The find command in Linux

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The find command in Linux

04.03.2023, 02:43

The find command in Linux is used to search for files and directories in specified directories based on various criteria. This command is one of the most powerful and widespread utilities in Linux.

Command format

The basic format of the find command looks like this:

find [path] [expression]

where:

path is the path to the directory where you want to search for files (by default, the search is performed in the current directory and all its subdirectories);

expression is an expression that defines the search criteria for files.

The following are some of the most common file search criteria that can be used in the find command expression:

-name: search for files by name. For example: find /home/user -name myfile.txt

-type: search for files of a certain type (for example, f for regular files or d for directories). For example: find /home/user -type f

-size: search for files by size. For example: find /home/user -size +10M

-mtime: search for files by the time of the last modification. For example: find /home/user -mtime -7

-user and -group: search for files by owner and group. For example: find /home/user -user bob -group users

You can use the logical operators -and, -or, and -not to combine multiple search criteria into a single expression.

For example, the following command will find all files in the /home/user directory that have been modified in the last 7 days and are more than 10 megabytes in size:

find /home/user -type f -mtime -7 -size +10M

The find command also allows you to perform various actions with the found files using the -exec option. For example, you can delete all files that were modified more than 30 days ago using the following command:

find /home/user -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

Here, the -exec option runs the rm command for each file found and uses {} to replace the file name in the command.

The find command is a powerful tool for searching files and directories in Linux, which can be used to perform various management-related tasks.

Additional options

The find command supports many other options that can be used to more accurately search for files.:

-iname: search for files by name, case-insensitive. For example: find /home/user -iname myfile.txt

-regex: search for files whose names match the specified regular expression. For example: find /home/user -regex ".*\.txt$"

-maxdepth and -mindepth: limit the depth of file search in subdirectories. For example: find /home/user -maxdepth 2 -type f

-prune: exclusion of certain directories from the search. For example: find /home/user -path /home/user/excluded -prune -o -type f -print

-print: output the list of found files to standard output. For example: find /home/user -type f -print

find also supports searching for files by various attributes, such as access rights, file attributes, SELinux tags, and others. More information about these options can be found in the documentation of the find command.

The command can search for files and directories in the entire file system, which can take a lot of time and resources. Therefore, it is important to be careful when using this command and make sure that the search criteria are set correctly to avoid searching for unnecessary files or errors in the system.

The find command in Linux

Command format

Additional options

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