/file-find

A better way to find files with Ruby

Primary LanguageRubyApache License 2.0Apache-2.0

Ruby

Description

This is a drop-in replacement for the find module currently in the standard library. It is modeled on a typical 'find' command found on most Unix systems.

Installation

gem install file-find

Adding the trusted cert

gem cert --add <(curl -Ls https://raw.githubusercontent.com/djberg96/file-find/main/certs/djberg96_pub.pem)

Synopsis

  require 'file/find' # 'file-find' also works

  rule = File::Find.new(
    :pattern => "*.rb",
    :follow  => false,
    :path    => ['/usr/local/lib', '/opt/local/lib']
  )

  rule.find{ |f|
    puts f
  }

Rationale

The current find module in the standard library is inadequate. It is, quite frankly, not much more than a plain Dir.glob call. This library provides an interface based on options typically available on your command line 'find' command, thus allowing you much greater control over how you find your files.

Options

  • atime
  • ctime
  • follow
  • ftype
  • inum
  • group (name or id)
  • maxdepth
  • mindepth
  • mount
  • mtime
  • name (or 'pattern')
  • path
  • perm
  • prune
  • size
  • user (name or id)

In addition to the above options, FileTest methods such as readable? and writable? may be used as keys, with true or false for their values.

See the documentation for more details about these options.

Future Plans

None at this time. Please log any feature requests on the project page at:

http://github.com/djberg96/file-find

Options I won't support

Generally speaking, anything that would require mucking around with C code or is just too difficult to implement in a cross platform manner will not be supported. These include the following options:

  • acl/xattr - Way too difficult to implement in a cross platform manner, and a rarely used option in practice.

  • cpio/ncpio - I will not shell out to this or any other 3rd party application.

  • ls/print - Use Ruby's builtin printing methods to print as you see fit.

  • ok - This is not interactive software.

Known Issues

The :perm option is limited to 0644 and 0444 on MS Windows.

The :user, :group, and :inum options require the win32-file gem to work properly on MS Windows. However, win32-file is not officially a dependency.

Bugs

None that I'm aware of beyond the ones mentioned in the Known Issues. Please log any bug reports on the project page at:

http://github.com/djberg96/file-find

Acknowledgements

  • Richard Clamp's File::Find::Rule Perl module for additional ideas and inspiration.
  • Bill Kleb for ideas regarding name, group and perm enhancements.
  • Hal Fulton for his implementation of symbolic permissions.

License

Apache-2.0

Copyright

(C) 2007-2021, Daniel J. Berger, All Rights Reserved

Author

Daniel J. Berger