Linux Find Command Examples

The Linux find command is a very useful and powerful command in linux system for search and find files or directories. How to use linux find command to find a file under linux operating system. How to use find command to search the smallest and largest files? this post will guide you how to use this command.  I will show you some linux find command examples.

NAME

       find – search for files in a directory hierarchy

SYNOPSIS

       find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-D debugopts] [-Olevel] [path...] [expression

Examples:

#1  find all files in the current directory

type:

find

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find 

.

./.bash_profile

./.viminfo

./.tcshrc

./install.log

./.bash_logout

./install.log.syslog

./.xauthbqznZZ

./.cshrc

./.bash_history

./.gconfd

./.gconfd/saved_state

./anaconda-ks.cfg

./.bashrc

#2 find specific files in current directory

type:

find . -name foo.txt

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find . -name foo.txt

./foo.txt

#3

#3 find files under specific directory

type:

find /root  -name foo.txt

#4 find files using name and ignoring case using linux find command

type:

find /root -name foo.txt

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find /root -iname foo.txt

/root/foo.txt

/root/Foo.txt

#5 find only file in the current directory

type:

find . -type f -name foo.txt

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find . -type f -name foo.txt

./foo.txt

#6 Limit depth of directory traversal to find files

type:

find . -maxdepth 2 -name "*.txt"

or

find . -maxdepth 1 -name "*.txt"

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find . -maxdepth 2 -name "*.txt"

./foo.txt

./alog/foo.txt

./Foo.txt

[root@devops ~]# find . -maxdepth 1 -name "*.txt"

./foo.txt

./Foo.txt

#7 find only directories in the current directory using linux find command

type:

find . -type d -name alog

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find . -type d -name alog

./alog

#8 find files under multiple directories

type:

 find /opt /usr/root -type f  -name foo.txt

#9 find files with different extensions

If you want to search files that matching “*.txt” or “*.cfg”, type the following command:

find . -type f \( -name "*.txt" -o -name "*.cfg" \)

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find . -type f \( -name "*.txt" -o -name "*.cfg" \)

./foo.cfg

./foo.txt

./alog/foo.txt

./anaconda-ks.cfg

./Foo.txt

#10 find files that don’t match a pattern

If you want to find all files that not matching “.txt” in the current directory, type:

find . -type f -not -name "*.txt"

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find . -type f -not -name "*.txt"

./.bash_profile

./foo.cfg

./.viminfo

./.tcshrc

./install.log

./.bash_logout

./install.log.syslog

./.xauthbqznZZ

./.cshrc

./.bash_history

./.gconfd/saved_state

./anaconda-ks.cfg

./.bashrc

 #11 find all hidden files using linux find command

type:

find . -type f -name ".*"

outtpus:

[root@devops ~]# find . -type f -not -name "*.txt"

./.bash_profile

./foo.cfg

./.viminfo

./.tcshrc

./install.log

./.bash_logout

./install.log.syslog

./.xauthbqznZZ

./.cshrc

./.bash_history

./.gconfd/saved_state

./anaconda-ks.cfg

./.bashrc

[root@devops ~]# find . -type f -name ".*"

./.bash_profile

./.viminfo

./.tcshrc

./.bash_logout

./.xauthbqznZZ

./.cshrc

./.bash_history

./.bashrc

#12 find all files with certain permission

if you want to find all files with a 0777 permission, you can use “perm” option to find command, type:

find . -type f -perm 0777

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find . -type f -perm 0777

./install.log

./foo.txt

#13  find all readonly files

type:

find . -maxdepth 1 -perm /u=r

output:

root@devops ~]# find . -maxdepth 1 -perm /u=r  -type f

./.bash_profile

./foo.cfg

./.viminfo

./.tcshrc

./install.log

./.bash_logout

./foo.txt

./install.log.syslog

./.xauthbqznZZ

./.cshrc

./.bash_history

./anaconda-ks.cfg

./.bashrc

./Foo.txt

#14 find all executable files

type:

find . -maxdepth 1 -perm /a=x

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find . -maxdepth 1 -perm /a=x

.

./install.log

./foo.txt

./alog

./.gconfd

./.config

./.gconf

#15 find files that belonging to a particular user

type:

find . -type f -user root

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find -type f -user root

./.bash_profile

./foo.cfg

./.viminfo

./.tcshrc

./install.log

./.bash_logout

./foo.txt

./install.log.syslog

./.xauthbqznZZ

./.cshrc

./.bash_history

./alog/foo.txt

./.gconfd/saved_state

./anaconda-ks.cfg

./.bashrc

./Foo.txt

#16 find files that belonging to a group

type:

find -type f -group  root

outputs:

[root@devops ~]# find -type f -group  root

./.bash_profile

./foo.cfg

./.viminfo

./.tcshrc

./install.log

./.bash_logout

./foo.txt

./install.log.syslog

./.xauthbqznZZ

./.cshrc

./.bash_history

./alog/foo.txt

#17 find files by modification time

type:

find . mtime 1     #files were modified in last 24 hours

find . mtime  -7   # files were modified in last 7 days

#18 find files in given size

such as: if you want to find all 10M files ,type:

find . -size 10M

#19 find files in a size range

if you want to find files that size are greater that 10MB and less than 20MB, type:

find . -size +10M -size -20M

#20 find files and remove all finded files

type:

find . -type f -name "*.txt" -exec rm -f {}\;