The examples for find
The examples for find
# Executes a command on the files and folders matching a given pattern, in this case, output the last lines of each .foo file in the current folder and subfolders.
find . -name "*.foo" -exec tail {} \;
# Outputs all the file names/paths that start with the name "Casey". Searches recursively starting from my current directory (.)
# Throws out any error output by sending it to /dev/null
find . -name "Casey*" 2>/dev/null
# Finds all files in and under the current directory that contain 'foo' in their name, ignore case
find . -iname '*foo*'
# directory -> chmod 700
# file executable -> chmod 700
# file -> chmod 600
# You can apply this to directory that needs more secure permission
# recursively. Like `~/.ssh`. `+` means run at once, not one by one. Like `xargs`.
find .private -type d -execdir chmod 700 '{}' + \
-or -type f -executable -execdir chmod 777 '{}' + \
-or -type f -execdir chmod 600 '{}' +
# Find all files in home directory that does not match my user/group.
# Then change owner:group to my user/group.
find ~/ \( -not -group $(id -g) -or -not -user $USER \) -execdir chown $USER: '{}' +
# Especially useful for finding and removing temporary files.
# e.g. To remove compiled python files:
find . -name '*.pyc' -exec rm -rf {} \;
# Find and remove empty directories
find . -type d -empty -delete
# Find and remove empty files
find . -type f -empty -delete
# Searches through my user's "home" directory recursively for the file "hashClass.java", throwing out error output along the way.
# Passes the output to grep for case insensitive search.
find ~/ 2>/dev/null | grep -i "hashclass.java"
# Find all subdirectories that have been created in the last 5 days.
find . -type d -ctime -5
# find last modified file in current directory recursively except directory
find ./ -not -type d -printf "%T+ %p\n" | sort | tail -1
# Find broken symlinks
find -L . -type l
# Find files that were modified less than 4 days ago and more than two days. Notice that `find -ctime +3 -ctime -4` would give no results.
find -ctime +2 -ctime -4
# Find files modified within a specific date range.
touch --date "2007-01-01" /tmp/start
touch --date "2008-01-01" /tmp/end
find /data/images -type f -newer /tmp/start -not -newer /tmp/end
#basic 'find file' commands
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find / -name foo.txt -type f -print # full command
find / -name foo.txt -type f # -print isn't necessary
find / -name foo.txt # don't have to specify "type==file"
find . -name foo.txt # search under the current dir
find . -name "foo.*" # wildcard
find . -name "*.txt" # wildcard
find /users/al -name Cookbook -type d # search '/users/al'
#search multiple dirs
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find /opt /usr /var -name foo.scala -type f # search multiple dirs
#case-insensitive searching
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find . -iname foo # find foo, Foo, FOo, FOO, etc.
find . -iname foo -type d # same thing, but only dirs
find . -iname foo -type f # same thing, but only files
#find files with different extensions
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find . -type f \( -name "*.c" -o -name "*.sh" \) # *.c and *.sh files
find . -type f \( -name "*cache" -o -name "*xml" -o -name "*html" \) # three patterns
#find files that don't match a pattern (-not)
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find . -type f -not -name "*.html" # find all files not ending in ".html"
#find files by text in the file (find + grep)
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find . -type f -name "*.java" -exec grep -l StringBuffer {} \; # find StringBuffer in all *.java files
find . -type f -name "*.java" -exec grep -il string {} \; # ignore case with -i option
find . -type f -name "*.gz" -exec zgrep 'GET /foo' {} \; # search for a string in gzip'd files
#5 lines before, 10 lines after grep matches
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find . -type f -name "*.scala" -exec grep -B5 -A10 'null' {} \;
(see http://alvinalexander.com/linux-unix/find-grep-print-lines-before-after-...)
#find files and act on them (find + exec)
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find /usr/local -name "*.html" -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \; # change html files to mode 644
find htdocs cgi-bin -name "*.cgi" -type f -exec chmod 755 {} \; # change cgi files to mode 755
find . -name "*.pl" -exec ls -ld {} \; # run ls command on files found
#find and copy
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find . -type f -name "*.mp3" -exec cp {} /tmp/MusicFiles \; # cp *.mp3 files to /tmp/MusicFiles
#copy one file to many dirs
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find dir1 dir2 dir3 dir4 -type d -exec cp header.shtml {} \; # copy the file header.shtml to those dirs
#find and delete
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find . -type f -name "Foo*" -exec rm {} \; # remove all "Foo*" files under current dir
find . -type d -name CVS -exec rm -r {} \; # remove all subdirectories named "CVS" under current dir
#find files by modification time
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find . -mtime 1 # 24 hours
find . -mtime -7 # last 7 days
find . -mtime -7 -type f # just files
find . -mtime -7 -type d # just dirs
#find files by modification time using a temp file
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touch 09301330 poop # 1) create a temp file with a specific timestamp
find . -mnewer poop # 2) returns a list of new files
rm poop # 3) rm the temp file
#find with time: this works on mac os x
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find / -newerct '1 minute ago' -print
#find and tar
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find . -type f -name "*.java" | xargs tar cvf myfile.tar
find . -type f -name "*.java" | xargs tar rvf myfile.tar
(see http://alvinalexander.com/blog/post/linux-unix/using-find-xargs-tar-crea...
for more information)
#find, tar, and xargs
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find . -name -type f '*.mp3' -mtime -180 -print0 | xargs -0 tar rvf music.tar
(-print0 helps handle spaces in filenames)
(see http://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-backup-filename-directories-space...)
#find and pax (instead of xargs and tar)
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find . -type f -name "*html" | xargs tar cvf jw-htmlfiles.tar -
find . -type f -name "*html" | pax -w -f jw-htmlfiles.tar
(see http://alvinalexander.com/blog/post/linux-unix/using-pax-instead-of-tar)