File Format Tutorial

What is a File Format?

FileFormat is a file name template used by fusker generator to tell it what filenames to check. There are several formatting options. In this chapter we’ll discuss all possibilities to create formats. The basic FileFormat is the Numerical Format. It contains # sign to represent numerical digits. For example a file format like Picture#.jpg will tell fusker generator it should test all images from Picture0.jpg to Picture9.jpg. The # sign tells also the length of the numeric part. So using Picture##.jpg means a range from Picture0.jpg to Picture99.jpg.

So a File Format List is…

Yes File Format List is the list that contain file formats:) Lists are important because they will tell Fusker Generator what to check in a session. Some lists are small but contains mostly used File Formats, some lists are long and contains much more possibilities. They contains Digital Camera filenames and some most used keywords as well. Formats like me#.jpg, holiday#.jpg, friends#.jpg, … etc are frequently used by album users. Keep your file lists balanced so Fusker Generator can test many different keywords in a short period of time. This means do not enter a FileFormat like me####.jpg. This fileformat contains 10.000 possibilities. If you want to test 10.000 files prefer adding 10 different keyword formats that contains 1000 possibilities or 100 keyword formats that contains 100 possibilities is much better. It is highly dependend on your system but to give you an idea, it takes about 5 minutes to test 10.000 possibilities from a 1Mbit connection. This is also true for digital camera formats. For example FG will test 10.000 possibility if you enter a format like DSCN####.jpg. I’ve rarely see filenames more than DSCN4000.jpg because digital camera will start labeling images from DSCN0001.jpg.

Fusker Generator tests every file format from different threads. So instead of adding a single file format like DSCN####.jpg. prefer adding DSCN0###.jpg, DSCN1###.jpg, … DSCN9###.jpg. It will work much faster.

What are Other Formatting Options?

1. Numerical Digits #: Use a # sign to represent a numerical digit. For example me###.jpg means images from me000.jpg to me999.jpg. You can seperate digits. This means a usage like me#-#.jpg is possible. FG will test me0-0.jpg, me0-1.jpg, …, me9-9.jpg
2. Numeric Ranges [x-y]: Ranges used in bracktes and numbers seperated by minus. xx is the start number, yy is the end number. Instead of using DSCN####.jpg you can use DSCN[0001-2000].jpg. This means files from DSCN0001.jpg to DSCN2000.jpg. You can also use multiple ranges in a single format. A fileFormat like 2008[01-12][01-31].jpg will test all dates in 2008 year. You can also seperate them with chars like 2008[01-12]-[01-31].jpg if you need to do so…
3. Alphanumeric ranges [a-z]: Ranges of letters. You can use a single letter in a range. A usage like [aa-zz].jpg is wrong. You should use [a-z][a-z].jpg instead. You can change the starting or ending letter like [c-j] or [q-t] You can add uppercase letters or numbers in a alphanumeric range so all possibilities are
   • [a-z] > Lowcase letters from a to z,
   • [A-Z] > Upcase letters from A to Z,
   • [a-Z] > All lowcase and Upcase letters from a to Z.
   • [1-z] > Numbers and lowcase letters.
   • [1-Z] > Numbers, lowcase and upcase letters.
4. Value arrays [x,y,z]: All single x,y,z values. A file format like [he,she,it].jpg will produce he.jpg, she.jpg and it.jpg. This array is very useful while testing uppercase versions of filenames. For example [f,F]riends.jpg will test both Friends.jpg and friends.jpg. You can add a empty member inside array by ending array with a comma. If you create a format like [F,f]riend[s,].jpg it will test Friend.jpg, friend.jpg, Friends.jpg and friends.jpg. (With s and without s)
5. Nested value arrays [x,y,z[a,b]] : Examine [DSC[N,F,],dsc[n,f]]00[01-99].jpg example. Seems a little hard to understand but it is a very useful combination that will test first 99 images of all upcase and lowcase variants of DSC, DSCN and DSCF camera formats.
6. Ranges inside value arrays [x,y,z[10-99]]: It is also possible to use ranges inside arrays but you need to add additional brackets to identify a range.

Important: You can’t use # sign with range or value formats. A format like [a-z]##.jpg is invalid. Prefer numeric ranges insead. [a-z][00-99].jpg

Format Prefixes

“+” Sign: FG normally stop searching when it finds a result for a file format. This is because a fileformat list contains many formats and instead of trying to find all possibilities of a fileformat it works on other formats. You need to doubleclick on a result and run your fusker manually to find other images of a format. Our experiences showed us accounts contains many images from different formats. FG tries quickly discover starting points for your fuskers. Anyways if you really want to make FG to test all possibilities of a file format just place a “+” sign before it. Briefly it means me##.jpg will stop at first hit but +me##.jpg will search for all numbers event it finds results. If you create file formats for discovering random generated file names you’ll find this feature useful.

“?” Sign: This is easy. Just place ? sign begining of a file format to temproraly disable it.

Our forum members sometimes share their format lists. You can join and help us to create the perfect list.