsBin, UseNet downloader) and read it (example: "FAR", a file manager that mimics the old Norton Commander).

I am writing my own file indexer and would like to add the ability to parse and use information from descript.ion files.

The problem is that I could not find the actual specification for the file, succeeded in a large number of search engines.

I redid it as best as possible, but I'm not sure if I captured 100% of the possible details, so I decided that I would ask SO.

Here is an example line from a file:

"Rus Song1.mp3" SovietMus 1/2, [e-mail], Fri Aug 08 00:46:27 2008 RusSong2.mp3 SovietMus 2/2, [e-mail], Fri Aug 08 01:46:22 2008 

The structure seems to be:

• The first "token" is the file name.

  • If the token begins with any letter, but with a double quote, the token ends on the first space character.

  • If the token begins with a double quote, the end of the token is the next double quote

  • Not sure what will happen if the file name contains a double quote, IIRC is illegal on Windows file systems, so avoiding the quote may be a moot point)

• The last token (end of line to the last comma moving backward) is a timestamp.

• The second and last tokens (the last comma for the second or last comma moving backward) is the name of the poster from the Usenet newsgroup. I'm not quite sure what is going on in the general format, since only the descript.ion files that I saw were from NewsBin, which is obviously Usenet oriented.

• All that is between them is a description, in the case of NewsBin, based on the topic topic.

Questions

• Does anyone know a slightly more formal description / documentation of the descript.ion file? (or, at elast, your own knowledge of these files and you can check my specifications)

• Does anyone know of any other programs that read or write this file?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The initial use of DESCRIPT.ION was to provide longer, more descriptive names for 8.3 file names; all he had was a short name and a more detailed description. As you found, others co-opted the name with different formats and customs. Honestly, I do not think that you will find any particular commonality between different customs.

Answer 2

Description files on my system are also in Total Commander. They follow the basic specification mentioned in other answers:

 Filename Text I typed to describe the file "Long filename" Some text 

Each line ends with a regular Windows line break.

In addition, the program saves multi-line comments as follows:

 Filename This is the first line\\nSecond line\\nLast line\x04\xc2 

Here, I mean that the descript.ion file contains a backslash and the letter "n", where I typed a line break and two special 04 C2 characters at the end of the comment. In addition, the line ends with a line break in Windows 0D 0A .

Apparently, two extra characters at the end of the line signal the end of a multi-line comment. If I delete them, the comment is displayed as a single line in the GUI, and the sequences "\ n" are displayed literally.

Answer 3

The format is simple: the file name of the remainder of the line is the description of the file

https://jpsoft.com/ascii/descfile.txt

( Wayback Machine )

Answer 4

The answer above looks right for me, just adding:

from http://filext.com/file-extension/ION The ION file type is primarily associated with "4DOS". Note. Norton Utilities also uses 4DOS.

http://www.optimasc.com/products/fileid/4dos-descext.pdf

Collected links to 4DOS programs that support all kinds of descriptions and 4DOS tools. http://www.4dos.info/4tools.htm

http://drupal.org/node/289988

Answer 5

The descript.ion file is widely used in the file manager utility "total commander", shareware, located at www.ghisler.com. From version 7.5 TC, it can have a length of 4096 bytes. I use it to annotate files without any problems. You can find other user experiences in the general compiler user forum.