Find user symlinks on macOS (~/bin, ~/dev, ~) without permission prompts

find-symlinks.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Features:
# - Uses allow-list approach to avoid macOS permission prompts
# - By default searches: ~/bin, ~/dev, and root of ~ only
# - Only shows symlinks owned by you (filters by current user)

# Usage:
# # Search default locations (~/bin, ~/dev, root of ~)
# find-symlinks

# # Search a specific directory
# find-symlinks /path/to/directory

# # Search current directory
# find-symlinks .

# The script shows each symlink and what it points to in the format:
# /path/to/symlink -> /path/to/target

set -euo pipefail

# Get current user
CURRENT_USER=$(whoami)

# If argument provided, search that directory
if [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; then
    SEARCH_DIR="$1"

    if [[ ! -d "$SEARCH_DIR" ]]; then
        echo "Error: Directory '$SEARCH_DIR' does not exist" >&2
        exit 1
    fi

    echo "Searching for symlinks created by $CURRENT_USER in: $SEARCH_DIR"
    echo "---"

    find "$SEARCH_DIR" \
        \( -name .git -o -name node_modules -o -name .Trash \) -prune -o \
        -type l -user "$CURRENT_USER" \
        -exec sh -c 'printf "%s -> %s\n" "$1" "$(readlink "$1")"' _ {} \; \
        2>/dev/null | sort
else
    # Default: search specific allow-listed locations
    echo "Searching for symlinks created by $CURRENT_USER in default locations:"
    echo "  - $HOME (root only, not recursive)"
    echo "  - $HOME/bin"
    echo "  - $HOME/dev"
    echo "---"

    # Search root of home (max depth 1)
    [[ -d "$HOME" ]] && find "$HOME" -maxdepth 1 -type l -user "$CURRENT_USER" \
        -exec sh -c 'printf "%s -> %s\n" "$1" "$(readlink "$1")"' _ {} \; \
        2>/dev/null

    # Search ~/bin recursively (excluding common directories)
    [[ -d "$HOME/bin" ]] && find "$HOME/bin" \
        \( -name .git -o -name node_modules -o -name .Trash \) -prune -o \
        -type l -user "$CURRENT_USER" \
        -exec sh -c 'printf "%s -> %s\n" "$1" "$(readlink "$1")"' _ {} \; \
        2>/dev/null

    # Search ~/dev recursively (excluding common directories)
    [[ -d "$HOME/dev" ]] && find "$HOME/dev" \
        \( -name .git -o -name node_modules -o -name .Trash \) -prune -o \
        -type l -user "$CURRENT_USER" \
        -exec sh -c 'printf "%s -> %s\n" "$1" "$(readlink "$1")"' _ {} \; \
        2>/dev/null
fi | sort

echo "---"
echo "Done."

I use this with https://github.com/guilsa/dotfiles/.