Breadth-first search for your files.
bfs
is a variant of the UNIX find
command that operates breadth-first rather than depth-first.
It is otherwise compatible with many versions of find
, including
- POSIX
find
- GNU
find
- {Free,Open,Net}BSD
find
- macOS
find
If you're not familiar with find
, the GNU find manual provides a good introduction.
bfs
operates breadth-first, which typically finds the file(s) you're looking for faster.
Imagine the following directory tree:
haystack ├── deep │ └── 1 │ └── 2 │ └── 3 │ └── 4 │ └── ... └── shallow └── needle
find
will explore the entire deep
directory tree before it ever gets to the shallow
one that contains what you're looking for.
$ find haystack haystack haystack/deep haystack/deep/1 haystack/deep/1/2 haystack/deep/1/2/3 haystack/deep/1/2/3/4 ... haystack/shallow haystack/shallow/needle
On the other hand, bfs
lists files from shallowest to deepest, so you never have to wait for it to explore an entire unrelated subtree.
$ bfs haystack haystack haystack/deep haystack/shallow haystack/deep/1 haystack/shallow/needle haystack/deep/1/2 haystack/deep/1/2/3 haystack/deep/1/2/3/4 ...
bfs
tries to be easier to use than find
, while remaining compatible.
For example, bfs
is less picky about where you put its arguments:
$ bfs -L -name 'needle' haystack │ $ find -L -name 'needle' haystack haystack/needle │ find: paths must precede expression: haystack │ $ bfs haystack -L -name 'needle' │ $ find haystack -L -name 'needle' haystack/needle │ find: unknown predicate `-L' │ $ bfs -L haystack -name 'needle' │ $ find -L haystack -name 'needle' haystack/needle │ haystack/needle
bfs
adds some options that make common tasks easier.
The -exclude
operator skips an entire subtree whenever an expression matches.
For example, -exclude -name .git
will exclude any files or directories named .git
from the search results.
-exclude
is easier to use than the standard -prune
action; compare
bfs -name config -exclude -name .git
to the equivalent
find ! \( -name .git -prune \) -name config
Unlike -prune
, -exclude
even works in combination with -depth
/-delete
.
-hidden
/-nohidden
-hidden
matches "hidden" files (dotfiles).
bfs -hidden
is effectively shorthand for
find \( -name '.*' -not -name . -not -name .. \)
-nohidden
is equivalent to -exclude -hidden
.
This option ensures that bfs
only visits each file once, even if it's reachable through multiple hard or symbolic links.
It's particularly useful when following symbolic links (-L
).
When printing to a terminal, bfs
automatically colors paths like GNU ls
, according to the LS_COLORS
environment variable.
The -color
and -nocolor
options override the automatic behavior, which may be handy when you want to preserve colors through a pipe:
bfs -color | less -R
If the NO_COLOR
environment variable is set, colors will be disabled by default.
bfs
may already be packaged for your operating system.
Alpine Linux # apk add bfs Debian/Ubuntu # apt install bfs NixOS # nix-env -i bfs Void Linux # xbps-install -S bfs FreeBSD # pkg install bfs MacPorts # port install bfs Homebrew $ brew install tavianator/tap/bfs
To build bfs
from source, you may need to install some dependencies.
The only absolute requirements for building bfs
are a C compiler and GNU make.
These are installed by default on many systems, and easy to install on most others.
Refer to your operating system's documentation on building software.
bfs
also depends on some system libraries for some of its features.
These dependencies are optional, and can be turned off at build time if necessary by setting the appropriate variable to the empty string (e.g. make WITH_ONIGURUMA=
).
Dependency | Platforms | make flag |
---|---|---|
acl | Linux only | WITH_ACL |
attr | Linux only | WITH_ATTR |
libcap | Linux only | WITH_LIBCAP |
Oniguruma | All | WITH_ONIGURUMA |
Here's how to install them on some common platforms:
Alpine Linux # apk add acl-dev attr-dev libcap-dev oniguruma-dev Arch Linux # pacman -S acl attr libcap oniguruma Debian/Ubuntu # apt install acl libacl1-dev attr libattr1-dev libcap2-bin libcap-dev libonig-dev NixOS # nix-env -i acl attr libcap oniguruma Void Linux # xbps-install -S acl-devel attr-devel libcap-devel oniguruma-devel FreeBSD # pkg install oniguruma MacPorts # port install oniguruma6 Homebrew $ brew install oniguruma
Once the dependencies are installed, download one of the releases or clone the git repo. Then run
$ make
This will build the bfs
binary in the current directory.
You can test it out:
$ ./bfs -nohidden
If you're interested in speed, you may want to build the release version instead:
$ make release
Finally, if you want to install it globally, run
# make install