| BFS(1) | General Commands Manual | BFS(1) |
NAME¶
bfs - breadth-first search for your filesSYNOPSIS¶
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 (see bfs-SPECIFIC FEATURES below).
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 the 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).
- -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
- -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.
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
expression expression
expression -a expression
expression -and expression
expression -o expression
expression -or expression
- expression , expression
- The "comma" operator: evaluates the left-hand expression but discards the result, returning the right-hand expression.
OPTIONS¶
-color-nocolor
- -daystart
- Measure time relative to the start of today.
- -depth
- Search in post-order (descendents first).
- -follow
- Follow all symbolic links (same as -L).
-ignore_readdir_race
-noignore_readdir_race
-maxdepth N
-mindepth N
-mount
-xdev
- -noleaf
- Ignored; for compatibility with GNU find.
- -regextype TYPE
- Use TYPE-flavored regexes (default: posix-basic; see -regextype help).
-warn
-nowarn
TESTS¶
- -acl
- Find files with non-trivial acl(5) (Access Control Lists).
-amin [-+]N
-Bmin [-+]N
-cmin [-+]N
-mmin [-+]N
-anewer FILE
-Bnewer FILE
-cnewer FILE
-mnewer FILE
-atime [-+]N
-Btime [-+]N
-ctime [-+]N
-mtime [-+]N
- -capable
- Match files with POSIX.1e capabilities(7) set.
- -depth [-+]N
- Find files with depth N.
- -empty
- Find empty files/directories.
-executable
-readable
-writable
-false
-true
- -fstype TYPE
- Find files on file systems with the given TYPE.
-gid [-+]N
-uid [-+]N
-group NAME
-user NAME
- -hidden
- Match hidden files (those beginning with .).
-ilname GLOB
-iname GLOB
-ipath GLOB
-iregex REGEX
-iwholename GLOB
- -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).
-nogroup
-nouser
-path GLOB
-wholename 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.
- -size [-+]N[cwbkMGTP]
- Find files with the given size, in 1-byte characters, 2-byte words, 512-byte blocks, (default) or kiB/MiB/GiB/TiB/PiB.
- -sparse
- Find files that occupy fewer disk blocks than expected.
- -type [bcdlpfswD]
- Find files of the given type. Possible types are block device, character device, directory, symbolic link, pipe, regular file, socket, whiteout, and Door.
- -used [-+]N
- Find files last accessed N days after they were changed.
- -xtype [bcdlpfswD]
- Find files of the given type, following links when -type would not, and vice versa.
ACTIONS¶
-delete-rm
- -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 ... {} ;
- -exit [STATUS]
- Exit immediately with the given status (0 if unspecified).
-fls FILE
-fprint FILE
-fprint0 FILE
-fprintf FORMAT FILE
- -ls
- List files like ls -dils.
- -nohidden
- Filter out hidden files and directories.
- 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.
- -quit
- Quit immediately.
- -version
- Print version information.
- -help
- Print usage information.
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 .git -prune -false -o -name config
- 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.