find.md

Find command in linux

• search for files and directories (recursively) based on various criterias

• find [path] [expression]

  • [path]: The directory where the search will be started

  • [expression]: Filter criteria

  • when using -name -iname as criteria * is supported for wildcard

• find /home/user -name "example.txt" find a file with following name in /home/user directory

• find /home/user -iname "example.txt": case insensitive search iname

• find /path -type f: find only files not directories

• find /path -type d: find only directories

• find /path -type l: find symbolic links

• find / -size +100M: find files greater than 100MB

• find / -size -5k: find files smaller than 5KB

• find /home -type f -perm 644: find files with permission mode

• find /home -type f -mtime -7: find files modified in last 7 days

• find /home -type f -atime -2: find files accessed in last 2 days

• find /path -type f -name "*.log" -exec rm {} +

  • -exec: executes the given command

  • {}: placeholder for the attributes

  • +: end of the command

• find /path -type f -empty: find empty files (use d for directories)

• find /home -type f -name "*.log" -exec grep -i "error" {} +: searching inside files (find all the log files which contain "error")

• find /var/log -type f -name "*.log" | xargs rm: xargs takes a list and passes each element as arguments to another command