A CLI utility that manages file selections for batch operations on Unix. Store, retrieve, and manipulate file lists across command runs. Selections persist until you explicitly clear them.

Unix is great for file operations due to the customizability of its shells. However, by default they provide only basic file operations (copy, move, rename, delete) and lack a persistent selection mechanism. When you need to collect hundreds or thousands of files scattered across different directories, traditional approaches fail:

• Shell globs are limited to single directory patterns
• Find with -exec requires knowing all criteria upfront, no iterative refinement
• Manual file arguments become unwieldy beyond a dozen paths
• Xargs pipelines don't preserve selections between commands

fsel solves this by decoupling file selection from file operations. You can:

1. Build your selection iteratively over multiple commands
2. Refine it using different search tools (find, fzf, fd, custom scripts)
3. Verify the selection before applying operations
4. Reuse the same selection for multiple different commands
5. Process thousands of files without command-line length limits

Example workflow:

find /project -name '*.log' | fsel          # Initial selection
find /backup -mtime +30 -name '*.log' | fsel  # Add more files
fsel -v                                     # Validate all paths exist
fsel | xargs tar czf logs.tar.gz            # Archive them
fsel | xargs -I{} rsync {} backup:/storage/ # Then backup
fsel -c                                     # Clear when done

fsel provides a shared selection buffer that works across completely different file management interfaces. This enables workflows that were previously impossible:

Real-world example using Emacs Dired with shell commands:

1. Navigate and mark files in Dired (visual interface, powerful filtering)
2. Export selection to fsel via emacs-fm integration (one command * S in Dired buffer)
3. Switch to terminal and process files with any Unix tools

# In terminal, use the same selection:
fsel | xargs -I{} convert {} -resize 50% resized/{}
fsel | parallel gzip {}
fsel -c  # Clear when done

This works potentially with any file manager that implements fsel integration, like it did for Dired (Emacs). The selection buffer is the universal interface!

While I don't claim that fsel format should become the standard, the approach of having a standardized selection format that persists across different tool invocations certainly deserves the attention of file managment tools developers.

• Preserve selection between command calls using temporary files
• Accept arguments via stdin pipeline or as file arguments, including globbing pattern expansion
• Implement lockfile mechanism to prevent concurrency collisions
• Suited for really large selections (keep data on disk + uses index-based deduplication).
• validate (-v) — Validate the selection by checking if all stored file paths exist.

• GNU/Linux system
• OpenSSL development libraries
• C compiler (gcc/clang)

git clone https://github.com/uwfmt/fsel.git
cd fsel
make
sudo make install  # Optional, installs to /usr/local/bin

Utility is in development yet. Names of options and commands may be changed in future versions.

fsel ~/*.log
fsel /var/lelog/**/*.log

for f in `fsel`; do mv $f /var/archive; done

ls -1 *.bak | fsel

fzf -m | fsel

find /home -name '*.conf' | fsel

for f in `fsel -sc`; do cp $f /mnt/backup; done

Forcely overwrite old selections when it needed:

fsel -fr important_file.*

fsel -u

Also remember that old good man page available for this utility.

Just fsel -h for help.

• Storage Location: $TMPDIR/fsel_<UID>.tmp (defaults to /tmp if TMPDIR not set)
• Index Files: SHA-256 hashes in $TMPDIR/fsel_<UID>.idx
• Lockfiles: $TMPDIR/fsel_<UID>.lock for operation safety
• Security: 0600 permissions on all user files

• emacs-fm — extension for Dired inside GNU/Emacs

Under terms of GPL v3 - see LICENSE for full text.