The next phase in the life of the popular recls recursive file-system search library is recls 100%: a series of 100%-pure per-language implementations. The first of these, recls 100% .NET, is a 100%-C# implementation, which has the following features:

• breadth-first / depth-first search
• search of files and/or directories
• searching of hidden and/or system files/directories
• specification of multi-part patterns, e.g. "*.cpp|makefile"
• marking of directories with a trailing slash
• error callback interface / delegate
• progress callback interface / delegate
• skipping of inaccessible directories
• rich representation of file/directory entries, including path, directory, name, size, timestamps, directory parts, and more

recls 100% .NET is a donationware product, and is available from http://recls.net. It is written to production-quality standards, yet is available for free, and may be used without restriction in commercial and/or non-commercial software systems. Users are asked to make a donation to the recls project to help ensure that the project is actively maintained and improved.

recls 100% .NET is very easy to use, based around the FileSearcher static class, which defines methods, constants and delegates for file-system enumeration. File-system entries are represented by the IEntry interface, which defines a number of properties representing the entry's characteristics. The following examples illustrate some of the available functionality:

Example 1

List all font files in the windows directory or any of its subdirectories.

foreach(IEntry entry in FileSearcher.Search(@"C:\windows", "*.fon|*.ttf"))
{
    Console.WriteLine(entry.Path);
}

Example 2

Search for all program and DLL files (including hidden) smaller than 10k in the current directory and all sub-directories up to 3 deep, reporting on any entries that cannot be enumerated. This example uses an anonymous delegate for the error handling, and LINQ for filtering and selecting the entry members.

var files = FileSearcher.DepthFirst.Search( // search in depth-first manner
    null,                                   // search current directory
    "m*.exe|n*.dll",                        // all programs beginning with m; all DLLs beginning with n
    SearchOptions.IncludeHidden,            // include hidden files/directories
    3,                                      // descend at most 3 directories
    null,                                   // don't need progress callback
    delegate(string path, Exception x)
    {
        // report on any entries that could not be enumerated, but ...
        Console.Error.WriteLine("could not enumerate {0}: {1}", path, x.Message);
        // ... continue the enumeration
        return ExceptionHandlerResult.ConsumeExceptionAndContinue;
    }
);

var results = from file in files
              where file.Size < 10240
              select file.SearchRelativePath;

foreach(var path in results)
{
    Console.WriteLine("entry: {0}", path);
}

Example 3

Display the names and sizes of all the immediate sub-directories of the current directory. The example uses the Recls extension method ForEach() in combination with a lambda expression.

FileSearcher.BreadthFirst.Search(
    null,                        // search current directory
    null,                        // all names
    SearchOptions.Directories | SearchOptions.IgnoreInaccessibleNodes, // only want dirs; don't worry about inaccessible entries
    0                            // do not recurse
 )
     .ForEach((d) => Console.WriteLine("{0} : {1}", d.Path, FileSearcher.CalculateDirectorySize(d.Path, FileSearcher.UnrestrictedDepth)));

This can also be expressed in a more conventional syntax.

foreach(IEntry entry in FileSearcher.BreadthFirst.Search(null, null, SearchOptions.Directories | SearchOptions.IgnoreInaccessibleNodes, 0))
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0} : {1}", entry.Path, FileSearcher.CalculateDirectorySize(entry, FileSearcher.UnrestrictedDepth));
}

Example 4

Get an entry representing a given path.

IEntry entry = FileSearcher.Stat(@"H:\freelibs\recls\100\recls.net\recls.100.sln");

if(null == entry)
{
    Console.Error.Write("file not found");
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "Path", entry.Path);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "SearchRelativePath", entry.SearchRelativePath);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "Drive", entry.Drive);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "DirectoryPath", entry.DirectoryPath);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "Directory", entry.Directory);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "SearchDirectory", entry.SearchDirectory);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "UncDrive", entry.UncDrive);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "File", entry.File);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "FileName", entry.FileName);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "FileExtension", entry.FileExtension);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "CreationTime", entry.CreationTime);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "ModificationTime", entry.ModificationTime);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "LastAccessTime", entry.LastAccessTime);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "LastStatusChangeTime", entry.LastStatusChangeTime);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "Size", entry.Size);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "Attributes", entry.Attributes);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "IsReadOnly", entry.IsReadOnly);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "IsDirectory", entry.IsDirectory);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t{1}", "IsUnc", entry.IsUnc);
    Console.WriteLine("{0,20}:\t[{1}]", "DirectoryParts", String.Join(", ", entry.DirectoryParts));
}

Gives the following results:

                                Path:   H:\freelibs\recls\100\recls.net\recls.100.sln
                  SearchRelativePath:   recls.100.sln
                               Drive:   H:
                       DirectoryPath:   H:\freelibs\recls\100\recls.net\
                           Directory:   \freelibs\recls\100\recls.net\
                     SearchDirectory:   H:\freelibs\recls\100\recls.net\
                            UncDrive:
                                File:   recls.100.sln
                            FileName:   recls.100
                       FileExtension:   .sln
                        CreationTime:   31/07/2009 11:40:44 AM
                    ModificationTime:   20/08/2009 3:40:00 PM
                      LastAccessTime:   20/08/2009 3:46:33 PM
                LastStatusChangeTime:   20/08/2009 3:40:00 PM
                                Size:   34157
                          Attributes:   ReadOnly, Archive, Compressed
                          IsReadOnly:   True
                         IsDirectory:   False
                               IsUnc:   False
                      DirectoryParts:   [\, freelibs\, recls\, 100\, recls.net\]