fd

Project Overview

fd is a program to find entries in your filesystem. It is a simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find. While it does not aim to support all of find's powerful functionality, it provides sensible defaults for a majority of use cases.

Key Features

• Intuitive syntax: fd PATTERN instead of find -iname '*PATTERN*'
• Regular expression (default) and glob-based patterns
• Very fast due to parallelized directory traversal
• Uses colors to highlight different file types (same as ls)
• Supports parallel command execution
• Smart case: case-insensitive by default, switches to case-sensitive if pattern contains uppercase
• Ignores hidden directories and files by default
• Ignores patterns from .gitignore by default

Target Audience

• Command-line users and system administrators
• Developers needing fast file lookup
• Users wanting a friendlier alternative to find

Quick Start

1. Install via package managers: macOS brew install fd, Linux apt install fd-find, Windows winget install sharkdp.fd
2. Basic usage: fd PATTERN to recursively search for entries containing the pattern
3. Use -e to search by extension: fd -e md for all Markdown files
4. Specify a search directory: fd passwd /etc
5. View help: fd -h or fd --help

Core Advantages

• Blazing fast with parallel directory traversal
• Intuitive syntax, easier than find
• Smart defaults for out-of-the-box usability
• Command name is 50% shorter than find

System Requirements

• OS: Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Architectures: x86_64, arm64
• Additional Dependencies: None

Notes

• Search pattern is a regular expression by default; use -g for glob patterns
• Hidden files and .gitignore entries are ignored by default