Provided by: bfs_4.0.6-1_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 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 <tavianator@tavianator.com>
https://tavianator.com/projects/bfs.html
SEE ALSO
find(1), locate(1), xargs(1)
bfs 4.0.6 2025-02-26 BFS(1)