CLI

Filesearch Version 4

This is the final command-line exclusive build of Filesearch! Now available for all three major OSes, Windows, Linux, and macOS!

Credits:

• GitHub: @nreef12 for building the ARM64 version for macOS
• Friend: @caden_tm for opening the doors to Intel macOS

Compatibility

OS	64-bit	32-bit	ARM64
Windows	Yes	Yes	Yes
macOS	Yes (Intel)	Not Planned	Yes (Silicon)
Linux	Yes	Yes	Yes

You don't know how happy I am to announce that there's a version for every major operating system!

That's right! Windows, macOS and Linux each have their very own version of Filesearch - not to mention it's also built for different CPU architectures, too! So whether you're using Windows 7 on a 32-bit CPU, macOS 26 on a M5 Mac Mini, or Damn Small Linux on a MacBook Pro from 2009, it'll run.

The minimum version of Windows needed to run either the 32-bit or 64-bit is Windows 7 SP1. I am actively working on fixing that and will update the existing files silently. You'll know because this message will be gone - you aren't seeing things... or are you? :) I am—

Features

• Threading
• Logging
• Wildcards
• File searching
• Subdirectory searching
• Switch between two search patterns (BFS / DFS)
• Case-sensitivity

Usage

To demonstrate how simple it is to use this, while typing this, I was also building Rust9x and couldn't find x.py so I typed
| filesearch /fm x.py
and it found it. This command: 1. Matches FILES only, 2. Matches files named EXACTLY "x.py". That's it. That is the bare minimum command to get searching. So with that, I will list 12 examples in four groups of complexity:

1. Rush

• filesearch /fm x.py
• filesearch -f favicon.png ./www
• filesearch -d *.app /Applications

2. Simple

• filesearch /FM *.pptx C:\Users\Randell\OneDrive\Documents
• filesearch --files income-2023-*.ods
• filesearch --folders wiki /home/server_user/git/www/ --log ~/current-wikis.log

3. Specific

• filesearch /FM recording-??-??-2004.avi /mnt/nas-backups/pre2005/camcorder/Vacations/Germany
• filesearch -f rufus-?-??p.exe ..\Downloads
• filesearch -f ??-??-1996_stevie+chris.mp? B:\pre2005\camcorder\mixed-graduations

4. Forgetful

• filesearch -d * C:\Users\
• filesearch /FM *-stable.tar.gz .
• filesearch /FM dirent.h C:\.

Installation

Installation is simple. You copy the binary you download to somewhere in your PATH. This could be a custom folder you add to PATH yourself, or a system folder for executables. I prefer the latter myself. Heres how to do it:

Linux

On Linux it's easy. You go to the path you downloaded the zip, extract it and copy filesearch to /usr/bin by running:
sudo cp ./filesearch /usr/bin
or for limited users, you can install it for your user only:

mkdir ~/.local ~/.local/bin
cp ./filesearch ~/.local/bin
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/.local/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

macOS

Installation is... less easy but still possible. You can not directly write to /bin or /usr/bin even with sudo! So, to install system-wide we need to do some more trickery. First extract the binary to your Downloads folder, then run these commands:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/filesearchbin
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/filesearchbin
echo "/usr/local/filesearchbin" | sudo tee /etc/paths.d/filesearchbin
sudo cp ./filesearch /usr/local/filesearchbin

That should do it. Probably. If not open an issue if I didn't already catch it. Same for any of these installation guides... Aannyway to install it for just your user, no one else, incase you can't use sudo, run:

mkdir ~/filesearchbin
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/filesearchbin"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Windows

Ah... Windows... You either love it or hate it, but for me it's both. Fight me.
To install Filesearch system-wide for Windows, first make sure you extract the binary to your downloads folder. After that, just:

1. Click on the Start Button ()
2. Search "cmd" and click 'Run as administrator'

If prompted, press 'Yes' or enter your password.
3. Navigate to your Downloads folder by using cd followed by your user folder's path. for example, my folder would be C:\\Users\\Emmet\\. Then you just go to the downloads folder, or wherever you extracted the binary to.
4. Run the following commands:

copy .\\filesearch.exe C:\\Windows\\System32\\
filesearch

This will install the binary and verify it runs.

If you instead want it to be just for your user, instead run:

mkdir "%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Programs\\FilesearchBin"
move ".\\filesearch.exe" "%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Programs\\FilesearchBin"
setx PATH "%PATH%;%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Programs\\FilesearchBin"

Note: If the method you use includes adding the binary path to your system or user PATH variable, the shell MUST be restarted for it to take effect. This does NOT apply if you copied the binary to System32 on Windows (because it's already in PATH). You can also just run your shell again. For example, if you use fish as your shell and just added filesearch to your path, just run fish to open a new instance and it will use the new path. This isn't recommended, but it is an alternative for those like me who are lazy sometimes.

FAQ

I realize there are no Frequently Asked Questions, or even any Questions, but a lot of other people do this anyway to give little bits of info when it wouldn't need its own heading.

I get errors about permission denied or <os error #>

That means the user running the search doesn't have permission to access and search inside a folder. Usually these errors are ignored and Filesearch doesn't tell you as to not spam errors, but sometimes it gets seen. It can also happen if you do have permission but it can't be accessed right now.

You said this version has threading, logging, wildcards, better search patterns, etc., but Mine doesn't and only has two options!

You downloaded the SDM mode, the direct conversion of the latest C build. That version is smaller, lightweight, and is only for Sub-directories and Files (not both at once though). You want the revised version.

All in all, this project is fun and a piece of work. A fun piece of work. I'm glad I can make something that two friends aid with for it to be the first result on Bing for 'Filesearch', because yes, I do look my own tool up to actually download it. Anyway, check below for the Downloads, and if you look at the builds of SDM for Windows, you'll notice how I can fit 17 x86 or ARM builds on a 1.44mb floppy disk. You gotta give it to Windows for having the smallest binaries, right? Wait... so, they optimize the sizes to– fit more slop— Wait!! I take that back! WINDOWS SUCKS!!!!!

Why did you read all of this?

Revised FileSearch

FileSearch 3 - 2026 Update

Hello! It's been a while since i updated the program, but here it is with wildcards, threading, faster searches and everything we had before. The original C code was converted to Rust using Deepseek, which ran first try, but that was just the SDM update with nothing new. That version will be included aswell for those seeking a more simple version. Both are free from the memory error

Installation

On Linux and macOS, to copy the binary to your system bin location, run this in the directory where you downloaded it:
chmod +x ./filesearch
sudo cp ./filesearch /bin

On Windows, open a command prompt with administrator privileges by pressing the Windows button (or the search button next to it), type 'Command' and the first result should be Command Prompt. Click Run as Administrator. Navigate to the directory where you downloaded filesearch.exe to and then run the command:
copy .\filesearch.exe C:\Windows\System32\.

For both systems, once you copied it into the system directory, you should be able to run the utility from anywhere on your system. Just type filesearch [your switch] [queries] and boom! You have successfully installed FileSearch on your system. A simple and compact command‑line utility.

Note: It is important to understand that you must know the exact filename/directory name of the file or directory you are searching for. The algorithm supports wildcards (*.txt, report*, image_??.jpg) for partial matching, but it doesn't guess or look inside the files. Using standard wildcards can assist greatly when used correctly, however, so it isn't a total loss.

Usage

The command structure is simple but powerful:
filesearch [/SDM | /FM | /BOTH] [pattern] [start_directory] [options]
Type filesearch /? for the full list of options.

Both Linux and Windows binaries are included in this release.

---

What's Different Now
The revised version is actually fast. Like, “use‑all‑your‑CPU‑cores” fast. I rewrote it in Rust and it actually works properly now:

• Multi‑threading – Use --threads 8 to make your CPU do work for once
• Wildcards that actually work – *.txt, report_2024*.pdf, image_??.jpg
• New /BOTH mode – Can't remember if it's a file or directory? Use /BOTH to search for both
• Case‑insensitive option – -i flag for when you can't remember your own capitalization
• Progress tracking – Actually shows you what it's doing instead of just hanging
• Logging – Save results to a file with --log results.txt
• Depth limiting – Use --depth 3 to stop it from going too deep
• BFS search – Won't get stuck in that one deep tree forever anymore

Examples

# The basics (still work like before)
filesearch /FM secret.txt .
filesearch /SDM MyDocuments C:\Users

# The new stuff
filesearch /BOTH config* . -i --threads 8
filesearch /FM *.tmp C:\ --depth 3 --log cleanup.txt
filesearch /SDM node_modules ~ --depth 2 --threads 4
filesearch /FM *.rs . --dfs --log rust_files.txt

SDM Mode!

The latest and greatest update! Now introducing SDM mode!
SDM mode is a switch designed for searching for Sub-Directories, and it works flawlessly! Kinda...

Installation

On Linux, to copy the binary to your system bin location, run this in the directory where you downloaded it:
sudo cp ./filesearch /usr/bin
On Windows, open a command prompt with administrator privileges by pressing the Windows button (or the search button next to it), type 'Command' and the first result should be Command Prompt. Click Run as Administrator. Navigate to the directory where you downloaded filesearch.exe to and then run the command:
copy .\filesearch.exe C:\Windows\System32\.
For both systems, once you copied it into the system directory, you should be able to run the utility from anywhere on your system. just type filesearch [your switch] [queries] and boom! You have successfully installed FileSearch on your system. A simple and compact command-line utility.

Note: It is important to understand that you must know the exact filename/directory name of the file or directory you are searching for. * You cannot find a file called workdoc.docx by using the /FM query 'work' or '.docx" because the algorithim does not support it yet. I may or may not work on that. I am trying to work on a GUI for this program however, but it might be windows only. Linux users can use WINE and search in the Z: drive! (default \ mountpoint for WINE installations so you can directly access linux fs)

Usage

The old command lines no longer work. They have their functionality packed in a switch!
filesearch [/SDM | /FM] [filename | sub-dir] .
type filesearch /? for more info

Both Linux and Windows binaries are included in this release.

Attention Windows Users!:

If not already installed, install VS Redist from Microsoft: (Links Below)

VS Redist x86 Download
VS Redist x64 Download
(removed ARM link because I never compiled for it anyway :P)

For anyone using Windows that are having trouble with the redists above, I am including the DLLs to place in your System32 folder. I know you will probable not trust me so I am also linking virustotal links to the ZIP I attached. I had these problems myself, but thankfully had my old PC's HDD inwhich I compiled the program on, with success. It was ucrtbased.dll and vcruntime140d.dll that were not working for me. Just beware that other DLLs you download online can be malicious! And unless it is a LAST resort, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THEM FROM THE INTERNET!

VT Scans of the DLLs ZIP file

Full Changelog: Release...SDM|FM

Windows Release

Windows Version

There is currently no Linux version as of this time. I am actively working on one, and a huge update.

The Windows version of the File Search Application comes in the form of an executable file named "FileSearch.exe". To install the application, simply download the executable from the releases page. Once downloaded, move the "FileSearch.exe" to the "System32" folder.