LINUX
COMMANDS
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Finding files
$ find
The find command finds files and directories,
matching a specified criteria. Many things can be done with
find, making it appear intimidating. But in practise,
the first two examples given, will be what you use most.
Finding files by name
find . -name '*.txt'
Find all files ending with .txt in the current
directory.
find ~ -iname '*dex*'
Find all files in your home directory (~), ignoring
case (-iname), with dex anywhere in the
filename ('*dex*').
Finding files by size
find ~/work -empty
Find all empty files in the ~/work directory.
find /usr/bin -size +1024k
Find files in the /usr/bin directory, over one
megabyte in size (-size +1024k).
find /usr/bin -size +1024k -size -2048k
Find files in the /usr/bin directory, over one
megabyte (-size +1024k), and under two megabytes
(-size -2048k).
Running commands on files found
With the -exec option, you can run a command on
each file found. '{}' indicates where you want
the result to go (i.e. anywhere a filename would go as part
of a command), and ';' indicates the end of the
command to be run.
For confirmation before running a command on each file
found, use -ok instead of -exec.
find /usr/bin -size +1024k -size -2048k -exec ls -lh
'{}' ';'
Same as last example, but each result ('{}') is
to be listed (ls) in long (-l) human-readable
(-h) form.
find ~ -name '*temp*' -ok rm '{}' ';'
Find files in your home directory (~), with 'temp'
somewhere in the filename ('*temp*'), and confirm
removal (-ok rm '{}' ';').
Finding files by owner
find ~ -user root
Find files in your home (~) directory, belonging
to root (-user root).
find /site -group columnists
Find files in the /site directory, belonging to
the columnists group (-group columnists).
Finding files by modification time
find ~/work -mtime -1
Find files in the ~/work directory, modified less
than 24 hours ago (-mtime -1).
find ~/work -mtime +7
Find files in the ~/work directory, modified over
a week ago (-mtime +7).
find reports -mmin -5
Find files in reports directory, modified less
than 5 minutes ago.
find reports -mmin +60 -mmin -180
Find files in reports directory, modified over
an hour ago, and under 3 hours ago.
find reports -newer reports/sales.doc
Find files in the reports directory, modified later
than the file, reports/sales.doc.
find ~/mywork -used +200
Find files that haven't been accessed for over 200 days
since last being modified.
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