Find Files in Linux, Using the Command Line Linode PDF

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Find Files in Linux, Using the Command Line | Linode

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Find Files in Linux, Using the Command Line Updated Monday, December 30, 2019 by Edward Angert

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find is a command for recursively filtering objects in the file system based on a simple conditional mechanism. Use find to search for a file or directory on your file system. Using the -exec flag, files can be found and immediately processed within the same command.

Find Linux Files by Name or Extension Use

find

from the command line to locate a specific file by name or extension. The following example searches for directory and all sub-directories:

*.err

files in the

/home/username/

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find /home/username/ -name "*.err"

Common Linux Find Commands and Syntax find

expressions take the following form:

find options starting/path expression

The

options

attribute will control the behavior and optimization method of the

The

starting/path

The

expression

attribute will define the top level directory where

find

find

process.

begins filtering.

attribute controls the tests that search the directory hierarchy to produce output.

Consider the following example command: find -O3 -L /var/www/ -name "*.html"

This command enables the maximum optimization level (-O3) and allows directory tree beneath /var/www/ for files that end with .html .

find

to follow symbolic links ( -L ).

find

searches the entire

Basic Examples Command

Description

find . -name testfile.txt

Find a file called testfile.txt in current and sub-directories.

find /home -name *.jpg

Find all .jpg files in the /home and sub-directories.

find . -type f -empty

Find an empty file within the current directory.

find /home -user exampleuser -mtime -7 -iname

Find all .db files (ignoring text case) modified in the last 7 days by a user named exampleuser.

".db"

Options and Optimization for Find The default configuration for the

-L

find

The

find

will ignore symbolic links (shortcut files). If you want

find

to follow and return symbolic links, you can add

option to the command, as shown in the example above.

optimizes its filtering strategy to increase performance. Three user-selectable optimization levels are specified as -O1

optimization is the default and forces

find

-O1

,

-O2

, and

-O3

.

to filter based on filename before running all other tests.

Optimization at the -O2 level prioritizes file name filters, as in resource-intensive conditions. Level -O3 optimization allows their relative expense and the likelihood of their success.

Command

Description

-O1

(Default) filter based on file name first.

-O2

File name first, then file-type.

-O1 find

, and then runs all file-type filtering before proceeding with other more to perform the most severe optimization and reorders all tests based on

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Command

Description

-O3

Allow find to automatically re-order the search based on efficient use of resources and likelihood. of success

-maxdepth X

Search current directory as well as all sub-directories X levels deep.

-iname

Search without regard for text case.

-not

Return only results that do not match the test case.

-type f

Search for files.

-type d

Search for directories.

Find Files by Modification Time The

find

command contains the ability to filter a directory hierarchy based on when the file was last modified:

find / -name "*conf" -mtime -7 find /home/exampleuser/ -name "*conf" -mtime -3

The first command returns a list of all files in the entire file system that end with the characters The second command filters in the previous 3 days.

exampleuser

conf

and have been modified in the last 7 days.

user’s home directory for files with names that end with the characters

conf

and have been modified

Use Grep to Find Files Based on Content The

find

command is only able to filter the directory hierarchy based on a file’s name and meta data. If you need to search based on the

content of the file, use a tool like grep (/docs/tools-reference/search-and-filter-text-with-grep). Consider the following example: find . -type f -exec grep "example" '{}' \; -print

This searches every object in the current directory hierarchy ( . ) that is a file ( -type f ) and then runs the command grep "example" for every file that satisfies the conditions. The files that match are printed on the screen ( -print ). The curly braces ( {} ) are a placeholder for the find match results. The {} are enclosed in single quotes ( ' ) to avoid handing grep a malformed file name. The -exec command is terminated with a semicolon ( ; ), which should be escaped ( \; ) to avoid interpretation by the shell. Before the implementation of the

-exec

option, this kind of command might have used the

xargs

command to generate a similar output:

find . -type f -print | xargs grep "example"

How to Find and Process Files Using the Find Command The

-exec

option runs commands against every object that matches the find expression. Consider the following example:

find . -name "rc.conf" -exec chmod o+r '{}' \;

This filters every object in the current hierarchy ( . ) for files named find

rc.conf

and runs the

chmod o+r

command to modify file permissions of the

results.

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The commands run with the

-exec

are executed in the root directory of the

find

process. Use

-execdir

to execute the specified command in

the directory where the match resides. This may alleviate security concerns and produce more desirable performance for some operations. The

or

-exec

execdir

with

-execdir -okdir

options run without further prompts. If you prefer to be prompted before action is taken, replace

-exec

with

-ok

or

-

.

How to Find and Delete Files in the Linux Command Line Caution Use this option with extreme caution.

Add the option

-delete

to the end of a match expression to delete all files that match. Use this option when you are certain that the results

only match the files that you wish to delete. In the following example, example,

find

find

locates all files in the hierarchy starting at the current directory and fully recursing into the directory tree. In this

will delete all files that end with the characters

.bak

:

find . -name "*.bak" -delete

Still have a few questions? Join our Community (https://www.linode.com/community/questions/) and post your questions for other Linode and Linux enthusiasts to help you out. Related Questions: Where are My Files? (https://www.linode.com/community/questions/17057/where-are-my-files) How do I check my server’s log files? (https://www.linode.com/community/questions/295/how-do-i-check-my-servers-log-files) Can I check my files through the Linode Manager? (https://www.linode.com/community/questions/11220/can-i-check-my-files-through-linodemanager)

More Information You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials. Online man Pages (http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/find.1.html) ExplainShell (http://explainshell.com/explain/1/find)

Join our Community Find answers, ask questions, and help others. (https://www.linode.com/community/questions/)

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