Find Files (ff)

Find Files (ff) utility recursively searches the files whose names match the specified RegExp pattern in the provided directory (defaults to the current directory if not provided).

Dual-licensed under MIT or the UNLICENSE.

Screenshot

Installation

Download the latest precompiled executable ff binary for your platform from the releases page.

If you're a Rust programmer, download and install ff command using cargo install find-files. To update to a newer version, use the --force flag.

Benchmark Results

``` $ hyperfine \ --warmup 3 \ --export-markdown benchmark-results.md \ "find . -iregex '.[0-9].jpg$'" \ "find . -iname '[0-9].jpg'" \ "fd -HI '.[0-9].jpg$'" \ "ff .[0-9].jpg$"

Benchmark #1: find . -iregex '.*[0-9].jpg$' Time (mean ± σ): 42.8 ms ± 5.5 ms [User: 11.7 ms, System: 30.1 ms] Range (min … max): 31.2 ms … 56.9 ms 48 runs

Benchmark #2: find . -iname '*[0-9].jpg' Time (mean ± σ): 60.8 ms ± 7.2 ms [User: 27.9 ms, System: 31.4 ms] Range (min … max): 44.0 ms … 76.2 ms 37 runs

Benchmark #3: fd -HI '.*[0-9].jpg$' Time (mean ± σ): 18.8 ms ± 5.3 ms [User: 14.9 ms, System: 19.9 ms] Range (min … max): 11.2 ms … 41.6 ms 96 runs

Benchmark #4: ff .*[0-9].jpg$ Time (mean ± σ): 18.7 ms ± 4.6 ms [User: 15.7 ms, System: 22.5 ms] Range (min … max): 11.7 ms … 30.4 ms 123 runs

Summary 'ff .[0-9].jpg$' ran 1.00 ± 0.37 times faster than 'fd -HI '.[0-9].jpg$'' 2.29 ± 0.63 times faster than 'find . -iregex '.[0-9].jpg$'' 3.25 ± 0.88 times faster than 'find . -iname '[0-9].jpg' ```

| Command | Mean [ms] | Min…Max [ms] | | :------------------------------- | ---------: | -----------: | | find . -iregex '.*[0-9]\.jpg$' | 42.8 ± 5.5 | 31.2…56.9 | | find . -iname '*[0-9].jpg' | 60.8 ± 7.2 | 44.0…76.2 | | fd -HI '.*[0-9]\.jpg$' | 18.8 ± 5.3 | 11.2…41.6 | | ff .*[0-9]\.jpg$ | 18.7 ± 4.6 | 11.7…30.4 |

Table: benchmark-results.md

NOTE: Sometimes, fd is a bit faster than ff by approximately 1 ms to 2 ms.

Usage

``` USAGE: ff [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] [ROOT_PATH]

FLAGS: -s, --case-sensitive Search case sensitively. By default, files are searched case insensitively. -D, --exclude-dir-paths Exclude paths from the search result which are directories and not files. -h, --help Prints help information -G, --ignore-gitignore Ignore searching files and directories specified in .gitignore. By default, the files and directories specified in .gitignore are included in the search results. -H, --ignore-hidden Ignore searching hidden files and directories. By default, hidden files and directories are included in the search results. -V, --version Prints version information

OPTIONS: -x, --exclude Exclude files and directories matching this regular expression from the search results. -j, --threads The approximate number of threads to use. A value of 0 (which is the default) results in thread count set to available CPU cores.

ARGS: Find files whose name (path) matches this substring or the regular expression. Path to the directory to search files inside.[default: $PWD] ```

Examples

There are a tons of possibilities to search files using ff. Following examples demonstrate just a tip of an iceberg.

• List paths of files recursively in the current working directory matching article string.

ff article

• List files having .png, or .PNG extension.

ff png$

• List files having strict .PNG extension.

ff -s PNG$

• Search various image files.

ff "\.(png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg)$"

• List files whose path matches controllers string.

ff controllers

• Search .js files in ./spec directory.

ff \.js ./spec

• Search a file which is expected to be inside hidden .git directory whose name contains commit or something similar.

```bash $ ff git.*commit

./.git/COMMIT_EDITMSG

omitted other results

```

• Do not show hidden files and directories in the search results.

ff something -H

• Do not show those files and directories in the search results which are enlisted in .gitignore.

ff src/.*js$ -G

Without -G (--ignore-gitignore) flag in the above command, it also includes the results in the directories such as node_modules by default.

• Do not show paths which are just directories and not actual files.

```bash $ ff -D user

./app/models/user.rb ./app/models/user/address.rb ./specs/models/userspec.rb ./specs/models/user/addressspec.rb ```

Without -D (--exclude-dir-paths) flag in the above command, it also includes the paths of the matching directories in the results as follows.

```bash $ ff user

./app/models/user.rb ./app/models/user ./app/models/user/address.rb ./specs/models/userspec.rb ./specs/models/user ./specs/models/user/addressspec.rb ```

• Exclude (omit) files and directories which match the provided optional exclude RegExp pattern.

ff rb$ app/controllers -x /(audit|admin|sso|api)/

Above command will show paths of all files whose name ends with rb inside the relative app/controllers directory excluding the paths which match /(audit|admin|sso|api)/ pattern.