fd — A Simple Fast User-Friendly Alternative to find

What it is

fd is a command-line tool written in Rust that finds files and directories. It provides a simpler syntax and smarter defaults compared to the traditional find command. Features include colorized output, automatic gitignore filtering, regex patterns by default, and parallel directory traversal.

The tool targets developers and system administrators who use file search frequently and want faster results with less typing. It is used internally by VS Code, Helix editor, and many developer tools.

How it saves time or tokens

fd requires less typing than find for common operations. Where find needs -name '*.js' -type f, fd uses -e js. It automatically respects .gitignore files, so search results exclude build artifacts and dependencies without manual exclusion patterns.

Parallel directory traversal makes fd significantly faster than find on large directory trees, especially on SSDs. The speed difference grows with directory depth and file count.

How to use

1. Install with your package manager: brew install fd (macOS), sudo apt install fd-find (Debian), or cargo install fd-find.
2. Run fd pattern to search for files matching a regex pattern in the current directory.
3. Add flags for extensions (-e js), file types (-t f for files, -t d for directories), or hidden files (-H).

Example

# Find files matching a pattern
fd pattern

# Find by extension
fd -e js
fd -e md -e mdx

# Include hidden files
fd -H config

# Find directories only
fd -t d src

# Execute command per match
fd -e log -x gzip {}

# Search specific path
fd pattern path/to/search

# Ignore gitignore rules
fd -I pattern

Related on TokRepo

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Common pitfalls

• On Debian and Ubuntu, the binary is named fdfind instead of fd due to a naming conflict with another package. Create an alias with alias fd=fdfind in your shell config.
• fd ignores hidden files and directories by default. Use the -H flag to include dotfiles like .env, .config, or .git contents.
• fd respects .gitignore by default. If you need to find files inside node_modules or build directories, add the -I flag to disable gitignore filtering.