{"id":4159,"date":"2019-09-14T11:33:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T08:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/?p=4159"},"modified":"2024-03-12T21:56:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T18:56:23","slug":"using-find-command-to-search-for-files-and-directories-in-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kifarunix.com\/using-find-command-to-search-for-files-and-directories-in-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Find Command to Search for Files and Directories in Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to our guide on using find command to search for files and directories in Linux. find<\/code> is a command-line utility that searches one or more directory trees of a file system, locates files based on some user-specified criteria and applies a user-specified action on each matched file. It can also be use with other Linux\/Unix commands to apply further actions on files or directories found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Use Find Command in Linux<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We will walk through various examples on how to search for files and directories in Linux using find command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Search for Files Using Find command<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To search for a file using find command, you need to speficy the directory where to search. For example, to search for a file called file.txt<\/code> on the directory, \/home\/user<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

find \/home\/user -name file.txt<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To explicitly specify that the file you are searching for is a file, use -type f<\/code> where f<\/code> specifies that what is being searched for should be a file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find \/home\/user -name file.txt -type f<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To search for all files with the extensions .txt<\/code> on the directory \/<\/code>;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find \/r -name \"*.txt\" -type f<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To search for all the files that begins with the keyword foo<\/code> in the current directory;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -name \"foo.*\" -type f<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To search for files in multiple directories;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find \/usr \/etc \/home\/user -name file.txt -type f<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Search for Directories Using Find Command<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
To search for directiries, use -type d<\/code>. For example to search for directory with the name squid<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find \/ -name squid -type d<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To search for directories with the keyword php<\/code>;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find \/ -name \"php*\" -type d<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Search for Empty Files and Directories Using Find Command<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
To search for empty files in the root file system tree;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find \/ -type f -empty<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To search for empty directories in the root file system tree;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find \/ -type d -empty<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To search for all files beginning with the keyword php<\/code> and are empty;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find \/ -name \"php*\" -type f -empty<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Perform Case Insensitive Search Using Find Command<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
To perform a case insensitive search using find command, use the -iname<\/code> option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -iname file.txt<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
find \/ -iname file.txt -type f<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
find \/etc -iname txt-file -type d<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Find and Process Files and Directories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
To find and process files using find command, use the -exec<\/code> option. The -exec<\/code> option enables you to run other commands against all the files returned by your current find term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, to find all files that ends with .sh<\/code> extension in the current directory and make them executable;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -name \"*.sh\" -type f -exec chmod +x {} \\;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
It is however much more secure and recommended to use the -execdir<\/code> option which run the specified command in the subdirectory containing the matched file instead of the directory in which you started find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -name \"*.sh\" -type f -execdir chmod +x {} \\;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To remove all empty files in the current directory;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -type f -empty -exec rm -rf {} \\;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To remove all empty directories in the current directory;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -type d -empty -exec rmdir {} \\;<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Find and Delete Files and Directories Using Find Command<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
You can find and delete files and directories using the -delete<\/code> option.
For example, to delete empty directories on the current directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Use this option when you are certain of the matches as this is similar to executing the rm -rf<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -type d -empty -delete<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To find and delete all files with the .txt<\/code> extension,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -name \"*.txt\" -type f -empty -delete<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Find files by Modification time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Use the -newerXY<\/code> option to find file change date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where XY<\/code> can be any of the;<\/p>\n\n\n\n