Provided by: bfs_1.5.2-1_amd64
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 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 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 Use breadth-first/depth-first/iterative deepening search (default: -S bfs).
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.
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). -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 Don't descend into other mount points (same as -xdev for now, but will skip mount points entirely in the future). -noleaf Ignored; for compatibility with GNU find. -regextype TYPE Use TYPE-flavored regexes (default: posix-basic; see -regextype help). -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.
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. -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. -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. -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). -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. -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. -xattr Find files with extended attributes (xattr(7)). -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 FORMAT FILE Like -ls/-print/-print0/-printf, but write to FILE instead of standard output. -ls List files like ls -dils. -nohidden Filter out hidden files and directories. -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. -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.
BUGS
https://github.com/tavianator/bfs/issues
AUTHOR
Tavian Barnes <tavianator@tavianator.com> https://github.com/tavianator/bfs
SEE ALSO
find(1), locate(1), xargs(1) BFS(1)