bfs

Breadth-first file search

TLDR

Find all files

$ bfs [/path]

Find by name

$ bfs [/path] -name ["*.txt"]

Find only regular files

$ bfs [/path] -type f

Search in parallel with N threads

$ bfs [/path] -j [8] -name ["*.c"]

Exclude a subtree from the search

$ bfs [/path] -exclude -name [node_modules]

Execute command

$ bfs [/path] -name ["*.log"] -delete

SYNOPSIS

bfs [options] [path...] [expression]

bfs is a breadth-first variant of the Unix find command. It traverses directories in breadth-first order rather than depth-first, which can be faster for certain operations and more intuitive when printing results.The tool is compatible with GNU find but uses a different traversal strategy.

PARAMETERS

-name pattern

Match filename pattern

-type type

File type (f, d, l, etc.)

-size n

File size

-mtime n

Modification time

-exec command ;

Execute command

-delete

Delete matched files

-depth

Process directory contents before directory

-maxdepth n

Maximum depth to descend

BFS-SPECIFIC FLAGS

-j n

Search with N threads in parallel (default: number of CPUs, up to 8)

-S bfs|dfs|ids|eds

Select the search strategy: breadth-first (default), depth-first, iterative deepening, or exponential deepening

-color / -nocolor

Turn colors on or off (default: -color when output is a terminal)

-hidden / -nohidden

Include or exclude hidden files (those beginning with .)

-exclude expression

Exclude all paths matching the expression from the search

-unique

Skip files that have already been seen (useful with -L)

-x

Do not descend into other mount points (same as -xdev)

-status

Display a status bar while searching

-files0-from file

Read NUL-separated starting paths from a file

-D flag

Turn on a debugging flag

DIFFERENCES FROM FIND

- Breadth-first traversal order- Generally faster for -quit operations- More intuitive output ordering- Compatible command-line syntax

WORKFLOW

$ # Find all PDFs (breadth-first)
bfs /home -name "*.pdf"

# Find large files in top levels first
bfs / -size +100M

# Delete empty directories
bfs /tmp -type d -empty -delete

# Find recently modified
bfs /var/log -mtime -1

CAVEATS

Less widely available than find. Different traversal order may affect some operations. Not installed by default on most systems. For complex queries, behavior differences possible.