tdupes

Find, review, and safely trash duplicate files on Linux.

tdupes detects exact duplicates (byte-identical, via fdupes) and optionally basename matches (same filename, scored by content similarity, via plocate/locate). Results are written to a TSV that you review and edit with your favourite spreadsheet tool before any files are touched; confirmed deletions go to gio trash and remain recoverable until the bin is emptied.

Key features:

• Accepts any mix of individual files and directories as arguments
• Basename-match detection with -L: finds same-named files across the filesystem, scored by similarity (100 exact · XXX binary same-size · NNN% text match · !!! binary different-size)
• Preferred-directory protection — files inside protected dirs are never proposed for deletion; on first run, all system dirs at / (except /home and /tmp) are pre-configured as preferred by default
• Runtime preferred-dir control: -p add, -r remove, -s/-S toggle the full set of system dirs for a single run
• Exclusion patterns via config or -x at runtime
• Interactive TSV review (opened with xdg-open) or fully automated batch mode

Install

pip install tdupes

System dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt install fdupes plocate gvfs-bin xdg-utils

Usage

tdupes [OPTIONS] PATH [PATH ...]

Positional arguments:
  PATH                   Files or directories to scan for duplicates

Options:
  -l, --locate           Search locatedb for basename copies of each file arg
                         and add them to the scan (exact duplicates only)
  -L, --locate-all       Like -l, but also tabulate basename matches that are
                         not byte-identical, with similarity codes
  -X, --delete-xxx       (-L) DELETE non-preferred XXX matches
                         (binary, equal size, not identical)
  -N, --delete-nnn       (-L) DELETE non-preferred NNN matches
                         (text files, partial % similarity)
  -Z, --delete-excl      (-L) DELETE non-preferred !!! matches
                         (binary, different size)
  -A, --heuristic-a      (-L) Keep the largest and newest non-preferred file
                         in each basename group; delete the rest
  -B, --heuristic-b      (-L) Keep the shallowest-path non-preferred file(s)
                         in each basename group; delete the rest
  -t FILE, --tsv FILE    Path for the output TSV (default: temp file)
  -p DIR, --prefer DIR   Add DIR to preferred directories for this run.
                         Additive with config. Repeatable.
  -r DIR, --remove-prefer DIR
                         Remove DIR from preferred directories for this run,
                         overriding config and -p. Repeatable.
  -s, --system-prefer    Add all top-level system dirs at / (except /home and
                         /tmp) to preferred dirs for this run
  -S, --no-system-prefer Remove the system dirs from preferred dirs for this run
  -x PATTERN, --exclude PATTERN
                         Shell glob to exclude files by full path. Additive
                         with config. Repeatable: -x '*.tmp' -x '/mnt/*'
  -b, --batch            Batch mode: no prompts; execute DELETE actions immediately
  -v, --verbose          Increase output verbosity
  -q, --quiet            Reduce output verbosity
  -c FILE, --config FILE Config file path (default: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tdupes.yml)
  -V, --version          Show version and exit
  -h, --help             Show this help message and exit

Examples

# Scan two directories interactively
tdupes ~/Pictures ~/Downloads

# Find exact-duplicate copies of a specific file via locatedb
tdupes -l ~/Downloads/photo.jpg ~/Pictures

# Find basename matches too; keep all by default (review in TSV)
tdupes -L ~/Downloads/photo.jpg ~/Pictures

# Delete binary matches automatically in addition to finding exact dupes
tdupes -L -X -Z ~/Downloads/photo.jpg ~/Pictures

# Keep only largest+newest per basename group; delete the rest
tdupes -L -A ~/Downloads/photo.jpg ~/Pictures

# Scan freely, ignoring preferred-directory protection from config
tdupes -S ~/Documents

# Batch mode (good for scripting / cron)
tdupes --batch ~/Documents

# Write the TSV to a specific path
tdupes -t /tmp/dupes.tsv ~/Music ~/Videos

Config

On first run tdupes creates $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tdupes.yml (defaults to ~/.config/tdupes.yml) and pre-populates preferred_directories with all top-level system directories at / (excluding /home and /tmp), so that system files are protected immediately without any manual configuration:

preferred_directories:    # pre-filled with system dirs on first run
  - /bin
  - /boot
  - /etc
  - /usr
  # … etc.
verbosity: 1              # 0=quiet, 1=normal, 2=verbose
tsv_output: null          # null = temp file each run
exclusion_patterns: []    # shell glob patterns to skip
batch_mode: false

preferred_directories — any file whose path begins with one of these directories is marked keep regardless of group ordering, and cannot be overridden by -X/-N/-Z flags.

Use -r DIR to temporarily remove a directory from the protected set for one run; use -S to remove all system dirs at once; use -s to add them back if you have removed them from config.

TSV format

Action  Similarity  Size_KB  Modified              Path                              Comment
keep    100         2048.0   2024-11-01T14:22:10   /home/user/Pictures/photo.jpg     in preferred folder
DELETE  100         2048.0   2024-09-15T08:01:55   /home/user/Downloads/photo.jpg

Groups are separated by blank lines. The CLI argument file is always listed first in each group. Basename match groups (found with -L) are written in a separate section after the exact-duplicate groups, preceded by a # comment line.

Default Action logic

Exact-duplicate groups (byte-identical per fdupes):

CLI argument files are listed first in each group so they are never the last-in-group tiebreaker and therefore receive DELETE by default (unless they fall under a preferred folder rule).

Basename match groups (-L, same basename, not byte-identical):

Use -X, -N, -Z to DELETE non-preferred files by similarity type:

Use -A and -B to apply heuristics that auto-select which non-preferred files to keep:

Flags -A and -B can be combined — the union of their keep sets survives; the rest are deleted. Preferred-directory files are always kept regardless of any flag.

The Comment column is read-only — it is ignored when tdupes re-reads the TSV after you edit it.

Interactive flow

1. tdupes scans paths and prints the duplicate table.
2. The TSV is opened with xdg-open for manual review.
3. You edit Action cells (change DELETE → keep or vice-versa), save, return.
4. tdupes re-reads the TSV, displays the updated table, and asks for confirmation.
5. On confirmation, all DELETE files are sent to the trash via gio trash.
6. A summary shows how many files were trashed and how much space was freed.

Files trashed with gio trash remain recoverable from the system trash until the bin is emptied.

License

MIT