filebyte

A CLI tool to list files and directories with intelligent size formatting, advanced filtering and file analysis. Made in Rust.

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Installation

Aliases

You can invoke the tool as any of the following:

filebyte — full name
fbt — short alias

The commands below work identically with any of these names. For example:

fbt file
filebyte file

Cargo (Recommended)

cargo install filebyte

Automated installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/execRooted/filebyte.git
cd filebyte

Run the installer:
```
sudo ./install.sh
```

The installer will automatically:

Install Rust if not present
Build filebyte with optimizations
Install it system-wide to /usr/local/bin/filebyte

Arch Linux (AUR)

paru -S filebyte
# Or any other AUR helper

!!! Note: I don't use Arch Linux. I will publish to the AUR but I won't test the packages. If you find a problem, please don't hesitate to start an issue

Windows

Install Rust from https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install

Clone the repository and run install.bat:

git clone https://github.com/execRooted/filebyte.git
cd filebyte
.\install.bat

Manual build

git clone https://github.com/execRooted/filebyte.git
cd filebyte
cargo build --release
# Binary will be available at target/release/filebyte

Uninstallation

Automated installation

cd filebyte
sudo ./uninstall.sh

Arch Linux

paru -R filebyte
# Or any AUR helper

Windows

cd filebyte
.\uninstall.bat

Basic Usage

# List files in current directory
filebyte

# List files in specific directory
filebyte /home/user/Documents

# Show directory tree
filebyte --tree

# Analyze a specific file
filebyte -w /path/to/file.txt

# Analyze a directory as a whole
filebyte -w /path/to/directory

Size formatting

# Show permissions and modification dates (default)
filebyte

# Show file sizes in auto-detected units
filebyte -s

# Show file sizes in specific units
filebyte -s mb          # Megabytes
filebyte -s gb          # Gigabytes
filebyte -s b          # Bytes

Advanced Filtering

# Search for specific files
filebyte --search "\.rs$"           # Find Rust files
filebyte --search "config"          # Find files containing "config"

# Exclude files
filebyte --excluding "^\."          # Hide hidden files
filebyte --excluding "temp"         # Exclude temp files

# Combine search and exclusion
filebyte --search "\.txt$" --excluding "old"

# Filter by file size
filebyte --larger-than 10MB         # Files larger than 10MB
filebyte --larger-than 1GB          # Files larger than 1GB
filebyte --larger-than 8 GB         # Space-separated also works
filebyte --larger-than bigfile.bin  # Use another file's size as threshold
filebyte --larger-than 2MiB         # Binary prefix also works
filebyte --larger-than 1GiB         # Binary prefix also works
filebyte --smaller-than 500MB       # Files smaller than 500MB
filebyte --equal-to 10MB            # Files exactly 10MB
filebyte --equal-to 0               # Empty files only

# Filter by file age
filebyte --older-than 30d           # Files older than 30 days
filebyte --older-than 2w            # Files older than 2 weeks
filebyte --older-than 1y            # Files older than 1 year
filebyte --older-than 2024-01-01    # Files older than Jan 1, 2024
filebyte --newer-than 7d            # Files newer than 7 days

# Show only empty files and directories
filebyte --empty
filebyte --empty -r                 # Recursively find empty files/dirs

# Search inside file contents
filebyte --content "hello"          # Show files containing "hello"
filebyte --content "TODO" --r       # Recursively find files with TODO

# Delete or merge duplicate files
filebyte --duplicates --delete-duplicates --force
filebyte --duplicates --merge-duplicates --force

File Analysis

# Show comprehensive analysis for current directory
filebyte -p

# Analyze a specific file in detail
filebyte -f src/main.rs

# Analyze a directory's metadata
filebyte -d /home/user

# Find duplicate files
filebyte --duplicates

# Find true duplicates by content hash (SHA-256, slower but accurate)
filebyte --duplicates --content-dups

# Find true duplicates using MD5 for faster hashing
filebyte --duplicates --content-dups --hash md5

Disk Operations

# List all disks
filebyte --disk list

# Analyze specific disk
filebyte --disk /dev/sda1

# Disk info with custom size units
filebyte --disk list --size gb

Sorting & Export

# Sort by different criteria
filebyte --sort-by size     # Largest files first
filebyte --sort-by date     # Newest files first
filebyte --sort-by name     # Alphabetical

# Export results
filebyte --export results.json
filebyte --export analysis.csv

Interactive Menu

# Launch interactive menu
filebyte -i
filebyte --interactive

The interactive menu provides a user-friendly interface with the following options:

Option	Description
`1`	List files in current directory
`2`	Analyze a specific file
`3`	Analyze a directory
`4`	Find duplicate files
`5`	Show directory tree
`6`	List all disks
`7`	Search for files (regex)
`8`	Show file type statistics
`9`	Bit converter (bits, kbits, mbits, gbits, tbits)
`L`	Change language
`0`	Exit

Bit Converter - Option 9 allows you to convert between bits and bytes:

Input formats: 1000 bits, 500 kbits, 1.5 mbits, 2 gbits
Shows conversions in both bits and bytes formats

The menu automatically clears the screen between operations for a clean interface.

Language Support

filebyte supports internationalization (i18n) with multiple language options:

# Launch interactive language selection menu
filebyte --language
filebyte --lang

# Set language directly by name
filebyte --language russian
filebyte --language chinese_simplified
filebyte --language korean

Available languages

english · chinese_simplified · chinese_traditional · japanese · korean · spanish · french · deutsch · russian · portuguese · italian

Features

English is always the default and fallback language
On first run without a saved preference, the language selection menu appears automatically
Language preference is saved to the config file at ~/.config/filebyte/config.json (Linux) or %APPDATA%\filebyte\config.json (Windows)
Within the interactive menu, press L to change language at any time
The installer (install.sh / install.bat) also prompts for language selection during installation

Command Line Options

Option	Short	Description
`--version`	`-v`	Show version information
`--help`	`-h`	Show help information
`--size <UNIT>`	`-s`	Show file sizes with specified unit (auto, b/bytes, kb/kilobytes, mb/megabytes, gb/gigabytes, tb/terabytes)
`--tree`	`-t`	Show directory tree
`--properties`	`-p`	Show comprehensive file/directory analysis
`--no-color`		Disable colored output
`--disk <DISK>`	`-m`	Disk operations ('list' or specific disk name)
`--search <PATTERN>`	`-e`	Search files using regex pattern
`--excluding <PATTERN>`	`-x`	Exclude files matching regex pattern
`--extension <EXT>`	`-E`	Only list files with the specified extension (e.g. `rs`, `txt`, `pdf`)
`--sort-by <CRITERIA>`		Sort by: name, size, date
`--duplicates`		Find duplicate files
`--content-dups`		Verify duplicates by content hash instead of size only (true duplicates)
`--hash <ALGORITHM>`		Hash algorithm for content-based deduplication (`sha256` or `md5`)
`--export <FILE>`		Export results to JSON/CSV
`--file <FILE>`	`-f`	Analyze a specific file
`--directory <DIR>`	`-d`	Analyze a directory as a whole
`--recursive`	`-r`	Enable recursive searching and analysis
`--max-depth <N>`		Limit recursive search depth (requires `--recursive`)
`--json`		Output results as JSON to stdout
`--whole`	`-w`	Analyze path as whole (auto-detects file or directory)
`--interactive`	`-i`	Enable interactive menu mode
`--lines`	`-l`	Count lines in files
`--preview [MODE]`	`-P`	Preview file contents (`N`, `f/N`, or `l/N` for first/last N lines)
`--exclude-dirs`	`-X`	Exclude all directories from results
`--top <N>`		Show the N largest files in a directory
`--ignore-hidden`		Skip hidden files and directories (dotfiles)
`--stat`		Show a summary of directory statistics (file count, total size, etc.)
`--larger-than <SIZE>`		Filter files larger than threshold (`10MB`, `1GB`, `8 GB`, `2MiB`, `1GiB`, or path to file)
`--smaller-than <SIZE>`		Filter files smaller than threshold (`1KB`, `500MB`, `500 MB`, `2MiB`, `1GiB`, or path to file)
`--equal-to <SIZE>`		Filter files equal to threshold (`10MB`, `1GB`, `8 GB`, `2MiB`, `1GiB`, or path to file)
`--older-than <DURATION>`		Filter files older than duration (`30d`, `2w`, `1y`, `yyyy-mm-dd`, `30 d`)
`--newer-than <DURATION>`		Filter files newer than duration (`7d`, `1w`, `7 d`)
`--empty`		Show only empty files and directories
`--content <PATTERN>`		Search for pattern inside file contents
`--delete-duplicates`		Delete duplicate files, keeping the first occurrence
`--merge-duplicates`		Merge duplicate files by hard linking
`--force`		Skip confirmation prompts for destructive actions
`--language <LANG>`	`--lang`	Launch interactive language selection (or set directly with a language code like `japanese`)

Examples

Everyday Usage

# Quick directory overview (shows permissions & dates)
filebyte

# Find large files with sizes
filebyte -s --sort-by size

# Analyze disk usage
filebyte --disk list -s gb

# Find all PDFs
filebyte --search "\.pdf$"

# List only files with a specific extension
filebyte --extension rs
filebyte -E txt

# Recursively list only files with a specific extension
filebyte --extension rs --recursive
filebyte -E txt -r

# Check a specific file's details
filebyte -f important.txt

# Get directory metadata
filebyte -d /home/user/projects

# Search recursively through directories
filebyte -r --search "\.rs$"

# Recursively exclude hidden files and sort by size
filebyte -r --excluding "^\." --sort-by size

# Count lines in all files in current directory
filebyte -l

# Count lines recursively, excluding target directories
filebyte -lr -x target

# Exclude all directories from output
filebyte -X

# Find files larger than 100MB
filebyte --larger-than 100MB

# Find files smaller than 1KB
filebyte --smaller-than 1KB

# Find files exactly matching a size
filebyte --equal-to 50MB
filebyte --equal-to 2MiB

# Find files older than 30 days
filebyte --older-than 30d

# Find files newer than 1 week
filebyte --newer-than 1w

# Show only empty files and directories
filebyte --empty

# Search for text inside files
filebyte --content "TODO"

# Recursively search for text inside files
filebyte --content "FIXME" -r

# Delete duplicate files (keeps first occurrence)
filebyte --duplicates --delete-duplicates --force

# Merge duplicates by hard linking
filebyte --duplicates --merge-duplicates --force

# Recursively search for a file by name
filebyte -r -f filename

# Gets the file info for foo and counts the lines of the bar file
filebyte -f foo -l bar

# Gets the info for foo and bar
filebyte foo bar

# Gets the info for foo and bar directory
filebyte foo bar/

Advanced Analysis

# Comprehensive file analysis
filebyte -p --export analysis.json

# Find and sort duplicates by size
filebyte --duplicates -s --sort-by size

# Exclude system files and sort by date
filebyte --excluding "^\." --sort-by date

# Recursively analyze entire project structure
filebyte -r -p /home/user/projects

# Find all config files recursively
filebyte -r --search "config" --sort-by date

# Analyze path as whole (auto-detects file or directory)
filebyte -w /path/to/something

# Search with full paths shown
filebyte -r -e kilo

# Preview file contents (first/last N lines)
filebyte --preview 20 important.txt
filebyte -P 5 src/main.rs
filebyte -Pf notes.txt
filebyte -Pl notes.txt
filebyte -Pf20 notes.txt
filebyte -Pl20 notes.txt
filebyte -P f:5 notes.txt
filebyte -P l:5 notes.txt

Power User Tips

# Monitor large directories
filebyte /var/log -s mb --sort-by size

# Find recently modified config files
filebyte --search "config" --sort-by date -p

# Disk space analysis
filebyte --disk list -s gb | head -10

# Deep analysis of entire filesystem
filebyte -r / -s gb --sort-by size | head -20

# Find all executables recursively
filebyte -r --search "\.(exe|bin|sh)$" --sort-by size

# Quick file analysis - no flags needed!
filebyte important.txt