Volume Analysis and Search

analyze.flexfs and find.flexfs query the metadata server directly, providing fast volume-wide analysis without traversing the FUSE layer. Both tools work with Enterprise and Community editions.

analyze.flexfs

Top Files by Cost

Identify the most expensive files in a volume:

analyze.flexfs files --orderBy cost --limit 5 /mnt/flexfs

Default output is tab-separated, suitable for scripting:

path  size  size_bin  cost
/data/genome/sample1.bam  52428800000  62  15.23
/data/genome/sample2.bam  48318382080  61  14.02

Use --friendly for human-readable output with aligned columns, readable sizes, dollar costs, and descriptive access ages:

analyze.flexfs files --friendly --orderBy cost --limit 5 /mnt/flexfs

path                                        size    cost                        accessed
/mnt/flexfs/data/genome/sample1.bam    48.83 GiB  $15.23  [1860, 1890) days ago (bin 62)
/mnt/flexfs/data/genome/sample2.bam    45.00 GiB  $14.02  [1830, 1860) days ago (bin 61)
/mnt/flexfs/data/genome/reference.fa    3.00 GiB   $1.50    [120, 150) days ago (bin  4)
/mnt/flexfs/data/logs/pipeline.log    100.00 MiB   $0.05          < 30 days ago (bin  0)
/mnt/flexfs/data/tmp/scratch.dat       10.00 GiB   $1.12  [1350, 1380) days ago (bin 45)

Directory Size Breakdown

See which directories consume the most storage:

analyze.flexfs folders --maxDepth 2 /mnt/flexfs

With --friendly, folders are rendered as an ASCII directory tree:

analyze.flexfs folders --friendly --maxDepth 2 /mnt/flexfs

path                  size    cost
/mnt/flexfs      62.83 GiB  $17.69
├── data         52.83 GiB  $16.52
│   ├── genome   51.83 GiB  $16.02
│   ├── logs    100.00 MiB   $0.05
│   └── tmp      10.00 GiB   $1.12
└── scratch      10.00 GiB   $1.17

Per-User Storage Usage

Identify which users are consuming the most space:

analyze.flexfs users --orderBy size /mnt/flexfs

Output includes UID, resolved username, size, and cost. With --friendly:

analyze.flexfs users --friendly --orderBy size /mnt/flexfs

uid    user        size    cost
1001  alice   48.83 GiB  $15.23
1002    bob   10.00 GiB   $1.12
0      root  100.00 MiB   $0.05

Direct Connection (Without Mount)

All analyze.flexfs subcommands can connect directly to a metadata server without requiring a local mount:

analyze.flexfs files \
  --metaAddr meta.example.com:443 \
  --volume my-volume \
  --orderBy size --limit 50 /data

Both --metaAddr and --volume must be provided together. The volume can be specified by name or UUID.

Saving Output

Write results to a file:

analyze.flexfs files --outputFile /tmp/top-files.tsv /mnt/flexfs

find.flexfs

Find Files by Name Pattern

find.flexfs --name *.bam --type f /mnt/flexfs

Find Large Files

find.flexfs --minSize 1073741824 --type f --fields path,size,cost --header /mnt/flexfs

Find Files by Owner

find.flexfs --uid 1001 --type f --fields path,size,uid /mnt/flexfs

Find Old Files (by Access Time)

Find files not accessed since a specific timestamp (seconds since epoch):

# Files not accessed since 2025-01-01 (1735689600 = 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z)
find.flexfs --maxAtime 1735689600 --type f /mnt/flexfs

Find Empty Directories

find.flexfs --type d --empty /mnt/flexfs

Find Files with Specific Permissions

The --perm and --permMask flags filter by permission bits using the logic (mode & permMask) == perm. Values must use a leading 0 for octal notation (e.g. 0755). Without --permMask, the default mask is 0777 (owner/group/other), so --perm performs an exact match on all rwxrwxrwx bits.

Find files with exact permissions rwxrwxrwx:

find.flexfs --perm 0777 --type f --fields path,perm /mnt/flexfs

Use --permMask to test only specific bits. The mask selects which bits to compare, and --perm specifies the expected value of those bits:

# Files that are world-writable (other-write bit set)
find.flexfs --perm 02 --permMask 02 --type f /mnt/flexfs

# Files that are group-executable (group-execute bit set)
find.flexfs --perm 010 --permMask 010 --type f /mnt/flexfs

# Files with setuid bit set (requires testing beyond the default 0777 mask)
find.flexfs --perm 04000 --permMask 04000 --type f /mnt/flexfs

# Files that are not readable by others (other-read bit unset)
find.flexfs --perm 0 --permMask 04 --type f /mnt/flexfs

Full Metadata Export

Export all files with all metadata fields:

find.flexfs --fields all --header --type f \
  --outputFile /tmp/full-inventory.tsv /mnt/flexfs

Direct Connection

Like analyze.flexfs, find.flexfs supports direct metadata server connections:

find.flexfs --metaAddr meta.example.com:443 --volume my-volume \
  --name *.log --type f /

Available Output Fields

The find.flexfs tool supports this field set for --fields:

| Field | Description | |---|---| | path | File path (default) | | ino | Inode number | | mode | Raw mode bits | | type | Inode type (f, d, l, p, s, b, c) | | perm | Permission bits (octal) | | blocks | Block count | | size | Size in bytes | | size_bin | Access-time age bin (0 = accessed within last 30 days, 1 = 30-60 days ago, up to 74). Based on atime. | | cost | Estimated monthly storage cost in US dollars ($/month). Computed as (effective_size / 1 GiB) * rate, where effective_size is capped at the allocated block size for sparse files, and rate is an access-age tiered $/GiB/month rate determined by the file’s size_bin. See cost field details. | | nlink | Hard link count | | uid | Owner user ID | | gid | Owner group ID | | ctime | Change time (seconds since epoch) | | mtime | Modification time (seconds since epoch) | | atime | Access time (seconds since epoch) | | btime | Birth (creation) time (seconds since epoch) | | xattrs | Extended attributes |

Use Cases

• Cost optimization: Use analyze.flexfs files --orderBy cost to find the most expensive files and schedule archival or deletion. Cost reflects access-age tiered pricing, so cold data may already carry a lower rate — focus on large hot files for the biggest savings.
• Compliance auditing: Use find.flexfs --fields all --header to generate a complete filesystem inventory.
• Stale data identification: Use find.flexfs --maxAtime <cutoff> to find files not accessed within a retention window.
• Permissions audit: Use find.flexfs --perm --permMask to find files with overly permissive access.
• Capacity planning: Use analyze.flexfs folders --maxDepth 3 to understand storage distribution across the directory tree.