FD(1)

📦
version 10.4.2 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

hey bestie 💖 welcome to the fd(1) page from the General Commands Manual. this is lowkey iconic, highkey a slay, and iykyk. we're gonna read it together, no cap. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

fd — find entries in the filesystem 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

fd [-HIEsiaLp0hV] [-d depth] [-t filetype] [-e ext] [-E exclude] [-c
when] [-j num] [-x cmd] [pattern [path...]]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so fd is a simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find(1). it's giving find but make it cute and actually usable. 💅

By default fd uses regular expressions for the pattern. However, this can be changed to use simple glob patterns with the --glob option.

By default fd will exclude hidden files and directories, as well as any files that match gitignore rules or ignore rules in .ignore or .fdignore files.

If you wish to search all files in a specific directory, you can use '' or . as the search pattern, to match all files. Or you can use the --search-path option to specify the path(s) instead of the positional parameter.

Options may be given anywhere on the command line. periodt. ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -H, --hidden — Include hidden files and directories in the search results (default: hidden files and directories are skipped). The flag can be overridden with --no-hidden.

Ignored files are still excluded unless --no-ignore or --no-ignore-vcs is also used.

  • -I, --no-ignore — Show search results from files and directories that would otherwise be ignored by
    • .gitignore
    • .git/info/exclude
    • The global gitignore configuration (by default $HOME/.config/git/ignore)
    • .ignore
    • .fdignore
    • The global fd ignore file (usually $HOME/.config/fd/ignore)

The flag can be overridden with --ignore.

  • -u, --unrestricted — Perform an unrestricted search, including ignored and hidden files. This is an alias for --hidden --no-ignore.
  • --no-ignore-vcs — Show search results from files and directories that would otherwise be ignored by gitignore files including .gitignore, .git/info/exclude, and the global gitignore configuration (core.excludesFile git setting, which defaults to $HOME/.config/git/ignore). The flag can be overridden with --ignore-vcs.
  • --no-require-git — Do not require a git repository to respect gitignores. By default, fd will only respect global gitignore rules, .gitignore rules and local exclude rules if fd detects that you are searching inside a git repository. This flag allows you to relax this restriction such that fd will respect all git related ignore rules regardless of whether you’re searching in a git repository or not. The flag can be overridden with --require-git.
  • --no-ignore-parent — Show search results from files and directories that would otherwise be ignored by gitignore files in parent directories.
  • -s, --case-sensitive — Perform a case-sensitive search. By default, fd uses case-insensitive searches, unless the pattern contains an uppercase character (smart case).
  • -i, --ignore-case — Perform a case-insensitive search. By default, fd uses case-insensitive searches, unless the pattern contains an uppercase character (smart case).
  • -g, --glob — Perform a glob-based search instead of a regular expression search. If combined with the --full-path option, ** can be used to match multiple path components.
  • --regex — Perform a regular-expression based search (default). This can be used to override --glob.
  • -F, --fixed-strings — Treat the pattern as a literal string instead of a regular expression. Note that this also performs substring comparison. If you want to match on an exact filename, consider using --glob.
  • --and pattern — Add additional required search patterns, all of which must be matched. Multiple additional patterns can be specified. The patterns are regular expressions, unless --glob or --fixed-strings is used.
  • -a, --absolute-path — Shows the full path starting from the root as opposed to relative paths. The flag can be overridden with --relative-path.
  • -l, --list-details — Use a detailed listing format like ls -l. This is basically an alias for --exec-batch ls -l with some additional ls options. This can be used to see more metadata, to show symlink targets and to achieve a deterministic sort order.
  • -L, --follow — By default, fd does not descend into symlinked directories. Using this flag, symbolic links are also traversed. The flag can be overridden with --no-follow.
  • -p, --full-path — By default, the search pattern is only matched against the filename (or directory name). Using this flag, the pattern is matched against the full path.
  • -0, --print0 — Separate search results by the null character (instead of newlines). Useful for piping results to xargs.
  • --max-results count — Limit the number of search results to count and quit immediately.
  • -1 — Limit the search to a single result and quit immediately. This is an alias for --max-results=1.
  • -q, --quiet — When the flag is present, the program does not print anything and will instead exit with a code of 0 if there is at least one search result. Otherwise, the exit code will be 1. This is mainly for usage in scripts and can be faster than checking for output because the search can be stopped early after the first match. --has-results can be used as an alias.
  • --show-errors — Enable the display of filesystem errors for situations such as insufficient permissions or dead symlinks.
  • --strip-cwd-prefix [when] — By default, relative paths are prefixed with ./ when -x/--exec, -X/--exec-batch, or -0/--print0 are given, to reduce the risk of a path starting with - being treated as a command line option. Use this flag to change this behavior. If this flag is used without a value, it is equivalent to passing "always". Possible values are:
    • never — Never strip the ./ at the beginning of paths
    • always — Always strip the ./ at the beginning of paths
    • auto — Only strip if used with --exec, --exec-batch, or --print0. That is, it resets to the default behavior.
  • --one-file-system, --mount, --xdev — By default, fd will traverse the file system tree as far as other options dictate. With this flag, fd ensures that it does not descend into a different file system than the one it started in. Comparable to the -mount or -xdev filters of find(1).
  • -h, --help — Print help information.
  • -V, --version — Print version information.
  • -d, --max-depth d — Limit directory traversal to at most d levels of depth. By default, there is no limit on the search depth.
  • --min-depth d — Only show search results starting at the given depth. See also: --max-depth and --exact-depth.
  • --exact-depth d — Only show search results at the exact given depth. This is an alias for --min-depth <depth> --max-depth <depth>.
  • --prune — Do not traverse into matching directories.
  • -t, --type filetype — Filter search by type:
    • f, file — regular files
    • d, dir, directory — directories
    • l, symlink — symbolic links
    • b, block-device — block devices
    • c, char-device — character devices
    • s, socket — sockets
    • p, pipe — named pipes (FIFOs)
    • x, executable — executable (files)
    • e, empty — empty files or directories

This option can be specified more than once to include multiple file types. Searching for --type file --type symlink will show both regular files as well as symlinks. Note that the executable and empty filters work differently: --type executable implies --type file by default. And --type empty searches for empty files and directories, unless either --type file or --type directory is specified in addition.

Examples:

- Only search for files:
    fd --type file …
    fd -tf …
- Find both files and symlinks
    fd --type file --type symlink …
    fd -tf -tl …
- Find executable files:
    fd --type executable
    fd -tx
- Find empty files:
    fd --type empty --type file
    fd -te -tf
- Find empty directories:
    fd --type empty --type directory
    fd -te -td
  • -e, --extension ext — Filter search results by file extension ext. This option can be used repeatedly to allow for multiple possible file extensions.

If you want to search for files without extension, you can use the regex ^[^.]+$ as a normal search pattern.

  • -E, --exclude pattern — Exclude files/directories that match the given glob pattern. This overrides any other ignore logic. Multiple exclude patterns can be specified. Examples:
--exclude '*.pyc'
--exclude node_modules
  • --ignore-contain name — Exclude directories that (directly) contain the given name. This option can be specified multiple times.
  • --ignore-file path — Add a custom ignore-file in .gitignore format. These files have a low precedence.
  • -c, --color when — Declare when to colorize search results:
    • auto — Colorize output when standard output is connected to terminal (default).
    • never — Do not colorize output.
    • always — Always colorize output.
  • --hyperlink — Specify whether the output should use terminal escape codes to indicate a hyperlink to a file url pointing to the path.

The value can be auto, always, or never.

Currently, the default is "never", and if the option is used without an argument "auto" is used. In the future this may be changed to "auto" and "always".

  • auto — Only output hyperlinks if color is also enabled, as a proxy for whether terminal escape codes are acceptable.
  • never — Never output hyperlink escapes.
  • always — Always output hyperlink escapes, regardless of color settings.
  • -j, --threads num — how many threads should we use for searching and executing? Bestie, the default is the number of available CPU cores, and honestly that's usually the move. 💅
  • -S, --size size — filter results by how big the files are. The format is <+-><NUM><UNIT>, and here's the whole decoder ring:
    • + — file size has to be greater than or equal to this
    • - — file size has to be less than or equal to this
    • if you give neither + nor -, the file size has to be exactly equal to this, no wiggle room, periodt
    • NUM — the actual number (like 500)
    • UNIT — the unit for NUM. Not case-sensitive, so go off. Allowed values:
      • b — bytes
      • k — kilobytes (base ten, 10^3 = 1000 bytes)
      • m — megabytes
      • g — gigabytes
      • t — terabytes
      • ki — kibibytes (base two, 2^10 = 1024 bytes)
      • mi — mebibytes
      • gi — gibibytes
      • ti — tebibytes
  • --changed-within date|duration — filter by when the file was last modified. Anything with a modification timestamp greater than the argument gets returned. ✨ The argument can be:
    • a duration (10h, 1d, 35min)
    • a specific point in time as full RFC3339 format with time zone
    • a date or datetime in the local time zone (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
    • the prefix @ followed by the number of seconds since the Unix epoch (@[0-9]+)

--change-newer-than, --newer or --changed-after can be used as aliases, because apparently one name wasn't enough. 😭

Examples:

--changed-within 2weeks
--change-newer-than "2018-10-27 10:00:00"
--newer 2018-10-27
--changed-after @1704067200
  • --changed-before date|duration — same vibe, opposite direction: files with modification timestamps less than the argument get returned. Argument formats are the exact same as above (duration, full RFC3339 with time zone, local-zone date/datetime as YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, or @ plus seconds since the Unix epoch, i.e. @[0-9]+). --change-older-than or --older work as aliases.

Examples:

--changed-before "2018-10-27 10:00:00"
--change-older-than 2weeks
--older @1704067200
  • -o, --owner [user][:group] — filter files by their user and/or group. Format is [(user|uid)][:(group|gid)] and either side is optional. Wanna exclude instead? Slap a ! in front of either side. 🫶

Examples:

--owner john
--owner :students
--owner "!john:students"
  • -C, --base-directory path — changes the current working directory of fd to the path you give it. So search results get shown with respect to that base path. Heads up though: relative paths you pass to fd through the positional path argument or the --search-path option also get resolved relative to this directory. 🎀
  • --path-separator separator — sets the path separator used when printing file paths. The default is the OS-specific one: '/' on Unix, '\' on Windows. 🌸
  • --search-path search-path — gives you paths to search as an alternative to the positional path argument. It changes the usage to:
´fd [FLAGS/OPTIONS] --search-path PATH --search-path PATH2 [PATTERN]´
  • --format fmt — specify a template string used for printing a line for each file found. 🔥

These placeholders get substituted into the string for each file before printing:

  • {} — path (of the current search result)
  • {/} — basename
  • {//} — parent directory
  • {.} — path without file extension
  • {/.} — basename without file extension
  • {{ — literal '{' (an escape sequence)
  • }} — literal '}' (an escape sequence)

Notice you can use "{{" and "}}" to escape "{" and "}" respectively, which is especially useful if you need to include the literal text of one of the above placeholders. Iconic, honestly. 👑

  • -x, --exec command — run a command for each search result, in parallel. (Want it sequential? Use --threads=1.) ⚡

Big important thing, bestie: all subsequent positional arguments are considered arguments to the command — not to fd. So it's recommended you put -x/--exec last. Alternatively, you can supply a ';' argument to end the argument list and keep going with more fd options. Most shells require ';' to be escaped: '\;'. This option can be given multiple times, and then all commands run for each file found, in the order they are provided. In that case you must supply a ';' argument for all but the last command. 💅

If parallelism is enabled, the order commands get executed in is non-deterministic. And even with --threads=1, the order is determined by the operating system and may not be what you expect. So yeah — do not rely on any ordering of the results.

Before running the command, any placeholder patterns in it get replaced with the corresponding values for the current file. Same placeholders as in the --format option.

If no placeholder is present, an implicit "{}" at the end is assumed.

If --print0 is also given, then a null character (\0) will be printed between the output for each found entry. That lets another program easily tell the output for each file apart if the command(s) produce multiple lines. 😌

Examples:

  • find all *.zip files and unzip them:
fd -e zip -x unzip
  • find *.h and *.cpp files and run "clang-format -i .." for each of them:
fd -e h -e cpp -x clang-format -i
  • Convert all *.jpg files to *.png files:
fd -e jpg -x convert {} {.}.png
  • Run stat for each *.txt file, separated by null characters
fd -0 -e txt -x stat
  • -X, --exec-batch command — run the command once, with all search results as arguments. 🎉

The order of the arguments is non-deterministic and should not be relied upon.

It uses the same placeholders as --format and --exec, but instead of expanding once per command invocation, each argument containing a placeholder is expanded for every file in a batch and passed as separate arguments.

If no placeholder is present, an implicit "{}" at the end is assumed.

Like --exec, subsequent arguments are assumed to be part of the command until either the end of the command arguments or a ';' argument. See above. 👆

Like --exec, this can be used multiple times, and then each command runs in the order given.

Examples:

  • Find all test_*.py files and open them in your favorite editor:
fd -g 'test_*.py' -X vim

Note that this executes a single "vim" process with all search results as arguments.

  • Find all *.rs files and count the lines with "wc -l ...":
fd -e rs -X wc -l
  • --batch-size size — maximum number of arguments to pass to the command given with -X. If the number of results is greater than the given size, the command given with -X is run again with the remaining arguments. A batch size of zero means there is no limit (that's the default) — but note that batching might still happen because of OS restrictions on the maximum length of command lines. 🙈

🔍 PATTERN SYNTAX 🔍

The regular expression syntax used by fd is documented here:

https://docs.rs/regex/1.0.0/regex/#syntax

The glob syntax is documented here:

https://docs.rs/globset/#syntax

🌿 ENVIRONMENT 🌿

  • LS_COLORS — determines how to colorize search results, see dircolors(1). 🌈
  • NO_COLOR — disables colorized output. (the way that some of y'all hate color... ok)
  • XDG_CONFIG_HOME, HOME — used to locate the global ignore file. If XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, use $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fd/ignore. Otherwise, use $HOME/.config/fd/ignore.

📁 FILES 📁

  • .fdignore — this file works similarly to a .gitignore file anywhere in the searched tree, and specifies patterns that should be excluded from the search. But it's specific to fd, and it will be used even if the --no-ignore-vcs option is used. 💜
  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fd/ignore — global ignore file. Unless ignore mode is turned off (such as with --no-ignore), ignore entries in this file will be ignored, as if it was an .fdignore file in the current directory.

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

Find files and directories that match the pattern 'needle':

$ fd needle

Start a search in a given directory (/var/log):

$ fd nginx /var/log

Find all Python files (all files with the extension .py) in the current directory:

$ fd -e py

Open all search results with vim:

$ fd pattern -X vim

💅 Tips and Tricks 💅

  • If you add ".git/" to your global ignore file ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fd/ignore), then ".git" folders will be ignored by default, even when the --hidden option is used. 🎀
  • You can use a shell alias or a wrapper script to pass desired flags to fd by default. For example, if you don't like the default behavior of respecting gitignore, you can use alias fd="/usr/bin/fd --no-ignore-vcs" in your .bashrc to create an alias for fd that doesn't ignore git files by default. 🦋

💀 BUGS 💀

Bugs can be reported on GitHub: https://github.com/sharkdp/fd/issues

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

find(1)

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶 This was FD(1) — the fd manual, and yes the footer on this one was literally just the page name FD(1), so consider this your lil sign-off: go forth and find ur files, no cap. 💖✨🌸

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