This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by seeyebe
If you've ever used dir /s, where, or even Windows Explorer to search for files and thought "this should be faster", you're not alone.
Say hello to snub — a lightning-fast, recursive file search utility for the Windows command line, written in modern C17, built for developers who need control, speed, and results.
Why snub?
- ✅ Blazing fast, thanks to a multithreaded C backend
- ✅ Native Windows CLI experience (no WSL, no dependencies)
- ✅ Advanced glob pattern support (
*,?,{jpg,png}) - ✅ Flexible filters: file size, date, extension, depth
- ✅ Structured JSON output for scripting
- ✅ Skips clutter (
.git,node_modules) by default — unless you ask
🧪 Real-World Examples
:: Find all C/C++ files modified this year
snub C:\Dev "*.c" --glob --ext c,h --after 2025-01-01
:: Locate images larger than 500KB
snub D:\Photos beach --ext jpg,png --min 500K
:: Export recent reports to JSON
snub C:\Users\me\Documents report --ext pdf,docx --after 2024-12-01 --json
:: Deep search with symlinks, output to file
snub D:\Code "*" --ext cpp,h --follow-symlinks --max-depth 10 --out results.txt
🛠 Feature Highlights
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
--glob |
Match patterns using *, ?, [abc], {jpg,png}
|
--ext |
Filter by extension: --ext c,h,cpp
|
--min / --max
|
Filter by size: 500K, 10M, 2G
|
--after / --before
|
Filter by modified date (YYYY-MM-DD) |
--json |
Output structured JSON |
--threads |
Control parallelism (or use --stats to debug) |
--no-skip |
Include .git, node_modules, and other ignored dirs |
And more...
Snub is designed to be composable, scriptable, and precise — it won’t second-guess you, and it won’t waste your time.
⚡ Performance-Focused
snub is built for speed:
- Written in C17 — no scripting language overhead
- Parallelized search with configurable threads
- Designed to return results instantly, even in massive directories
📦 Install or Clone
Ready to try it?
🔗 GitHub Repository
📁 Precompiled binaries available under Releases
Works on Windows 10+, no runtime dependencies needed.
🙌 Contribute or Star It
If snub saves you time:
- ⭐ Star the repo to show support
- 🐞 Report bugs, suggest features
- 📢 Share it with fellow Windows CLI users
💬 Why I Built It
Windows Explorer search feels broken. Even basic filters like "files larger than 1MB, modified this week" require clunky GUIs or slow tools.
I built snub because I wanted grep-like speed with Explorer-level filters, but in a real CLI tool. Now I use it every day — maybe you will too.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by seeyebe
seeyebe | Sciencx (2025-07-09T23:58:15+00:00) Stop Waiting on Windows Explorer: Meet snub — A Suspiciously Fast Recursive File Search Tool. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/07/09/stop-waiting-on-windows-explorer-meet-snub-a-suspiciously-fast-recursive-file-search-tool/
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