Enhance your productivity with macOS Terminal aliases, reducing time spent on repetitive tasks and streamlining your workflow. In this guide, we’ll introduce two powerful aliases: fsearch and fgrep.
fsearch is a convenient alias enabling file searches within your current directory and its subdirectories. Simply provide the file name (or part of it) as an argument. Here’s how to define it:
fsearch() {
find . -type f -iname "*$1*"
}
On the other hand, fgrep facilitates content searches within files. This alias searches for a specified string in all files within the current directory and its subdirectories. Here’s how it’s defined:
fgrep() {
find . -type f -exec grep -i --color=auto -Hn "$1" {} +
}
To incorporate these aliases into your workflow, add them to your .zshrc file for Zsh users, or they will seamlessly work with Bash. By integrating these aliases into your daily routine, you can significantly enhance the efficiency and enjoyment of your terminal usage.
Example Usage
Let’s dive into some practical examples to see these aliases in action.
1. Using fsearch to Find Files:
Suppose you’re working on a project with multiple files and need to locate a specific file named report.txt. You can use fsearch to quickly find it:
fsearch "report.txt"
This command will search for report.txt within the current directory and its subdirectories, displaying the path(s) to any matching file(s) found.
2. Utilizing fgrep to Search File Contents:
Imagine you have a directory containing various text files, and you need to find occurrences of the word important within these files. You can use fgrep for this purpose:
fgrep "content"
This command will search for the word content within the content of all text files in the current directory and its subdirectories. It will display the filename, line number, and the line containing the matching text.
Mikhail Safir 