fd, The Cmdl Version of Everything

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:35:08 +0800

Intro

fd searches files according to name, size, type, etc. Don’t get confused with grep which searches the contents of the file.

Alias

The executable is named fdfind in some old versions, and it’s recommended to set fd as an alias.

alias fd='fdfind'

Usage

Regex is used by default

chsu@claudehsu:~/Sandbox$ fd '.*\.rs$'
RustLab/RustHello/hello.rs
RustLab/rust_hi/src/main.rs

Notice

-i option can be used for case insensitive search.
Files in .gitignore are by default ignored, meaning fd respects .gitignore. Use -I to include those ignored files.
Hidden files are ignored. Use -H to include those hidden files.

Search by File Full Path

With -p option, the regex matches against the file full path, instead of the file name.

chsu@claudehsu:~/Sandbox$ fd -p -i '.*pythonlab.*\.py$'
PythonLab/Scripts/lab.py

Search by File Size

Search by file size using:

+<size>: greater than <size>, such as +1m means greater than 1 MB
-<size>: smaller than <size>

The command below searches .py files whose size is greater than 800KB.

chsu@claudehsu:~/Sandbox$ fd -l -S +800k '.*\.py$'
-rw-rw-r-- 2 chsu chsu 841K Nov  6  2025 ./AILab/Env/lib/python3.14/site-packages/debugpy/_vendored/pydevd/_pydevd_bundle/_debug_adapter/pydevd_schema.py
-rw-rw-r-- 2 chsu chsu 841K Jul  7 00:15 ./DuckDBLab/env/lib/python3.14/site-packages/debugpy/_vendored/pydevd/_pydevd_bundle/_debug_adapter/pydevd_schema.py

Search by File Type

-t option can be used to specify the file type

-t, --type <filetype>
        Filter the search by type:
          'f' or 'file':         regular files
          'd' or 'dir' or 'directory':    directories
          'l' or 'symlink':      symbolic links
          's' or 'socket':       socket
          'p' or 'pipe':         named pipe (FIFO)
          'b' or 'block-device': block device
          'c' or 'char-device':  character device
          'x' or 'executable':   executables
          'e' or 'empty':        empty files or directories

The command below searches the current directory to find all directories containing the letter ’t'.

chsu@claudehsu:~/Sandbox$ fd -d 1 -t d '.*t.*'
DataLab
PythonLab
RustLab

Explanation

-d specifies the max depth, so -d 1 means to search the current directory only.
-t d specifies to only search for directory entries.

My Cmdl Cheatsheet

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 14:35:08 +0800

fd

Search the current directory for all directories whose names contain the letter ’t'

$ fd -d 1 -t d '.*t.*'
DataLab
PythonLab
RustLab

-d 1 means the max depth is 1, which is equivalent to the current directory.
-t d means to only include entries of directory type.

Search against file full path

$ fd -p -i '.*pythonlab.*\.py$'
PythonLab/Scripts/lab.py

Search by file size

$ fd -l -S +800K '.*\.py$'
-rw-rw-r-- 2 chsu chsu 841K Nov  6  2025 ./AILab/Env/lib/python3.14/site-packages/debugpy/_vendored/pydevd/_pydevd_bundle/_debug_adapter/pydevd_schema.py
-rw-rw-r-- 2 chsu chsu 841K Jul  7 00:15 ./DuckDBLab/env/lib/python3.14/site-packages/debugpy/_vendored/pydevd/_pydevd_bundle/_debug_adapter/pydevd_schema.py

-S +/-<size> can specify a file size greater or smaller than <size>.
-l shows detailed information about the matching files.

Jupyter Lab

Start Jupyter Lab, listening on port 9523 and allowing traffic from all networks.

jupyter lab --ip=0.0.0.0 --port=9523

Vifm

Basic file operations

cw to rename (change word) the file
cW to rename the base name of the file
dd to delete/cut the file
t to toggle selection of the file
:filter <regex> to filter out/hide files from the file list
- :filter! <regex> to keep the files according to the regex

Hide/show hidden files

za to toggle hiding/showing hidden files

Preview files

w to toggle preview of the current file

Use marks as follows

m to mark/label the position
' to go to the marked position

Split/hide windows as follows

:only to only show the active window pane
vs to vertically split the window
sp to horizontally split the window

Cmdl Tool on Tech Notes by ClaudeXu