This is a command-line file search application originally written in C, now written with Rust. The application searches for a specified filename or subdirectory in a directory and all its subdirectories and provides a list of matching files or subdirectories. It supports threading, logfiles, wildcards, case-sensitivity, and more.
- GitHub: @nreef12 for building the ARM64 version for macOS
- Friend: @caden_tm for opening the doors to Intel macOS
| OS | 64-bit | 32-bit | ARM64 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes (Intel) | Not Planned | Yes (Silicon) |
| Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Windows, macOS and Linux each have their very own version of Filesearch - not to mention it's also built for different CPU architectures, too! So whether you're using Windows 7 on a 32-bit CPU, macOS 26 on a M5 Mac Mini, or Damn Small Linux on a MacBook Pro from 2009, it'll run.
The minimum version of Windows needed to run either the 32-bit or 64-bit is Windows 7 SP1. I am actively working on fixing that and will update the existing files silently. You'll know because this message will be gone - you aren't seeing things... or are you? :) I am— what was that? O.O
- Threading
- Logging
- Wildcards
- File searching
- Subdirectory searching
- Switch between two search patterns (BFS / DFS)
- Case-sensitivity
To demonstrate how simple it is to use this, I came up with 12 examples in four groups of complexity:
- Rush — on-the-go
- filesearch /fm x.py
- filesearch -f favicon.png ./www
- filesearch -d *.app /Applications
- Simple — productivity
- filesearch /FM *.pptx C:\Users\Randell\OneDrive\Documents
- filesearch --files income-2023-*.ods
- filesearch --folders wiki /home/server_user/git/www/ --log ~/current-wikis.log
- Specific — you know what you want
- filesearch /FM recording-??-??-2004.avi /mnt/nas-backups/pre2005/camcorder/Vacations/Germany
- filesearch -f rufus-?-??p.exe ..\Downloads
- filesearch -f ??-??-1996_stevie+chris.mp? B:\pre2005\camcorder\mixed-graduations
- Forgetful — you forget 80% of what you want
- filesearch -d * C:\Users\
- filesearch /FM *-stable.tar.gz .
- filesearch /FM dirent.h /.
That dirent.h one was something I struggled with when making the second version of filesearch, back when I used C. I wanted to make a version for Linux and this was the one thing keeping me from doing so when building with WSL, and don't forget this was around 2021-22...
Installation is fairly simple. You copy the binary you download to somewhere in your PATH. This could be a custom folder you add to PATH yourself, or a system folder for executables. I prefer the latter myself. Heres how to do it:
On Linux it's easy. You go to the path you downloaded the zip, extract it and copy filesearch to /usr/bin by running:
sudo cp ./filesearch /usr/bin
or for limited users, you can install it for your user only:
mkdir ~/.local ~/.local/bin
cp ./filesearch ~/.local/bin
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/.local/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
Installation is... less easy but still possible. You can not directly write to /bin or /usr/bin even with sudo! So, to install system-wide we need to do some more trickery. First extract the binary to your Downloads folder, then run these commands:
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/filesearchbin
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/filesearchbin
echo "/usr/local/filesearchbin" | sudo tee /etc/paths.d/filesearchbin
sudo cp ./filesearch /usr/local/filesearchbin
That should do it. Probably. If not open an issue if I didn't already catch it. Same for any of these installation guides... Aannyway to install it for just your user, no one else, incase you can't use sudo, run:
mkdir ~/filesearchbin
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/filesearchbin"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
Ah... Windows... You either love it or hate it, but for me it's both. Fight me. To install Filesearch system-wide for Windows, first make sure you extract the binary to your downloads folder. After that, just:
- Click on the Start Button (
) - Search "cmd" and click 'Run as administrator'
If prompted, press 'Yes' or enter your password.
3. Navigate to your Downloads folder by using cd followed by your user folder's path. for example, my folder would be C:\\Users\\Emmet\\. Then you just go to the downloads folder, or wherever you extracted the binary to.
4. Run the following commands:
cp .\\filesearch.exe C:\\Windows\\System32\\
filesearchThis will install the binary and verify it runs.
If you instead want it to be just for your user, instead run:
mkdir "%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Programs\\FilesearchBin"
move ".\\filesearch.exe" "%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Programs\\FilesearchBin"
setx PATH "%PATH%;%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Programs\\FilesearchBin"Note: If the method you use includes adding the binary path to your system or user PATH variable, the shell MUST be restarted for it to take effect. This does NOT apply if you copied the binary to System32 on Windows (because it's already in PATH). You can also just run your shell again. For example, if you use
fishas your shell and just added filesearch to your path, just runfishto open a new instance and it will use the new path. This isn't recommended, but it is an alternative for those like me who are lazy sometimes.
Contributors who help test and build versions for macOS and Linux will be credited for their contributions at the top and right here:
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to open an issue in the repository.