fd
A simple, fast, and user-friendly command-line tool to find files and directories, designed as an alternative to the traditional 'find' command.
What is fd?
fd is a command-line program for finding files and directories. It is designed as a faster, more user-friendly alternative to the traditional Unix `find` command, with sensible defaults like ignoring hidden files and respecting `.gitignore`. It uses regular expressions for searching and supports parallel execution for speed.
Developers, system administrators, and power users who frequently search for files in the terminal and want a simpler, faster tool than `find`.
Developers choose fd for its intuitive syntax, out-of-the-box smart defaults (like ignoring hidden and gitignored files), and significantly faster performance due to parallelized traversal, making file searches more efficient and less error-prone.
Overview
A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to 'find'
Use Cases
Best For
- Quickly searching for files with a simple pattern in large codebases
- Finding and executing commands on multiple files (e.g., batch renaming, converting images)
- Locating files by extension across nested directories
- Integrating with fuzzy finders like fzf for interactive file selection
- Searching while automatically respecting .gitignore rules
- Performing case-insensitive searches by default with smart case switching
Not Ideal For
- Scripts requiring POSIX-compatible find syntax for cross-platform portability
- Searching all files including hidden and ignored ones without additional flags
- Advanced file filtering based on permissions, inode numbers, or custom output formatting
- Direct execution of shell aliases or functions with fd's -x option without workarounds
Pros & Cons
Pros
Benchmarks in the README show fd is up to 23 times faster than find -iregex due to parallelized directory traversal and efficient regex matching from Rust crates.
Uses simple patterns like `fd PATTERN` instead of complex find flags, making it easier for common use cases without memorizing options.
Automatically ignores hidden files and .gitignore entries with smart case sensitivity, reducing clutter and focusing on relevant files.
Supports parallel (-x) and batch (-X) command execution with placeholder syntax (e.g., {}), enabling powerful file operations like batch renaming or conversion.
Cons
Does not support all of find's exhaustive options, such as detailed permission searches, custom output formatting with -printf, or complex logical operators, limiting it for advanced scripting.
On some distributions like Ubuntu, the binary is named fdfind due to naming conflicts, requiring a manual symlink to use fd, which can confuse new users and break scripts.
Cannot directly execute shell aliases or functions with -x/-X; the README notes it requires workarounds like exporting functions or using bash -c, adding complexity for shell-heavy workflows.
Open Source Alternative To
fd is an open-source alternative to the following products:
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
fuckMagnificent app which corrects your previous console command.
fzf:cherry_blossom: A command-line fuzzy finder
ripgrepripgrep recursively searches directories for a regex pattern while respecting your gitignore
BatA cat(1) clone with wings.
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