ftwin

I recently had the pleasure of testing out ftwin, a useful tool for locating duplicate files on your file system. Before diving in, I highly recommend reading the related blog entries for a better understanding of why this tool was developed and how it works.

To use ftwin, simply enter in the command line:

./ftwin [OPTION]... [FILES or DIRECTORIES]...

This will allow you to find identical files either passed as parameters or recursively located within directories.

The tool offers a wide range of options to customize your search, including:

- --case-unsensitive: applies to regex match
- --display-size: displays size before duplicates
- --regex-ignore-file: ignores filenames matching this option
- --follow-symlink: follows symbolic links
- --help: displays usage
- --ignore-list: comma-separated list of filenames to ignore
- --minimal-length: sets a minimum size for files to process
- --optimize-memory: reduces memory usage at the cost of increased processing time
- --priority-path: displays files in this path first when duplicates are reported
- --recurse-subdir: recurses through subdirectories
- --separator: sets the separator character between twin files (default is "n")
- --verbose: displays a progress bar
- --version: displays the version
- --excessive-size: defines an excessive size for files that switch off mmap use

Overall, I found ftwin to be an incredibly useful tool for efficiently locating duplicate files based on content. Its extensive options make it highly customizable and versatile for various needs.