GitHub - tavianator/bfs: A breadth-first version of the UNIX find command

bfs is a variant of the UNIX find command that operates breadth-first rather than depth-first. It is otherwise compatible with many versions of find, including

If you're not familiar with find, the GNU find manual provides a good introduction.

Features

bfs operates breadth-first, which typically finds the file(s) you're looking for faster.

haystack
├── deep
│   └── 1
│       └── 2
│           └── 3
│               └── 4
│                   └── ...
└── shallow
    └── needle

$ find haystack
haystack
haystack/deep
haystack/deep/1
haystack/deep/1/2
haystack/deep/1/2/3
haystack/deep/1/2/3/4
...
haystack/shallow
haystack/shallow/needle

$ bfs haystack
haystack
haystack/deep
haystack/shallow
haystack/deep/1
haystack/shallow/needle
haystack/deep/1/2
haystack/deep/1/2/3
haystack/deep/1/2/3/4
...

bfs tries to be easier to use than find, while remaining compatible.

bfs gives helpful errors and warnings.

$ bfs -nam needle
bfs: error: bfs -nam needle
bfs: error:     ~~~~
bfs: error: Unknown argument; did you mean -name?

$ bfs -print -name 'needle'
bfs: warning: bfs -print -name needle
bfs: warning:            ~~~~~~~~~~~~
bfs: warning: The result of this expression is ignored.

bfs adds some options that make common tasks easier.

$ bfs -name config -exclude -name .git

$ find ! \( -name .git -prune \) -name config

Installation

bfs may already be packaged for your operating system.

Alpine Linux
# apk add bfs

Arch Linux
(Available in the AUR)

Debian/Ubuntu
# apt install bfs

Fedora
# dnf copr enable xfgusta/bfs
# dnf install bfs

NixOS
# nix-env -i bfs

Void Linux
# xbps-install -S bfs

FreeBSD
# pkg install bfs

MacPorts
# port install bfs

Homebrew
$ brew install tavianator/tap/bfs

To build bfs from source, you may need to install some dependencies.

Alpine Linux
# apk add acl{,-dev} attr{,-dev} libcap{,-dev} oniguruma-dev

Arch Linux
# pacman -S acl attr libcap oniguruma

Debian/Ubuntu
# apt install acl libacl1-dev attr libattr1-dev libcap2-bin libcap-dev libonig-dev

Fedora
# dnf install libacl-devel libattr-devel libcap-devel oniguruma-devel

NixOS
# nix-env -i acl attr libcap oniguruma

Void Linux
# xbps-install -S acl-{devel,progs} attr-{devel,progs} libcap-{devel,progs} oniguruma-devel

FreeBSD
# pkg install oniguruma

MacPorts
# port install oniguruma6

Homebrew
$ brew install oniguruma

Once you have the dependencies, you can build bfs.