bfs - breadth-first search for your files

NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION FLAGS OPERATORS SPECIAL FORMS OPTIONS TESTS ACTIONS ENVIRONMENT EXAMPLES BUGS AUTHOR SEE ALSO

NAME

bfs − breadth-first search for your files

SYNOPSIS

bfs [flags...] [paths...] [expression...]

flags (−H/−L/−P etc.), paths, and expressions may be freely mixed in any order.

DESCRIPTION

bfs is a breadth-first version of the UNIX find(1) command.

bfs supports almost every feature from every major find(1) implementation, so your existing command lines should work as-is. It also adds some features of its own, such as a more forgiving command line parser and some additional options.

Each path specified on the command line is treated as a starting path to search through. If no paths are specified, the current directory (.) is searched by default.

Like find(1), bfs interprets its arguments as a short-circuiting Boolean expression. For example,

bfs $ −name ’*.txt’ −or −lname ’*.txt’ $ −and −print

will print all the paths that are either .txt files or symbolic links to .txt files. −and is implied between two consecutive expressions, so this is equivalent:

bfs $ −name ’*.txt’ −or −lname ’*.txt’ $ −print

Finally, −print is implied if no actions are specified, so this too is equivalent:

bfs −name ’*.txt’ −or −lname ’*.txt’

Most options that take a numeric argument N will also accept −N or +N. −N means "less than N," and +N means "greater than N."

FLAGS

	−H		Follow symbolic links on the command line, but not while searching.
	−L		Follow all symbolic links.
	−P		Never follow symbolic links (the default).
	−E		Use extended regular expressions (same as −regextype posix-extended).
	−X		Filter out files with non-xargs(1)-safe names.
	−d		Search in post-order (same as −depth).
	−s		Visit directory entries in sorted order. The sorting takes place within each directory separately, which makes it different from bfs ... \| sort, but still provides a deterministic ordering.
	−x		Don’t descend into other mount points (same as −xdev).

−f PATH

Treat PATH as a path to search (useful if it begins with a dash).

−D FLAG

Turn on a debugging flag (see −D help).

−ON

Enable optimization level N (default: 3).

	−O0		Disable all optimizations.
	−O1		Basic logical simplifications.
	−O2		All −O1 optimizations, plus dead code elimination and data flow analysis.
	−O3		All −O2 optimizations, plus re-order expressions to reduce expected cost.

−O4/−Ofast

All optimizations, including aggressive optimizations that may alter the observed behavior in corner cases.

−S bfs|dfs|ids|eds

Choose the search strategy.

	bfs		Breadth-first search (the default).
	dfs		Depth-first search. Uses less memory than breadth-first search, but is typically slower to return relevant results.
	ids		Iterative deepening search. Performs repeated depth-first searches with increasing depth limits. This gives results in the same order as breadth-first search, but with the reduced memory consumption of depth-first search. Tends to be very slow in practice, so use it only if you absolutely need breadth-first ordering, but −S bfs consumes too much memory.
	eds		Exponential deepening search. A compromise between breadth- and depth-first search, which searches exponentially increasing depth ranges (e.g. 0-1, 1-2, 2-4, 4-8, etc.). Provides many of the benefits of breadth-first search with depth-first’s reduced memory consumption. Typically far faster than −S ids.
	−jN

Search with N threads in parallel (default: number of CPUs, up to 8).

OPERATORS

( expression )

Parentheses are used for grouping expressions together. You’ll probably have to write $ expression $ to avoid the parentheses being interpreted by the shell.

! expression
−not expression

The "not" operator: returns the negation of the truth value of the expression. You may have to write \! expression to avoid ! being interpreted by the shell.

expression expression
expression −a expression
expression −and expression

Short-circuiting "and" operator: if the left-hand expression is true, returns the right-hand expression; otherwise, returns false.

expression −o expression
expression −or expression

Short-circuiting "or" operator: if the left-hand expression is false, returns the right-hand expression; otherwise, returns true.

expression , expression

The "comma" operator: evaluates the left-hand expression but discards the result, returning the right-hand expression.

SPECIAL FORMS

−exclude expression

Exclude all paths matching the expression from the search. This is more powerful than −prune, because it applies even when the expression wouldn’t otherwise be evaluated, due to −depth or −mindepth for example. Exclusions are always applied before other expressions, so it may be least confusing to put them first on the command line.

−help
−−help

Print usage information, and exit immediately (without parsing the rest of the command line or processing any files).

−version
−−version

Print version information, and exit immediately.

OPTIONS

−color
−nocolor

Turn colors on or off (default: −color if outputting to a terminal, −nocolor otherwise).

−daystart

Measure time relative to the start of today.

−depth

Search in post-order (descendents first).

−follow

Follow all symbolic links (same as −L).

−files0−from FILE

Treat the NUL (’\0’)-separated paths in FILE as starting points for the search. Pass −files0−from − to read the paths from standard input.

−ignore_readdir_race
−noignore_readdir_race

Whether to report an error if bfs detects that the file tree is modified during the search (default: −noignore_readdir_race).

−maxdepth N
−mindepth N

Ignore files deeper/shallower than N.

−mount

Exclude mount points entirely from the results.

−noerror

Ignore any errors that occur during traversal.

−nohidden

Exclude hidden files and directories.

−noleaf

Ignored; for compatibility with GNU find.

−regextype TYPE

Use TYPE-flavored regular expressions. The possible types are
posix-basic

POSIX basic regular expressions (the default).

posix-extended

POSIX extended regular expressions.

	ed		Like ed(1) (same as posix-basic).
	emacs		Like emacs(1).
	grep		Like grep(1).
	sed		Like sed(1) (same as posix-basic).

See regex(7) for a description of regular expression syntax.

−status

Display a status bar while searching.

−unique

Skip any files that have already been seen. Particularly useful along with −L.

−warn
−nowarn

Turn on or off warnings about the command line.

−xdev

Don’t descend into other mount points. Unlike −mount, the mount point itself is still included.

TESTS

−acl

Find files with a non-trivial Access Control List (acl(5)).

−amin [−+]N
−Bmin [−+]N
−cmin [−+]N
−mmin [−+]N

Find files accessed/Birthed/changed/modified N minutes ago.

−anewer FILE
−Bnewer FILE
−cnewer FILE
−mnewer FILE

Find files accessed/Birthed/changed/modified more recently than FILE was modified.

−asince TIME
−Bsince TIME
−csince TIME
−msince TIME

Find files accessed/Birthed/changed/modified more recently than the ISO 8601-style timestamp TIME. See −newerXY for examples of the timestamp format.

−atime [−+]N
−Btime [−+]N
−ctime [−+]N
−mtime [−+]N

Find files accessed/Birthed/changed/modified N days ago.

−capable

Find files with POSIX.1e capabilities(7) set.

−context GLOB

Find files whose SELinux context matches the GLOB.

−depth [−+]N

Find files with depth N.

−empty

Find empty files/directories.

−executable
−readable
−writable

Find files the current user can execute/read/write.

−false
−true

Always false/true.

−flags [−+]FLAGS

Find files with matching inode FLAGS.

−fstype TYPE

Find files on file systems with the given TYPE.

−gid [−+]N
−uid [−+]N

Find files owned by group/user ID N.

−group NAME
−user NAME

Find files owned by the group/user NAME.

−hidden

Find hidden files (those beginning with .).

−ilname GLOB
−iname GLOB
−ipath GLOB
−iregex REGEX
−iwholename GLOB

Case-insensitive versions of −lname/−name/−path/−regex/−wholename.

−inum [−+]N

Find files with inode number N.

−links [−+]N

Find files with N hard links.

−lname GLOB

Find symbolic links whose target matches the GLOB.

−name GLOB

Find files whose name matches the GLOB.

−newer FILE

Find files newer than FILE.

−newerXY REFERENCE

Find files whose X time is newer than the Y time of REFERENCE. X and Y can be any of [aBcm] (access/Birth/change/modification). Y may also be t to parse REFERENCE as an ISO 8601-style timestamp. For example:

• 1991-12-14
• 1991-12-14T03:00
• 1991-12-14T03:00-07:00
• ’1991-12-14 10:00Z’

−nogroup
−nouser

Find files owned by nonexistent groups/users.

−path GLOB
−wholename GLOB

Find files whose entire path matches the GLOB.

−perm [−+/]MODE

Find files with a matching mode.

−regex REGEX

Find files whose entire path matches the regular expression REGEX.

−samefile FILE

Find hard links to FILE.

−since TIME

Find files modified since the ISO 8601-style timestamp TIME. See −newerXY for examples of the timestamp format.

−size [−+]N[cwbkMGTP]

Find files with the given size. The unit can be one of

• chars (1 byte)
• words (2 bytes)
• blocks (512 bytes, the default)
• kiB (1024 bytes)
• MiB (1024 kiB)
• GiB (1024 MiB)
• TiB (1024 GiB)
• PiB (1024 TiB)

−sparse

Find files that occupy fewer disk blocks than expected.

−type [bcdlpfswD]

Find files of the given type. The possible types are

• block device
• character device
• directory
• link (symbolic)
• pipe
• file (regular)
• socket
• whiteout
• Door

Multiple types can be given at once, separated by commas. For example, −type d,f matches both directories and regular files.

−used [−+]N

Find files last accessed N days after they were changed.

−xattr

Find files with extended attributes (xattr(7)).

−xattrname NAME

Find files with the extended attribute NAME.

−xtype [bcdlpfswD]

Find files of the given type, following links when −type would not, and vice versa.

ACTIONS

−delete
−rm

Delete any found files (implies −depth).

−exec command ... {} ;

Execute a command.

−exec command ... {} +

Execute a command with multiple files at once.

−ok command ... {} ;

Prompt the user whether to execute a command.

−execdir command ... {} ;
−execdir command ... {} +
−okdir command ... {} ;

Like −exec/−ok, but run the command in the same directory as the found file(s).

−exit [STATUS]

Exit immediately with the given status (0 if unspecified).

−fls FILE
−fprint FILE
−fprint0 FILE
−fprintf FILE FORMAT

Like −ls/−print/−print0/−printf, but write to FILE instead of standard output.

−limit N

Quit once this action is evaluated N times.

	−ls		List files like ls −dils.
	−print		Print the path to the found file.

−print0

Like −print, but use the null character (’\0’) as a separator rather than newlines. Useful in conjunction with xargs −0.

−printf FORMAT

Print according to a format string (see find(1)). These additional format directives are supported:

	%w		The file’s birth time, in the same format as %a/%c/%t.
	%Wk		Field k of the file’s birth time, in the same format as %Ak/%Ck/%Tk.

−printx

Like −print, but escape whitespace and quotation characters, to make the output safe for xargs(1). Consider using −print0 and xargs −0 instead.

	−prune		Don’t descend into this directory. This has no effect if −depth is enabled (either explicitly, or implicitly by −delete). Use −exclude instead in that case.
	−quit		Quit immediately.

ENVIRONMENT

Certain environment variables affect the behavior of bfs.

LANG
LC_*

Specifies the locale(7) in use for various things. bfs is not (yet) translated to any languages except English, but the locale will still affect the format of printed values. Yes/no prompts (e.g. from −ok) will also be interpreted according to the current locale.

LS_COLORS
BFS_COLORS

Controls the colors used when displaying file paths if −color is enabled. bfs interprets LS_COLORS the same way GNU ls(1) does (see dir_colors(5)). BFS_COLORS can be used to customize bfs without affecting other commands.

NO_COLOR

Causes bfs to default to −nocolor if it is set (see https://no-color.org/).

	PAGER		Specifies the pager used for −help output. Defaults to less(1), if found on the current PATH, otherwise more(1).
	PATH		Used to resolve executables for −exec[dir] and −ok[dir].

POSIXLY_CORRECT

Makes bfs conform more strictly to the POSIX.1-2017 specification for find(1). Currently this has two effects:

	•		Disables warnings by default, because POSIX prohibits writing to standard error (except for the −ok prompt), unless the command also fails with a non-zero exit status.
	•		Makes −ls and −fls use 512-byte blocks instead of 1024-byte blocks. (POSIX does not specify these actions, but BSD find(1) implementations use 512-byte blocks, while GNU find(1) uses 1024-byte blocks by default.)

It does not disable bfs’s various extensions to the base POSIX functionality. POSIXLY_CORRECT has the same effects on GNU find(1).

EXAMPLES

bfs

With no arguments, bfs prints all files under the current directory in breadth-first order.

bfs −name ’*.txt’

Prints all the .txt files under the current directory. *.txt is quoted to ensure the glob is processed by bfs rather than the shell.

bfs −name access_log −L /var

Finds all files named access_log under /var, following symbolic links. bfs allows flags and paths to appear anywhere on the command line.

bfs ˜ −not −user $USER

Prints all files in your home directory not owned by you.

bfs −xtype l

Finds broken symbolic links.

bfs −name config −exclude −name .git

Finds all files named config, skipping every .git directory.

bfs −type f −executable −exec strip {} +

Runs strip(1) on all executable files it finds, passing it multiple files at a time.

BUGS

https://github.com/tavianator/bfs/issues

AUTHOR

Tavian Barnes <[email protected]>

https://tavianator.com/projects/bfs.html