mfsmetasearch(8)

NAME
mfsmetasearch - uses MooseFS metadata to find specific files

SYNOPSIS
mfsmetasearch [-f J|C|C x] [-o output_file] [-e expr | -c chunkid_file] metadata_file

DESCRIPTION
mfsmetasearch is a tool that finds files and other objects in MooseFS's metadata that either match the provided expression (if -e option is used) or contain one or more of the chunk numbers listed in hexadecimal format in the provided file (if -c option is used).

OPTIONS

-f  switch the default TXT output format to JSON (J) or CSV (C); for CSV, if only C is specified, default separator will be used (comma), if second character is specified, this character will be used as the separator in CSV data

-o  write output to output_file instead of stdout

-e  expression expr that a file or object must match to be listed in output

-c  file chunkid_file containing chunk ids, only files containing one of these chunks will be listed in output; chunks ids must be listed in hexadecimal format, only last 56 bits of read values will be considered chunk ids, meaning bits denoting EC parts don't have to be stripped in this case

metadata_file
    path to metadata.mfs file

  EXPRESSIONS
The expression can consist of a number of symbols, values and operators. A symbol is a property of a file, a value is the value of that property for a particular file and operators build the entire expression to indicate if a certain property should match, be different etc.

Symbols and values:
inode		inode number (value: numeric)
type			inode type (constants list: file,directory,symlink,fifo,blockdev,chardev,socket,trash,sustained)
eattr		extra attributes bit mask (bit constants list: noowner,noattrcache,noentrycache,nodatacache,snapshot,undeletable,appendonly,immutable)
sclass		number of storage class (value: numeric; class numbers can be checked via GUI or CLI)
uid			user id (value: numeric)
gid			group id (value: numeric)
mode			access mode bit mask (bit constants list: sticky,sgid,suid,ur,uw,ux,gr,gw,gx,or,ow,ox)
umode		access mode for uid bit mask (bit constants list: read,write,execute)
gmode		access mode for gid bit mask (bit constants list: read,write,execute)
omode		access mode for others bit mask (bit constants list: read,write,execute)
atime		access time (value: numeric - unix timestamp in seconds)
mtime		modify time (value: numeric - unix timestamp in seconds)
ctime		change time (value: numeric - unix timestamp in seconds)
tretention	trash retention in hours (value: numeric)
length		file length (value: numeric; zero for other objects)
major		major id (value: numeric; for blockdev and chardev only)
minor		minor id (value: numeric; for blockdev and chardev only)
chunkid		chunk's numerical id (value: numeric; expression will be tested for all file chunks and accepted if one of them is true)

Accepted operators (C-style): - + * / % >> << < <= > >= == != ~ & ^ | ! && ^^ || ?:

EXAMPLES

mfsmetasearch -e 'length<4096' /var/lib/mfs/metadata.mfs.back
    this will show all files shorter than 4096 bytes (having size smaller than 4096 bytes) and all objects other than files

mfsmetasearch -e 'type==file && length<4096' /var/lib/mfs/metadata.mfs.back
    this will show all files shorter than 4096 bytes (having size smaller than 4096 bytes)

mfsmetasearch -e 'umode&execute && gmode&execute && !(omode&execute)' /var/lib/mfs/metadata.mfs.back
    this will show all inodes that have the execute bit set for both user and group, but not others

mfsmetasearch -e 'chunkid==101020 || chunkid==0xFF77AA || chunkid==01234 || chunkid==0b1010101' /var/lib/mfs/metadata.mfs.back
    this will show all files that contain chunk with decimal id 101020 or chunk with hex id FF77AA or chunk with octal id 1234 or chunk with binary id 1010101

mfsmetasearch -e 'sclass==11' /var/lib/mfs/metadata.mfs.back
    this will show all objects that have storage class set to the class with number 11

mfsmetasearch -c /tmp/mychunkids.txt /var/lib/mfs/metadata.mfs.back
    this will show all files, that contain one of the chunks listed in text file /tmp/mychunkids.txt

REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <bugs@moosefs.com>.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2026 Jakub Kruszona-Zawadzki, Saglabs SA This file is part of MooseFS. MooseFS is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 2 (only). MooseFS is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

SEE ALSO
mfsmaster(8), mfsmetadump(8)