til/unix/find-top-level-directories-matching-a-pattern.md

Find Top-Level Directories Matching A Pattern

I like using fd as an alternative to find. In my experience it is more intuitive to use. For instance, I wanted to find all the top-level directories in my current directory that contained the word next. I was able to get the command mostly right by guessing the flags, only checking the man page once.

On my first attempt, it prompted me with a suggestion for a flag that wasn't quite right. I tried --depth, but it should have been --maxdepth.

$ fd --depth 0 next ./
error: Found argument '--depth' which wasn't expected, or isn't valid in this context
        Did you mean --maxdepth?

Then I checked the man page for how to specify the file type as directory -- using -t or --type with d.

And here is the command that gets me all top-level directories matching next in my current directory:

$ fd --maxdepth 1 --type d next ./

bookshelf-nextjs-prisma-postgres
bookshelf-prisma-nextjs-planetscale
my-next-app
next-bookshelf
next-personal-site
next-sanity-v3-example
try-trpc-next

See man fd for more details.