Show HN: Snub – A fast, lightweight file search CLI for Windows (written in C)

built snub, a fast and lightweight recursive file search tool for Windows, written in modern C (C17). File Explorer and PowerShell often crawl on large codebases — so I wrote something that doesn’t.

snub is: - Fully multithreaded - Avoids indexing entirely - Supports globbing, size/date filters, result limiting, and JSON output - Packaged as a single small executable

No dependencies. Just raw C and the WinAPI.

GitHub: https://github.com/seeyebe/snub

Would love feedback on C idioms, WinAPI practices, or ideas for portability and better build flow.

URL: github.com
3 comments

Consider adding a `-x` flag to exclude directories (like node_modules, .git) which would make this even more valuable for devs working with large codebases.

Great suggestion, thanks! snub already skips common dirs like node_modules, .git, .svn, and __pycache__ by default (you can turn that off with --no-skip), but an explicit -x/--exclude flag for user-supplied patterns would be even more useful

Wow bro, this is amazing! I’m also a fan of writing raw WinAPI code in C — and seeing a fast, no-dependency, single-exe utility like this in 2025 feels like a breath of fresh air. I especially love how snub avoids indexing and gives full control — feels like grep meets Windows-native power.

I starred the repo instantly — and if you’re ever curious, I’m also working on a terminal-based image viewer written in C for retro and embedded use cases. But honestly, snub is super clean and deserves way more attention!

Respect from a fellow low-level dev FerkiHN

Github: https://github.com/Ferki-git-creator/phono-in-terminal-image...

Hey, really appreciate that. means a lot coming from someone else in the raw C/WinAPI trenches. Just checked out phono too; super cool concept, I love seeing C used in unexpected spaces like that. Definitely gonna take a look at it properly today. Respect right back, Ferki. glad snub landed with you.

Really appreciate your reply and kind words If you end up liking the project after checking it out, feel free to drop a star — it always gives me a boost to keep building :) Either way, I’ll be following your updates on snub. Projects like that inspire me a lot.