Quick start

This walks through the main use of cde: catalog a drive, search it, and find duplicates.

1. Scan a drive

cde scan C:\

This writes a catalog file such as C-V3Win7-C__.cdex in the current directory. See Catalog files for how the name is made.

Add a description if you want to remember what the catalog is:

cde scan E:\ --desc "Photo backup drive"

cde loads every catalog in the current directory, and one folder below it.

cde find system.dll

For a regular expression, use grep:

cde grep "\.log$"

For more complex queries, use cde everything:

cde everything "folder:music <flac | mp3>"

Hash the files, then list the duplicates:

cde hash
cde dupes

cde dupes only reads catalogs, so it is fast. It finds nothing until cde hash has run. See Finding duplicate files.

Use cdeWin or cde-tauri to sort and browse the same catalogs.