find

find is a command-line utility for locating files and directories.

Getting started

Usage 

$ find [path...] [options] [expression]

Wildcard

$ find . -name "*.txt"
$ find . -name "2020*.csv"
$ find . -name "json_*"

Option Examples

Option Example Description
-type find . -type d Find only directories
-name find . -type f -name “*.txt” Find file by name
-iname find . -type f -iname “hello” Find file by name (case-insensitive)
-size find . -size +1G Find files larger than 1G
-user find . -type d -user jack Find jack’s file
-regex find /var -regex ‘.*/tmp/.*[0-9]*.file’ Using Regex with find. See regex
-maxdepth find . -maxdepth 1 -name “a.txt” In the current directory and subdirectories
-mindepth find / -mindepth 3 -maxdepth 5 -name pass Between sub-directory level 2 and 4

Type

   
-type d Directory
-type f File
-type l Symbolic link
-type b Buffered block
-type c Unbuffered character
-type p Named pipe
-type s Socket

Size

   
-size b 512-byte blocks (default)
-size c Bytes
-size k Kilobytes
-size M Megabytes
-size G Gigabytes
-size T Terabytes (only BSD)
-size P Petabytes (only BSD)

Size +/-

Finbashd all bigger than 10MB files

$ find / -size +10M

Find all smaller than 10MB files

$ find / -size -10M

Finbashd all files that are exactly 10M

$ find / -size 10M

Find Size between 100MB and 1GB

$ find / -size +100M -size -1G

The + and - prefixes signify greater than and less than, as usual.

Names

Finbashd files using name in current directory

$ find . -name tecmint.txt

Find files under home directory

$ find /home -name tecmint.txt

Finbashd files using name and ignoring case

$ find /home -iname tecmint.txt

Find directories using name

$ find / -type d -name tecmint

Finbashd php files using name

$ find . -type f -name tecmint.php

Find all php files in directory

$ find . -type f -name "*.php"

Permissions

Find the files whose permissions are 777.

$ find . -type f -perm 0777 -print

Find the files without permission 777.

$ find / -type f ! -perm 777

Find SUID set files.

$ find / -perm /u=s

Find SGID set files.

$ find / -perm /g=s

Find Read Only files.

$ find / -perm /u=r

Find Executable files.

$ find / -perm /a=x

Owners and Groups

Finbashd single file based on user

$ find / -user root -name tecmint.txt

Find all files based on user

$ find /home -user tecmint

Finbashd all files based on group

$ find /home -group developer

Find particular files of user

$ find /home -user tecmint -iname "*.txt"

Multiple filenames 

$ find . -type f \( -name "_.sh" -o -name "_.txt" \)

Find files with .sh and .txt extensions

Multiple dirs 

$ find /opt /usr /var -name foo.scala -type f

Find files with multiple dirs

Empty 

$ find . -type d -empty

Delete all empty files in a directory

$ find . -type f -empty -delete

Date and Time

Means

Option Description
atime access time (last time file opened)
mtime modified time (last time file contents was modified)
ctime changed time (last time file inode was changed)

Example

Option Description
-mtime +0 Modified greater than 24 hours ago
-mtime 0 Modified between now and 1 day ago
-mtime -1 Modified less than 1 day ago (same as -mtime 0)
-mtime 1 Modified between 24 and 48 hours ago
-mtime +1 Modified more than 48 hours ago
-mtime +1w Last modified more than 1 week ago
-atime 0 Last accessed between now and 24 hours ago
-atime +0 Accessed more than 24 hours ago
-atime 1 Accessed between 24 and 48 hours ago
-atime +1 Accessed more than 48 hours ago
-atime -1 Accessed less than 24 hours ago (same as -atime 0)
-ctime -6h30m File status changed within the last 6 hours and 30 minutes

Examples

Finbashd last 50 days modified files

$ find / -mtime 50

find last 50 days accessed files

$ find / -atime 50

finbashd last 50-100 days modified files

$ find / -mtime +50 –mtime -100

find changed files in last 1 hour

$ find / -cmin -60

finbashd modified files in last 1 hour

$ find / -mmin -60

find accessed files in last 1 hour

$ find / -amin -60

Find and

Find and delete

Find and remove multiple files

$ find . -type f -name "\*.mp3" -exec rm -f {} \;

Find and remove single file

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

Finbashd and delete 100mb files

$ find / -type f -size +100m -exec rm -f {} \;

Find specific files and delete

$ find / -type f -name *.mp3 -size +10m -exec rm {} \;

Find and replace 

$ find ./ -type f -exec sed -i 's/find/replace/g' {} \; 
$ find ./ -type f -readable -writable -exec sed -i "s/old/new/g" {} \;

See also: sed command

Find and rename 

$ find . -type f -name 'file*' -exec mv {} {}_renamed \;
$ find . -type f -name 'file*' -exec sh -c 'x="{}"; mv "$x" "${x}.bak"' \;

Find and move 

$ find . -name '\*.mp3' -exec mv {} /tmp/music \;

Find and move it to a specific directory

Find and copy 

$ find . -name '*2020*.xml' -exec cp -r "{}" /tmp/backup \;

Find and copy it to a specific directory

Find and concatenate 

$ find download -type f -iname '_.csv' | xargs cat > merged.csv 
$ find download -type f -name '_.gz' -exec cat {} \; > output

Find and sort 

$ find . -printf "%T+\t%p\n" | sort
$ find . -printf "%T+\t%p\n" | sort -r

Find and chmod

Find files and set permissions to 644.

$ find / -type f -perm 0777 -print -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Find directories and set permissions to 755.

$ find / -type d -perm 777 -print -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Find and tar 

$ find . -type f -name "_.java" | xargs tar cvf myfile.tar 
$ find . -type f -name "_.java" | xargs tar rvf myfile.tar