diff --git a/src/caosadvancedtools/crawler.py b/src/caosadvancedtools/crawler.py
index 51f07367ae0dbebc388173e1ce1db96e0a0ec921..0c20b5b4b08eb0b62c77ff031abac0580f743d1e 100644
--- a/src/caosadvancedtools/crawler.py
+++ b/src/caosadvancedtools/crawler.py
@@ -24,8 +24,6 @@
 #
 """does something"""
 
-import argparse
-from argparse import RawTextHelpFormatter
 
 import caosdb as db
 
@@ -50,4 +48,14 @@ class Crawler(object):
                 if match is not None:
                     cfood.treat_match(crawled_file.path, match)
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def query_files(path):
+        query_str = "FIND FILE WHICH IS STORED AT " + \
+            (path if path.endswith("/") else path + "/") + "**"
+        print("FILES QUERY: " + query_str)
+        files = db.execute_query(query_str)
+        print(str(len(files)) + " FILES TO BE PROCESSED.")
+
+        return files
+