FSlint is a utility to find and clean various forms of unwanted extraneous files on a computer file system. This excess of unnecessary files is referred to as lint.
FSlint will help find unwanted or problematic lint in your files or file names. The most common forms of lint FSlint finds are duplicate files, empty directories, and improper names.
FSlint provides multiple tools to perform a multitude of tasks in both the graphical interface and command line modes.
The program is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Algorithm used to check for duplicate files:
- Exclude files with unique lengths.
- Handle files that are hardlinked to each other.
- Exclude files with unique md5(first_4k(file)).
- Exclude files with unique md5(whole file).
- Exclude files with unique sha1(whole file) – in case of md5 collisions.
- GUI and command-line available.
- The program finds:
- Duplicates.
- Installed packages.
- Bad names.
- Name clashes.
- Temp files.
- Bad symlinks.
- Bad IDs.
- Empty directories.
- Non stripped binaries.
- Redundant whitespace.
- Search multiple directories with the option to search recursively.
- Command-line tools:
- ffindup – find DUPlicate files.
- findnl – find Name Lint (problems with filenames).
- findu8 – find filenames with invalid utf8 encoding.
- findbl – find Bad Links (various problems with symlinks).
- findsn – find Same Name (problems with clashing names).
- finded – find Empty Directories.
- findid – find files with dead user IDs.
- findns – find Non Stripped executables.
- findrs – find Redundant Whitespace in files.
- findtf – find Temporary Files.
- findul – find possibly Unused Libraries.
- zipdir – Reclaim wasted space in ext2 directory entries.
- Internationalization support.
Website: www.pixelbeat.org/fslint
Support: FAQ, GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Pádraig Brady
License: GNU General Public License; either version 2 of the License, or any later version

FSlint is written in Python. Learn Python with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Find and Delete Duplicate Files | |
|---|---|
| Czkawka | Find duplicate files, big files, empty files, similar images, and much more |
| BleachBit | System cleaning software |
| dupeguru | Python based GUI that offers special modes for pictures and music |
| DUDE | DUplicates DEtector |
| fclones-gui | Interactive duplicate file finder and remover |
| FSlint | Python based CLI and GUI tool |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Find and Delete Duplicate Files with these CLI Tools | |
|---|---|
| Czkawka | Find duplicate files, big files, empty files, similar images, and much more |
| fdupes | Great CLI tool that's written in C |
| fclones | Efficient duplicate file finder and remover |
| rmlint | Fast tool to remove duplicates and other lint |
| jdupes | Powerful CLI duplicate file finder and 'enhanced' fork of fdupes |
| smash | Find duplicate files super fast |
| rdfind | CLI redundant data find tool written in C++ |
| duff | Command-line utility for finding duplicate files |
| rmdupes | Option to use a reference directory |
| Periscope | Organize storage and safely remove redundant files |
| Go Find Duplicates | Scans directories for duplicate files and directories |
| samanlainen | Delete duplicate files with SHA512 hashing |
| FSlint | Python based CLI and GUI tool |
| sdupes | Fast duplicate file detection utility. |
| dupefi | Duplicate file finder designed with Linux philosophy |
| Dupster | Duplicate file finder |
| duple | Find and remove duplicate files |
| ddh | Directory Differential hTool |
| backdown | Safely and ergonomically remove duplicate files |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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