BFS(1)

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)