Easily search and process files.
If you need to search files by their contents, or search for their contents, please look at ack or pss. These are better suited for this kind of task.
If you like this tool, just say thanks.
1.0.5
Just because I find that most of my searches was:
find . -iname '*name*'
And it's easier to me to enter:
ff name
Also, my find have sometimes problems with non ascii names:
% find /tmp -name '*GÖS*'
%
And with ff:
% ff '*GÖS*' /tmp
/tmp/eee_GÖS_från_förstår_pas
/tmp/eee_GÖS_från_pas_förstår_qq
/tmp/pas_GÖS_från_förstår
%
it just works! :)
Additionally, ff should work on any platform where Python is available, it means Linux, MacOS X, Windows (not tested here) etc.
ff passwd
Search for all files and directories in current directory and below, which is match to pattern: *passwd*.
ff -B passwd
Search for all files and directories in current directory and below, which is match to pattern: *passwd.
ff -E passwd
Search for all files and directories in current directory and below, which is match to pattern: passwd*.
ff -EB passwd
ff -p pa -s /tmp --shell-exec -x '[ -f "{path}" ] && mkdir -p /tmp{dirname}; cp -r "{path}" "/tmp{path}"'
Find all files and directories in /tmp that match expression: *pa*, and copy them (with original directories hierarchy!) to /tmp.
So powerful!
It's form of pattern known good for Perl or AWK lovers :)
If patterns is in general form:
mode/pattern/modifier
(decribed more in full usage below), then it is parsed and used in a little other manner.
Instead of arguments --regexp or --fuzzy, you can pass it in mode part of pattern.
Next there is delimiter, which usually is / (backslash), but there can be more characters,
described in Usage section.
After that is a pattern, next delimiter again, and then modifiers (again, modifiers are described in Usage section).
Some examples:
Search for all files and directories in current directory and below, which is match to pattern: passwd.
ff f/pwd/
Search for all files and directories in current directory and below, which name contains letters 'p', 'w', 'd', with any other characters between them.
ff g/^(chk)?passwd/
Search for all files and directories in current directory and below, which name starts from 'chkpasswd' or 'passwd'.
ff recognizes 2 configuration files: user-wide and project-wide. Both can specify the same things and have identical syntax (ini files). User-wide one is located in $HOME/.ff.rc, and project-wide is located in current directory (ie. projects root).
Example file is located at github.
Plugins are the way to easily extend capabilities of ff. Currently there is only support for plugins allowing to extend tests made on files list. In future, there is plan to add support for plugins allowing to make some actions on found files (currently is built-in plugin: --shell), for example modifying, copying or anything else).
ff search for plugins in user's home directory, but there is posibility to tell him about the other..
By default, ff search for plugins in:
~/.ff/plugins
And using switch --plugins-path you can tell ff about other plugins location.
You can also pass argument to plugins. For example, in size plugin (bundled with ff), You must to tell the plugin what size of file You expect:
`ff pas --test size:=5k`
Above example will find every file with pas part in its name, and its size is exactly 5 kibibytes. More about size plugin in projects wiki.
Plugins are written in Python, and are simple Python modules with at least plugin_action callable specified. Plugins are imported, and plugin_action must return True or False to tell ff that given found object meets expectations, and should be returned.
ff recognize and use only 3 objects in plugin:
plugin_action- (REQUIRED) [callable] must returnTrueodFalse. Must recognize 3 arguments:name- name of pluginargument- argument passed by userpath- absolute path to tested object
PLUGIN_DESCR- (OPTIONAL) [string or callable] short descr of plugin, printed whenffis called with switch--help-test-pluginsPLUGIN_HELP- (OPTIONAL) [string or callable] full help for plugin, printed whenffis called with switch--help-test-plugins TEST_NAME
Plugin file also must have special name, and be placed in directory recognized by ff (see: [plugins][plugins]).
Name of file is built with three parts, connected with underscore:
ffplugin- fixed prefixtest- type of plugin (currently onlytestplugins are recognized)NAME- name of plugin
And as Python module, must and with .py extension :)
Plugin must validate input data (argument), and raise FFPluginError exception with approbiate message on any error. Plugin shouldn't raise any other exceptions.
There is one caveat with this: FFPluginError exception is declared inside ff! When given plugin is imported, it is monkeypatched and FFPluginError exception is injected into it.
There is an example plugin, which allow us to search for files in specified size. Is in project repository in directory plugins. You can use it as a base for your own plugins :)
- Using PIP
ff should work on any platform where Python
is available, it means Linux, Windows, MacOS X etc.
Simplest way is to use Python's built-in package system:
pip install ff-find
- Using sources
Download sources from Github:
wget -O 1.0.5.zip https://github.com/msztolcman/ff/archive/1.0.5.zip
or
curl -o 1.0.5.zip https://github.com/msztolcman/ff/archive/1.0.5.zip
Unpack:
unzip 1.0.5.zip
And install
cd ff-1.0.5
python setup.py install
Voila!
usage: ff [-h] [--print0] [--ignorecase] [--source source] [--pattern PATTERN]
[--regexp] [--fuzzy] [--depth DEPTH] [--path-search]
[--regex-multiline] [--regex-dotall] [--begin] [--end]
[--invert-match] [--mode MODE] [--exec COMMAND] [--prefix]
[--prefix-dirs PREFIX_DIRS] [--prefix-files PREFIX_FILES]
[--no-display] [--no-colorize] [--verbose-exec] [--interactive-exec]
[--shell-exec] [--vcs] [--exclude-path EXCLUDED_PATH] [--test TESTS]
[--plugins-path PLUGINS_PATH] [--version]
[--help-test-plugins [TEST_NAME[,TEST2_NAME]]]
[--show-plugins-paths]
[pattern] [source [source ...]]
Easily search and process files.
positional arguments:
pattern pattern to search
source optional source (if missing, use current directory)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--print0, -0 split results by binary zero instead of new line
(useful to work with xargs)
--ignorecase, -i, --ignore-case
ignore case when match pattern to paths
--source source, -s source
optional, see: source above
--pattern PATTERN, -p PATTERN
optional, see: pattern above
--regexp, -g treat pattern as regular expression (uses Python
regexp engine)
--fuzzy, -f pattern defines only set and order of characters used
in filename
--depth DEPTH, -D DEPTH
how deep we should search (default: -1, means
infinite)
--path-search, -q search in full path, instead of bare name of item
--regex-multiline, -l
modify meta characters: "^" and "$" behaviour when
pattern is regular expression. See:
http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html#re.MULTILINE
--regex-dotall, -d modify meta character: "." behaviour when pattern is
regular expression. See:
http://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html#re.DOTALL
--begin, -B match pattern to begin of item name (ignored in regexp
mode)
--end, -E match pattern to end of item name (ignored in regexp
mode)
--invert-match, -v, -r
find objects that do *not* match pattern
--mode MODE, -m MODE allow to choose to search for "files" only, "dirs", or
"all"
--exec COMMAND, -x COMMAND
execute some command on every found item. In command,
placeholders: {path}, {dirname}, {basename} are
replaced with correct value
--prefix add prefix "dr: " (directory) or "fl: " (file) to
every found item
--prefix-dirs PREFIX_DIRS
prefix for matched directories
--prefix-files PREFIX_FILES
prefix for matched files
--no-display don't display element (useful with --exec argument)
--no-colorize Colorize output
--verbose-exec show command before execute it
--interactive-exec ask before execute command on every item
--shell-exec execute command from --exec argument in shell (with
shell expansion etc)
--vcs do not skip VCS directories (.git, .svn etc)
--exclude-path EXCLUDED_PATH, -c EXCLUDED_PATH
skip given paths from scanning
--test TESTS, -t TESTS
additional tests, available by plugins (see
annotations below or --help-test-plugins)
--plugins-path PLUGINS_PATH
additional path where to search plugins (see
annotations below)
--version show program's version number and exit
--help-test-plugins [TEST_NAME[,TEST2_NAME]]
display help for installed test plugins
--show-plugins-paths Show recognized plugins paths and exit
Pattern, provided as positional argument (not with --pattern) can be provided
in special form (called: magic pattern). It allows to more "nerdish"
(or "perlish" :) ) way to control `ff` behavior.
The general pattern for magic pattern is:
mode/pattern/modifier
where:
mode - is one of 'p' (--pattern), 'g' - (--regexp) or 'f' (--fuzzy)
/ - is delimiter:
* one of: '/', '!', '@', '#', '%', '|', and then start and end
delimiter must be the same
* one of: '{', '[', '(', '<', and the end delimiter must be the
closing one (ex. '}' if start is '{')
pattern - any pattern, processed in a way specified with 'mode'
modifier - one of: 'i' (--ignore-case), 'm' (--regex-multiline),
's' (--regex-dotall), 'v' (not used currently), 'r' (--invert-match)
There is also ability to extend capabilities of `ff` by plugins. Plugins are
run with switch --test and then plugin name with optional plugin argument:
--test plugin_name:plugin_arg
There can be used more then one plugin at once.
Authors:
Marcin Sztolcman <[email protected]> // http://urzenia.net
HomePage:
http://msztolcman.github.io/ff/
Marcin Sztolcman [email protected]
If you like or dislike this software, please do not hesitate to tell me about this me via email ([email protected]).
If you find bug or have an idea to enhance this tool, please use GitHub's issues.
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2013 Marcin Sztolcman
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
- use README.rst for Pypi
- fixes for Pypi
- fixes for Pypi
- fixes for Pypi
- fixes for Pypi
- backward incompatible: magic pattern doesn't recognize 'q' flag for 'path-search' mode, flag --path-search must be passed explicitly
- new option: --depth - limit searching to this depth
- new option: --colorize
- new: parse and recognize configuration files
- new: added ability to install via pip
- changed versioning format: use SemVer
- code cleanups and many refactorizations/rewrites
- paths are now normalized before comparisons of excluded paths
- parse regexps with UNICODE flag
- '?' and '+' are now valid delimiters in magic pattern
- ignore case of --mode option
- documentation improvements
- more tests
- improved fuzzy search
- better validation of arguments
- improved error messages
- improved help
- better interoperability: do not hardcode new line characters or path delimiters
- do not allow for duplicating modifiers
- FIX: do not crash on unknown characters, just replace them
- FIX: do not crash on printing unknown characters
- added simple Makefile
- improved config for pylint
- added config for versionner
- ability to run plugins for tests (with first plugin: size)
- many improvements to proper handling UTF-8
- many improvements for work in Python3
- improved PEP8 compatibility
- refactored code
- added --version switch
- removed expanding shell variables when execute external command if no --shell-exec is given
- added changelog
- added fuzzy-search mode
- added 'magic pattern' mode
- -r argument is now an alias to -v
- better handling unicode characters in paths
- handling CTRL-C
- added modifier: --path-search
- use argparse instead of getopt to parse options
- allow to exclude path from search
- improved help and documentation
- added option 'shell-exec' - allow to exec programs with shell expansion
- exec: add shell variables expansion
- by default, skip VCS directories
- added option 'print0' - delimit entries with binary 0, as for xargs
- added options 'interactive-exec' - ask before every exec
- much more powerfull exec engine
- added option 'no-display' - do not display results (useful with --exec)
- added option 'verbose-exec' - show executed command
- added option 'invert-match' - like in grep
- improved help and documentation
- cleanups in code
- initial version