A fork of GNU findutils 4.10.0 that
replaces Unix timestamps with BrightDate scalars throughout bfind,
blocate, bupdatedb, and bxargs.
All tools are renamed with a b prefix so they coexist with standard
find/locate/xargs installations.
- What is BrightDate?
- Tools
- Building
- BrightDate in bfind
- BrightDate in blocate / bupdatedb
- BrightDate API (C)
- Tests
- Original findutils README
BrightDate is a monotonic decimal day counter rooted at the J2000.0 astronomical epoch (2000-01-01T11:58:55.816 UTC, or exactly 2000-01-01T12:00:00.000 TAI).
where
Converting TAI→UTC subtracts the cumulative leap-second offset (currently 37 seconds since 2017-01-01).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Epoch | J2000.0 = 2000-01-01T12:00:00.000 TAI |
| Unit | 1 BD = 86 400 SI seconds (one solar day) |
| Substrate | TAI (no leap-second discontinuities) |
| Format | Decimal, e.g. 9628.501783 |
| BD 0.0 | 2000-01-01T11:58:55.816 UTC |
| BD 9628 | ≈ 2026-05-12 (this fork was written) |
Because BD is TAI-based, it never jumps or repeats at a leap second.
A difference of 1.0 is always exactly 86 400 seconds.
The canonical Rust implementation is in brightdate-rust/.
The C implementation used by this fork lives in
find/brightdate.c and
find/brightdate.h.
| Binary | Replaces | Description |
|---|---|---|
bfind |
find |
File search with BrightDate time predicates and %W format |
blocate |
locate |
Database-backed file search; prints DB mtime as BD |
bupdatedb |
updatedb |
Database builder; uses bfind internally |
bxargs |
xargs |
Argument list builder (renamed; no BD-specific changes) |
- C compiler (GCC or Clang)
- GNU Autotools:
autoconf,automake ≥ 1.16,m4
git clone https://github.com/Digital-Defiance/bright-findutils.git
cd bright-findutils
autoreconf -fi # regenerate Makefile.in from Makefile.am
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
sudo make installTo build only bfind without installing:
autoreconf -fi
./configure
make -C gl # gnulib support library (generates headers)
make -C lib # findutils support library
make -C find # produces find/bfindTwo new primary predicates accept a BrightDate scalar (or any datetime
string accepted by --newermt):
# Files modified after BD 9628.0 (≈ 2026-05-12 00:00 UTC)
bfind /path -after 9628.0
# Files modified before BD 9000.0 (≈ 2024-08-17)
bfind /path -before 9000.0
# ISO 8601 strings still work too
bfind /path -after "2026-01-01"-after is equivalent to -newer but accepts BD scalars directly.
-before is the logical inverse — it matches files whose mtime is strictly
less than the reference time.
-printf gains a new %W format letter, analogous to %T (mtime as
strftime) but outputting BrightDate decimals:
| Specifier | Timestamp | Example output |
|---|---|---|
%Wt |
modification time | 9628.501783612 |
%Wa |
access time | 9628.501780234 |
%Wc |
status-change (inode) time | 9628.498579048 |
%WB |
birth (creation) time | 9628.480661705 |
# Print BD mtime of every .c file
bfind . -name '*.c' -printf '%Wt %p\n'
# Print all four timestamps
bfind . -maxdepth 1 -printf 't=%Wt a=%Wa c=%Wc B=%WB %f\n'The output precision is 9 decimal places (≈ 86.4 µs resolution).
-daystart is redefined for BrightDate: it sets the reference time to
floor(BD_now) — the start of the current BD day — rather than the local
calendar midnight. Because BD days are exactly 86 400 seconds, this is
unambiguous even during a leap second.
# Files modified in the current BD day
bfind . -daystart -mtime 0The -newerXt family (-newerat, -newerct, -newermt, -newerBt) will
try to parse its argument as a BrightDate scalar first, then fall back to the
parse_datetime string parser.
# -newermt with a BD scalar
bfind . -newermt 9628.0 -printf '%Wt %f\n'blocate --statistics now displays the database modification time as a
BrightDate value instead of a localtime string:
Database was last modified at BD 9628.501783612
bupdatedb is otherwise identical to updatedb, but calls bfind
internally to build the file database.
Declared in find/brightdate.h, implemented in
find/brightdate.c.
/* Convert a BrightDate scalar to a struct timespec (UTC wall clock). */
struct timespec bd_to_timespec (double bd);
/* Convert a struct timespec to a BrightDate scalar. */
double timespec_to_bd (struct timespec ts);
/* Return the current time as a BrightDate scalar. */
double brightdate_now (void);
/* Return true iff str looks like a BD literal (digits + optional dot). */
bool is_brightdate_literal (const char *str);
/* Parse a BD literal into *result. Returns false if not a valid literal. */
bool parse_brightdate_literal (const char *str, double *result);brightdate.c embeds a static leap-second table (28 entries, current through
2028-06-28). The table is sourced from IERS Bulletin C / IANA
leap-seconds.list. Update the table when new leap seconds are announced.
BrightDate-specific tests live in tests/find/:
| Test | What it covers |
|---|---|
brightdate_printf.sh |
%Wt, %Wa, %Wc, %WB format specifiers |
brightdate_after_before.sh |
-after / -before BD scalar predicates |
brightdate_daystart.sh |
-daystart BD floor behaviour |
Run all tests with:
make checkRun a single test:
make check TESTS=tests/find/brightdate_printf.shThis package contains the GNU find, xargs, and locate programs. find and xargs comply with POSIX 1003.2. They also support a large number of additional options, some borrowed from Unix and some unique to GNU.
See NEWS for a list of major changes in the current release.
See COPYING for copying conditions.
See INSTALL for compilation and installation instructions.
The latest full release of upstream findutils is available at http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/findutils.
Bug reports and patches for the upstream project: https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils
Bug reports for this fork: https://github.com/Digital-Defiance/bright-findutils/issues