🦀 rust_filesearch - Fast Developer Tools

A dual-binary Rust workspace providing two powerful command-line tools for developers:

• fexplorer - Fast file system exploration, searching, and analysis
• px - Intelligent project switcher with fuzzy search and frecency ranking

🎯 Quick Start

# Install both tools
cargo install --path . --bin fexplorer
cargo install --path . --bin px

# Set up px
px init
# Edit ~/.config/px/config.toml with your project directories
px sync

# Now you're ready!
px open myproject           # Jump to a project instantly
fx find . --name "*.rs"     # Find files in current project

📦 Two Tools, One Workspace

fexplorer - File System Explorer

Fast filesystem traversal, searching, and analysis tool.

Use fexplorer when:

• Finding specific files across projects
• Analyzing disk usage
• Generating reports (HTML/Markdown)
• Exploring unfamiliar codebases
• Need structured output (JSON/CSV)

px - Project Switcher

Intelligent project management with fuzzy search and frecency ranking.

Use px when:

• Switching between projects quickly
• Opening projects in editor + terminal
• Tracking project access patterns
• Finding projects by name/fuzzy match
• Managing multiple development workspaces

See WORKFLOWS.md for powerful ways to combine both tools!

✨ fexplorer Features

• 🚀 Fast traversal with parallel processing (default)
• 🔍 Powerful filtering by name (glob/regex), extension, size, date, and type
• 📊 Multiple output formats: pretty (colored), JSON, NDJSON, CSV
• 📄 Template export: HTML and Markdown reports (default)
• 🌳 Tree view with ASCII art visualization
• 📏 Size analysis with directory aggregation (du-like)
• 🔎 Content search (grep functionality, default)
• 🔁 Duplicate detection via BLAKE3 hashing (optional)
• 🔗 Git integration for status and change tracking (optional)
• 👁️ Watch mode for real-time filesystem monitoring (optional)
• 🙈 Respects .gitignore by default
• ⚙️ Cross-platform: macOS, Linux, Windows
• 🎨 TTY-aware colored output
• 🔒 Memory-safe Rust implementation with zero unsafe code

📦 Installation

Quick Install (Recommended)

cd rust_filesearch
cargo install --path .

This installs fexplorer to ~/.cargo/bin/ with default features:

• ✅ Parallel traversal (fast)
• ✅ Template export (HTML/Markdown)
• ✅ Content search (grep)

Using the Install Script

./install.sh

Verify Installation

which fexplorer
# Should show: /Users/yourusername/.cargo/bin/fexplorer

fexplorer --version
# Should show: fexplorer 0.1.0

macOS Setup

If fexplorer command isn't found, add cargo bin to your PATH:

# Add to ~/.zshrc
export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

# Reload shell
source ~/.zshrc

Optional Features

# Install with all features
cargo install --path . --all-features

# Install with specific features
cargo install --path . --features "dedup,git,tui"

Available features:

• parallel (default) - Multi-threaded traversal
• templates (default) - HTML/Markdown export
• grep (default) - Content search
• watch - Filesystem monitoring
• progress - Progress bars
• dedup - Duplicate file detection
• git - Git integration
• tui - Interactive TUI mode
• trends - Filesystem trend analysis

✨ px Features

• 🚀 Fast project switching - Open projects in editor + iTerm2 instantly
• 🔍 Fuzzy search - Find projects by partial name matching
• 📊 Frecency ranking - Most frequent and recent projects surface first
• 📁 Git integration - Track branches, commits, and uncommitted changes
• 🎯 Smart filtering - Filter by uncommitted changes, inactive projects
• 💾 Caching - Fast startup with JSON index caching
• 📝 Rich info - View project details, git status, README excerpts
• 🔄 Auto-sync - Keep project index up to date
• ⚙️ Configurable - Set editor, scan directories, and more

📦 px Installation

# Install px binary
cargo install --path . --bin px

# Initialize configuration
px init

# Edit config with your project directories
nano ~/.config/px/config.toml

# Example config:
# scan_dirs = [
#   "/Users/you/Developer/projects",
#   "/Users/you/Work/repos"
# ]
# default_editor = "cursor"  # or "code", "vim", etc.

# Sync and index all projects
px sync

Verify:

px list                     # List all projects
px info myproject          # Show project details
px open myproject          # Open in editor + terminal

Shell Aliases (recommended):

# Add to ~/.zshrc
alias p='px open'
alias pl='px list'
alias pi='px info'
alias ps='px sync'

🚀 fexplorer Usage

List Files

List entries with metadata and sorting:

# List current directory
fexplorer list

# List with custom sorting
fexplorer list --sort size --desc

# Show directories first
fexplorer list --dirs-first --sort name

# Include hidden files
fexplorer list --hidden

# Output as JSON
fexplorer list --format json

# Custom columns
fexplorer list --columns name,size,mtime

Tree View

Display directory structure as an ASCII tree:

# Show directory tree
fexplorer tree .

# Limit depth
fexplorer tree ~/projects --max-depth 3

# Directories first
fexplorer tree --dirs-first

# Disable .gitignore filtering
fexplorer tree --no-gitignore

Find Files

Search with powerful filtering:

# Find Rust files (use --name, not --names!)
fexplorer find . --name "*.rs"

# Multiple patterns
fexplorer find . --name "*.rs" --name "*.toml"

# By extension
fexplorer find . --ext rs,toml,md

# Regex pattern
fexplorer find . --regex "^test_.*\.rs$"

# Size range
fexplorer find . --min-size 10KB --max-size 10MB

# Modified after date
fexplorer find . --after "2024-01-01"
fexplorer find . --after "1 day ago"

# Combine filters
fexplorer find . --name "*.rs" --min-size 1KB --after "7 days ago"

# Find only directories
fexplorer find . --kind dir

# Category-based search
fexplorer find . --category source

Template Export (NEW!)

Generate HTML or Markdown reports:

# HTML report of recent changes
fexplorer find . --after "1 day ago" --template html > report.html

# Markdown table
fexplorer find . --name "*.md" --template markdown > files.md

# Open in browser (macOS)
fexplorer find . --after "1 day ago" --template html > report.html && open report.html

Suppress macOS Permission Warnings

When scanning from home directory:

# Use -q (quiet) flag
fexplorer -q find ~ --name "*.pdf"

# Or search specific directories
fexplorer find ~/Developer --name "*.rs"
fexplorer find ~/Documents --name "*.md"

🚀 px Usage

Quick Commands

# List all projects (sorted by frecency)
px list

# Filter projects
px list --filter has-changes      # Show projects with uncommitted changes
px list --filter inactive-30d     # Projects not accessed in 30 days
px list --filter inactive-90d     # Projects not accessed in 90 days

# Open project (fuzzy match)
px open myproj                    # Matches "myproject"
px open whatsgood                 # Opens "whatsgood-homepage"

# Show project details
px info myproject

# Sync/rebuild index
px sync

# Initialize config
px init

Real-World Examples

# Morning routine: check what needs attention
px list --filter has-changes

# Jump to project instantly
px open rust_filesearch
# Opens in Cursor + creates iTerm2 window at project directory

# Find project you haven't touched in a while
px list --filter inactive-90d

# Get detailed info before starting work
px info whatsgood-homepage
# Shows:
#   - Branch and git status
#   - Last commit details
#   - README excerpt
#   - Access frequency stats

# After cloning new repos
px sync
# Scans configured directories and updates index

Combined with fexplorer

# Open project, then explore files
px open myproject
fx find . --name "*.rs" --after "7 days ago"

# Find files across all projects
fx find ~/Developer --name "config.toml"

# Find large uncommitted files
px list --filter has-changes | while read proj; do
  fx git $(px info $proj | grep Path: | awk '{print $2}') --status modified
done

See docs/PX_USER_GUIDE.md and docs/WORKFLOWS.md for advanced usage!

🚀 fexplorer Size Analysis

Calculate and display file/directory sizes:

# Show sizes
fexplorer size .

# Aggregate directory sizes (like 'du')
fexplorer size . --aggregate --du

# Top 20 largest files
fexplorer size . --top 20

# Sort by size descending (default for size command)
fexplorer size ~/Downloads --format json

Watch Mode

Monitor filesystem changes in real-time (requires watch feature):

# Watch for all changes
fexplorer watch ~/Downloads

# Watch specific events
fexplorer watch . --events create,modify

# Output as NDJSON (streaming)
fexplorer watch . --format ndjson

🎛️ Options

Global Options

• --no-color - Disable colored output
• -q, --quiet - Quiet mode (suppress non-essential output)

Common Options (All Subcommands)

• --max-depth <N> - Maximum traversal depth
• --hidden - Include hidden files
• --no-gitignore - Disable .gitignore filtering
• --follow-symlinks - Follow symbolic links
• --format <FORMAT> - Output format: pretty, json, ndjson, csv
• --columns <COLS> - Comma-separated columns: path,name,size,mtime,kind,perms,owner

Parallel Feature Options

With --features parallel:

• --threads <N> - Number of threads for parallel traversal (default: 4)

Progress Feature Options

With --features progress:

• --progress - Show progress bar during traversal

📊 Output Formats

Pretty (Default)

Human-readable colored output with automatic column sizing:

file1.txt  1.2 KiB  2024-01-15 10:30:00  file
dir1/      0 B      2024-01-15 10:25:00  dir

JSON

Structured JSON array (buffered):

[
  {
    "path": "file1.txt",
    "name": "file1.txt",
    "size": 1234,
    "kind": "file",
    "mtime": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
  }
]

NDJSON

Streaming newline-delimited JSON (one object per line):

{"path":"file1.txt","name":"file1.txt","size":1234,"kind":"file","mtime":"2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"}
{"path":"file2.txt","name":"file2.txt","size":5678,"kind":"file","mtime":"2024-01-15T10:31:00Z"}

CSV

Comma-separated values with header:

path,name,size,mtime,kind
file1.txt,file1.txt,1234,2024-01-15T10:30:00Z,file
file2.txt,file2.txt,5678,2024-01-15T10:31:00Z,file

🔧 Development

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70+ (stable)
• Cargo

Building

# Debug build
cargo build

# Release build (optimized)
cargo build --release

# With all features
cargo build --release --all-features

Testing

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run unit tests only
cargo test --lib

# Run integration tests
cargo test --test integration_tests

# With all features
cargo test --all-features

Linting and Formatting

# Format code
cargo fmt

# Lint with clippy
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

# Check without building
cargo check

Using Justfile

A justfile is provided for common tasks:

# Show available commands
just

# Format, lint, and test
just check

# Build release
just build

# Run example
just run list .

🏗️ Architecture

This is a dual-binary Cargo workspace with ~80% code reuse:

rust_filesearch/
├── src/
│   ├── bin/
│   │   ├── fexplorer.rs  # fexplorer CLI entry point
│   │   └── px.rs         # px CLI entry point
│   ├── lib.rs            # Shared library interface
│   ├── cli.rs            # Shared argument parsing (clap)
│   ├── errors.rs         # Shared error types (thiserror)
│   ├── models.rs         # Shared data structures
│   ├── config.rs         # Shared config (fexplorer + px)
│   ├── util.rs           # Shared utilities
│   ├── fs/
│   │   ├── traverse.rs   # Directory traversal (used by both)
│   │   ├── filters.rs    # Predicate-based filtering
│   │   ├── metadata.rs   # Cross-platform metadata
│   │   ├── size.rs       # Directory size calculation
│   │   ├── git.rs        # Git operations (used by both)
│   │   └── watch.rs      # Filesystem watching (feature-gated)
│   ├── output/
│   │   ├── format.rs     # OutputSink trait
│   │   ├── pretty.rs     # Colored terminal output
│   │   ├── json.rs       # JSON & NDJSON formatters
│   │   └── csvw.rs       # CSV formatter
│   └── px/
│       ├── commands.rs   # px command implementations
│       ├── project.rs    # Project model with git status
│       ├── index.rs      # Project index with JSON caching
│       ├── search.rs     # Fuzzy search with SkimMatcherV2
│       └── frecency.rs   # Firefox-style frecency algorithm
├── tests/
│   └── integration_tests.rs  # E2E tests with assert_cmd
└── Cargo.toml            # Workspace with [[bin]] entries

Key Design Decisions:

• Dual binary approach: Separate binaries sharing 80%+ infrastructure
• Git integration reuse: Both tools use same git operations from fs/git.rs
• Config separation: PxConfig for px, existing config for fexplorer
• JSON caching: px uses ~/.cache/px/projects.json for fast startup
• Frecency algorithm: Firefox-style ranking (frequency + recency)

📈 Performance

fexplorer Performance

• Streaming architecture: Processes entries as they're discovered, minimizing memory usage
• Parallel traversal (optional): Leverages rayon and jwalk for multi-threaded directory walking
• Zero-copy where possible: Uses references and borrows to avoid unnecessary clones
• Respects .gitignore: Skips ignored paths early, reducing I/O

Benchmarks (tested on ~50,000 files):

px Performance

• JSON caching: Fast startup (~10ms) after initial sync
• Parallel scanning: Uses rayon + jwalk for multi-threaded project discovery
• Respects gitignore: Skips ignored directories during sync
• Fuzzy matching: SkimMatcherV2 provides fast substring matching

Real-World Results:

Memory usage: ~5MB for index with 243 projects

🛣️ Roadmap

Completed ✅

• Parallel traversal
• Template export (HTML/Markdown)
• Content search (grep)
• Duplicate file detection
• Git integration
• Config profiles
• px - Project switcher with frecency ⭐

In Progress 🚧

• TUI mode with interactive navigation
• Enhanced px features (Obsidian vault integration)

Planned 📋

• Archive support (zip, tar.gz)
• Configurable ignore patterns beyond .gitignore
• Export directory structure as JSON schema
• Plugin system for custom filters
• Publish to crates.io

📚 Documentation

Core Documentation

• docs/FEXPLORER_USER_GUIDE.md - Complete fexplorer guide
• docs/PX_USER_GUIDE.md - Complete px guide
• docs/WORKFLOWS.md - Combined workflows using both tools ⭐

Additional Resources

• docs/QUICK_START.md - Quick reference guide
• docs/INSTALLATION.md - Detailed installation
• docs/ - Complete documentation index

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes with tests
4. Run cargo fmt && cargo clippy && cargo test
5. Submit a pull request

📄 License

Licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)

at your option.

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with these excellent crates:

Core Dependencies (Both Tools)

• clap - Command-line argument parsing
• ignore - Gitignore support from ripgrep
• walkdir - Filesystem traversal
• serde - Serialization framework
• chrono - Date and time library
• rayon - Data parallelism
• git2 - Git operations via libgit2

fexplorer-Specific

• notify - Filesystem notifications

px-Specific

• fuzzy-matcher - Fuzzy string matching
• toml - Configuration parsing

Made with 🦀 and ❤️ by Rust enthusiasts