Addlink was recompiled with different options and easier to understand format as of February 19, 2001!

If you have the older version, the order of the parameter is reversed, and the term TO will not be correctly understood.

To allow the user to more easily understand exactly what is being done, it is now necessary that you include the word TO between the desired link and the name of the destination file.

Addlink.exe is especially useful if you create or download a lot of text or html files (or even pictures for that matter).

Combined with makeidx.exe, this pair of tools can greatly simplify your navigation among these files, even when they are scattered among many directories or hard drives.

For example. let's say you've downloaded several dozen files for a couple of research projects. Now, if you could only remember where you placed the files when you want to read them.

First, you would decide the one place you want to store an index to all these files. I pick C:\RESEARCH.HTM, but it isn't necessary to place the file in the root directory. I could just as well have placed the links in a file called INDEX.HTM, in a directory called RESEARCH.

Suppose my research files are located in the directories, C:\PLANETS, C:\TREES\DOGWOOD, and D:\FRUIT.
First, I would go to the directory C:\PLANETS. There, if I wanted to add an index, I would type makeidx (see makeidx instructions if necessary). Then I would type ADDLINK INDEX.HTM TO C:\RESEARCH.HTM
Then I would switch to the directory C:\TREES\DOGWOOD by typing CD\TREES\DOGWOOD. Now, if I wanted to add a link to the file, DOGWOOD.HTM, I would type ADDLINK DOGWOOD.HTM TO C:\RESEARCH.HTM
Finally, I would go to drive D:, and navigate to the directory FRUIT. There, if there was already a file called APPLEIDX.HTM, I would type ADDLINK APPLEIDX.HTM TO C:\RESEARCH.HTM.

To simplify the process further, I could insert a batch file in my system's path, called add.bat, for example. This batch file could contain the following lines related to my sample task:

addlink %1 TO c:\research.htm
Here, the %1 is replaced by what I place on the command line. So, all I have to type when I'm at each directory is ADD INDEX.HTM, ADD DOGWOOD.HTM, and ADD APPLEIDX.HTM, respectively.

Note that if you specify an existing file, the link text will be added to the end of the specified file, even if this file is, for example, an executable. So be sure to specify only an existing or non-existent html files as the destination.

IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL SWITCH available in the 2-19-2001 version: By appending the /R switch, you will generate relative links, allowing portability of your target htm files. This is especially useful if your directory will ever reside on a different drive.
Used in conjunction with the DOS command, FOR, you can easily add links to every file in the directory as follows:

for %a in (*.htm) do addlink %a to index.htm /r

Likewise, you can also add links back to the index as follows:
for %a in (*.htm) do addlink index.htm to %a /r

Note the use of the /r switch to generate relative paths. Note also that in the second case, you must add the R switch if you are specifying a destination in another directory that is not a subdirectory (like C:\Research\Index.htm) in order to generate valid links. (Otherwise the current path would precede the absolute path.)

Latest upgrade: (March 8, 2001 Compilation) Addlink will now refuse to add links to any file that does not have and htm(l) extension. This will help avoid accidentally adding text to non html files.

Please report bugs and make future suggestions to boser@cecomet.net (subject: attn: John E. Boser).

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