lr: list files, recursively

lr is a new tool for generating file listings, which includes the best features of ls(1), find(1), stat(1) and du(1).

lr has been tested on Linux 4.1, FreeBSD 10.2, OpenBSD 5.7, NetBSD 5.2.3, DragonFlyBSD 5.0, Mac OS X 10.10, OmniOS 5.11 and Cygwin 1.7.32. It will likely work on other Unix-like systems with C99, but you'll need to port scan_filesystems for fstype to work.

Screenshot

Benefits

Over find:

• friendly and logical C-style filter syntax
• getopt is used, can mix filters and arguments in any order
• can sort
• compute directory sizes
• can strip leading ./
• can do breadth first search

Over ls:

• sorts over all files, not per directory
• copy & paste file names from the output since they are relative to pwd
• ISO dates
• powerful filters

Rosetta stone

• ls: lr -1 | column
• find .: lr (or lr -U for speed.)
• ls -l: lr -1l
• ls -ltrc: lr -l1Aoc
• find . -name '*.c': lr -t 'name ~~ "*.c"'
• find . -regex '.*c': lr -t 'path =~ "c$"'
• find -L /proc/*/fd -maxdepth 1 -type f -links 0 -printf '%b %p\n': lr -UL1 -t 'type == f && links == 0' -f '%b %p\n' /proc/*/fd
• find "${@:-.}" -name HEAD -execdir sh -c 'git rev-parse --resolve-git-dir . >/dev/null 2>/dev/null && pwd' ';': lr -0U -t 'name == "HEAD"' "$@" | xe -0 -s 'cd ${1%/*} && git rev-parse --resolve-git-dir . >/dev/null && pwd; true' 2>/dev/null
• Filter list of files for existence: xe lr -dQU <list
• replacement for who(1): lr -om -t 'name =~ "[0-9][0-9]*$" && uid != 0' -f '%u\t%p\t%CY-%Cm-%Cd %CH:%CM\n' /dev/pts /dev/tty*
• Find files with setuid or setgid: lr -t 'mode | 06000' /usr/bin or lr -t 'mode = "u+s" || mode = "g+s"' /usr/bin
• Find files with non-umask permissions: lr -t '!(mode = "=rw,+X")' -l
• Find broken symlinks: lr -L -t 'type = l'

Usage:

lr [-0|-F|-l [-TA|-TC|-TM]|-S|-f FMT] [-B|-D] [-H|-L] [-1AGPQXdhsx] [-U|-W|-o ORD] [-e REGEX]* [-t TEST]* PATH...

The special path argument - makes lr read file names from standard input, instead of traversing path.

• -0: output filenames separated by NUL bytes. Likewise, read input filenames separated by NUL bytes.
• -F: output filenames and an indicator of their file type (*/=>@|).
• -l: long output a la ls -l (implies -Q).
• -TA: with -l, output atime.
• -TC: with -l, output ctime.
• -TM: with -l, output mtime (default).
• -S: BSD stat(1)-inspired output (implies -Q).
• -f FMT: custom formatting, see below.
• -B: breadth first traversal.
• -D: depth first traversal. prune does not work, but entries and total are computed on the fly.
• -H: only follow symlinks on command line.
• -L: follow all symlinks.
• -1: don't go below one level of directories.
• -A: don't list files starting with a dot.
• -G: colorize output to tty. Use twice to force colorize.
• -X: print OSC 8 hyperlinks to tty. Use twice to force.
• -P: quote file names using $'...' syntax.
• -Q: shell quote file names (default for output to TTY).
• -d: don't enter directories.
• -h: print human readable size for -l (also %s).
• -s: strip directory prefix passed on command line.
• -x: don't enter other filesystems.
• -U: don't sort results, print during traversal.
• -W: sort results by name and print during traversal.
• -o ORD: sort according to the string ORD, see below.
• -e REGEX: only show files where basename matches REGEX.
• -t TEST: only show files matching all TESTs, see below.

Output formatting:

• \a, \b, \f, \n, \r, \v, \0 as in C.
• %%: plain %.
• %s: file size in bytes.
• %S: file size, with human readable unit.
• %b: file size in 512-byte blocks.
• %k: file size in 1024-byte blocks.
• %d: path depth.
• %D: device number (stat.st_dev).
• %R: device ID for special files (stat.st_rdev).
• %i: inode number.
• %I: one space character for every depth level.
• %p: full path (%P if -s).
• %P: full path without command line argument prefix.
• %l: symlink target.
• %n: number of hardlinks.
• %F: file indicator type symbol (*/=>@|).
• %f: file basename (everything after last /).
• %A-, %C-, %T-: relative age for atime/ctime/mtime.
• %Ax, %Cx, %Tx: result of strftime for %x on atime/ctime/mtime.
• %m: octal file permissions.
• %M: ls-style symbolic file permissions.
• %y: ls-style symbolic file type (bcdfls).
• %g: group name.
• %G: numeric gid.
• %u: user name.
• %U: numeric uid.
• %e: number of entries in directories.
• %t: total size used by accepted files in directories (only with -D).
• %Y: type of the filesystem the file resides on.
• %x: Linux-only: a combination of: # for files with security capabilities, + for files with an ACL, @ for files with other extended attributes.

Sort order

Sort order is string consisting of the following letters. Uppercase letters reverse sorting. E.g. Sn sorts first by size, smallest last, and then by name (in case sizes are equal).

Default: n.

• a: atime.
• c: ctime.
• d: path depth.
• e: file extension.
• f: file basename.
• i: inode number.
• m: mtime.
• n: file name.
• p: directory name.
• s: file size.
• t: file type. This sorts all directories before other files.
• v: file name as version numbers (sorts "2" before "10").

Filter expressions

lr filters are given by the following EBNF:

<expr>     ::= <expr> || <expr>  -- disjunction
             | <expr> && <expr>  -- conjunction
             | <expr> ? <expr> : <expr>  -- ternary operator
             | ! <expr>          -- negation
             | ( <expr )
             | <timeprop> <numop> <dur>
             | <numprop> <numop> <num>
             | <strprop> <strop> <str>
             | <typetest>
             | <modetest>
             | prune             -- do not traverse into subdirectories
             | print             -- always true value
             | skip              -- always false value
             | color <num>       -- always true value, override 256-color

    <timeprop> ::= atime | ctime | mtime

<numprop>  ::= depth | dev | entries | gid | inode
             | links | mode | rdev | size | total | uid

<numop>    ::= <= | < | >= | > | == | = | !=

    <dur>      ::= "./path"          -- mtime of relative path
                 | "/path"           -- mtime of absolute path
                 | "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"
                 | "YYYY-MM-DD"      -- at midnight
                 | "HH:MM:SS"        -- today
                 | "HH:MM"           -- today
                 | "-[0-9]+d"        -- n days ago at midnight
                 | "-[0-9]+h"        -- n hours before now
                 | "-[0-9]+m"        -- n minutes before now
                 | "-[0-9]+s"        -- n seconds before now
                 | [0-9]+            -- absolute epoch time

<num>      ::= [0-9]+ ( c        -- *1
                      | b        -- *512
                      | k        -- *1024
                      | M        -- *1024*1024
                      | G        -- *1024*1024*1024
                      | T )?     -- *1024*1024*1024*1024

<strprop>  ::= fstype | group | name | path | target | user | xattr

<strop>    ::= == | = | !=       -- string (in)equality
             | ===    | !===     -- case insensitive string (in)equality
             | ~~     | !~~      -- glob (fnmatch)
             | ~~~    | !~~~     -- case insensitive glob (fnmatch)
             | =~     | !=~ | !~ -- POSIX Extended Regular Expressions
             | =~~    | !=~~     -- case insensitive POSIX Extended Regular Expressions

<str>      ::= " ([^"] | "")+ "  -- use "" for a single " inside "
             | $[A-Za-z0-9_]     -- environment variable

<typetest> ::= type ( == | = | != ) ( b | c | d | p | f | l )

<modetest> ::= mode ( == | =     -- exact permissions
                    | &          -- check if all bits of <octal> set
                    | |          -- check if any bit of <octal> set
                    ) <octal>
             | mode = "<chmod>"  -- check if symbolic mode is satisfied

<octal> ::= [0-7]+

<chmod> ::= <clause> (, <clause>)+

<clause> ::= [guoa]* [+-=] [rwxXstugo]*  -- see chmod(1)

EWONTFIX

The following features won't be implemented:

• -exec: use -0 and xargs (or even better xe).
• columns: use column, git-column (supports colors), Plan 9 mc. (e.g. lr -1AGFs | git column --mode=dense --padding=2)

"Screenshots"

Default output, sorted by name:

% lr
.
.git
.git/HEAD
.git/config
[...]
Makefile
README.md
lr.c

Long output format:

% lr -l
drwxrwxr-x 3 chris users   120 2015-10-27 13:56 ./
drwxrwxr-x 7 chris users   240 2015-10-27 13:56 .git/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris users    23 2015-10-27 13:56 .git/HEAD
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris users   257 2015-10-27 13:56 .git/config
[...]
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris users   297 2015-10-27 13:56 Makefile
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris users  5828 2015-10-27 13:56 README.md
-rw-rw-r-- 1 chris users 27589 2015-10-27 13:56 lr.c

Simple test:

% lr -F -t 'type == d'
./
.git/
.git/hooks/
.git/info/
.git/logs/
.git/logs/refs/
.git/logs/refs/heads/
.git/logs/refs/remotes/
.git/logs/refs/remotes/origin/
.git/objects/
.git/objects/info/
.git/objects/pack/
.git/refs/
.git/refs/heads/
.git/refs/remotes/
.git/refs/remotes/origin/
.git/refs/tags/

List regular files by size, largest first:

% lr -f '%S %f\n' -1 -t 'type == f' -oS
  27K lr.c
 5.7K README.md
  297 Makefile

List directory total sizes, indented:

% lr -D -t 'type == d' -f '%I%I%t %p\n'
172 .
  132 .git
    40 .git/hooks
    4 .git/info
    12 .git/logs
      8 .git/logs/refs
        4 .git/logs/refs/heads
        4 .git/logs/refs/remotes
          4 .git/logs/refs/remotes/origin
    48 .git/objects
      0 .git/objects/info
      48 .git/objects/pack
    8 .git/refs
      4 .git/refs/heads
      4 .git/refs/remotes
        4 .git/refs/remotes/origin
      0 .git/refs/tags

List all files, but print them in red if they match "havoc":

% lr -G -t 'name =~ "havoc" && color 160 || print'

Do not enter .git or .hg directories:

% lr -t 'name = ".git" || name = ".hg" ? prune : print' .

Installation

Use make all to build, make install to install relative to PREFIX (/usr/local by default). The DESTDIR convention is respected. You can also just copy the binary into your PATH.

Copyright

Copyright (C) 2015-2023 Leah Neukirchen <purl.org/net/chneukirchen>

Licensed under the terms of the MIT license, see lr.c.