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Overview
efind (extendable find) searches for files in a directory hierarchy.
Basically it's a wrapper for GNU find providing an easier and more intuitive expression syntax. It can be extended by custom functions to filter search results. Furthermore, it has built-in sort and range functionality.
Watch this screencast to get a brief overview:
Usage
Running efind without any argument the search expression is read from standard input (stdin) and files are searched in the user's home directory. A different directory and expression can be specified with the --dir and --expr options:
$ efind --dir=/tmp --expr="size>1M and type=file"
efind tries to handle the first arguments as path(s) and expression. It's valid to run efind the following way:
$ efind ~/git ~/code "type=file and name='CHANGELOG'"
efind is shipped with a manpage, of course.
$ man efind
Examples
Print five largest files.
efind . "type=file" \
--order-by "-{bytes}" \
--printf " %-10{kb} | %{path}\n" \
--limit 5
Find first text document containing a string and stop immediately.
efind . "name='*.txt' and text_contains('find me')" --limit 1
Filter audio files by artist and convert them to WAV:
efind ~/Music \
"extension_in('.mp3, .ogg') and artist_matches('David Bowie')" \
--exec sox "%{filename}" tmp/"%{name}.wav" \;
Expression Syntax
A search expression consists of at least one comparison or file flag to test. Multiple expressions can be evaluated by using conditional operators:
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| and | If an expression returns logical false it returns that value and doesn't evaluate the next expression. Otherwise it returns the value of the last expression. |
| or | If an expression returns logical true it returns that value and doesn't evaluate the next expression. Otherwise it returns the value of the last expression. |
Expressions are evaluated from left to right. Use parentheses to force precedence.
The following operators can be used to compare a file attribute to a value:
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| =, equal, equals | equals to |
| >, greater than, greater | greater than |
| >=, at least | greater or equal |
| <, less than, less | less than |
| <=, at most | less or equal |
A value must be of one of the data types listed below:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| string | Quoted sequence of characters. |
| number | Whole number. |
| time interval | Time interval (number) with suffix. Supported suffixes are "minute(s)", "hour(s)" and "day(s)". |
| file size | Units of space (number) with suffix. Supported suffixes are "byte(s)", "kilobyte(s)", "megabyte(s)" and "gigabyte(s)". |
| file type | "file", "directory", "block", "character", "pipe", "link" or "socket". |
The following file attributes are searchable:
| Attribute | Description | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| name | case sensitive filename pattern | string | "*.txt" |
| iname | case insensitive filename pattern | string | "Foo.bar" |
| regex | case sensitive regular expression | string | ".*\.html" |
| iregex | case insensitive regular expression | string | ".*\.TxT" |
| atime | last access time | time interval | 1 minute |
| ctime | last file status change | time interval | 15 hours |
| mtime | last modification time | time interval | 30 days |
| size | file size | size | 10 megabyte |
| group | name of the group owning the file | string | "users" |
| gid | id of the group owning the file | number | 1000 |
| user | name of the user owning the file | string | "john" |
| uid | id of the user owning the file | number | 1000 |
| type | file type | file type | pipe |
| filesystem | name of the filesystem the file is on | string | "ext4" |
Additionally you can test these flags:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| readable | the file can be read by the user |
| writable | the user can write to the file |
| executable | the user is allowed to execute the file |
| empty | the file is empty and is either a regular file or a directory |
Differences to GNU find
Sometimes GNU find doesn't behave in a way an average user would expect. The following expression finds all documents in the current folder with a file size less or equal than 1G because every file with at least one byte is rounded up:
$ find . -size 1G
efind converts file sizes to byte to avoid this confusing behaviour:
$ efind . "size=1G" --print
$ find . -size 1073741824c
efind's --printf option is not fully compatible with GNU find:
- In contrast to GNU find numeric values like file size or group id are not converted to string. This means that all number related flags work with efind.
- Width and precision are interpreted exactly the same way as the printf C function does.
- The fields %a, %c and %t print the timestamp in seconds.
- Date format strings are not limited to a single field. The string "%AHMS" prints hour, minute and second of the last file access, for example.
- efind's printf format supports user-friendly field names like "{path}" or "{group}".
- When printing an undefined escape sequence (e.g. "\P") only the character following the backslash is printed.
Getting efind
You can build efind from source code or download a package for your distribution. If you should miss a package type or if you want to support efind don't hesitate to contact me. Any help is much appreciated :)