Ten ‘Find’ Command Examples for Beginners

find command is used for locate files in a directory hierarchy on Linux/Unix systems. You can search for files according to name, owner, group, type, permissions, date and other criteria.

The search is recursive in that it will search all sub directories too. If you are a beginner, the following examples will make you clear about the find command.

1. Find full path of all files in the current and its sub-directories

The following commands locate and display the full path names of all files in the current directory and its sub-directories:

sk@sk:~$ find .

sk@sk:~$ find . -print

sk@sk:~$ find -print

2. Find files using name in current directory

The following commands will search the files with their name. Say for example, if your file name is unixmen.txt, then you can find this file using anyone of the below commands.

To find the file whose name is unixmen.txt in your current directory, enter the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find -name unixmen.txt
./unixmen.txt
./Downloads/unixmen.txt
./Documents/unixmen.txt

or

sk@sk:~$ find . -name unixmen.txt
./unixmen.txt
./Downloads/unixmen.txt
./Documents/unixmen.txt

3. Find files using name in a particular directory

This command will find the file from the directory that you have mentioned with find command. For example, to find the file whose name is unixmen.txt in ~/directory, enter the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find /home/ -name unixmen.txt
/home/sk/unixmen.txt
/home/sk/Downloads/unixmen.txt
/home/sk/Documents/unixmen.txt

4. Find files in your whole Computer

If you are not sure where exactly is your file (eg. unixmen.txt), the following command will find it for you:

sk@sk:~$ sudo find / -name unixmen.txt
/home/sk/unixmen.txt
/home/sk/Downloads/unixmen.txt
/home/sk/Documents/unixmen.txt

The above command will search the file unixmen.txt in your root (/) directory and all its sub-directories.

5. Find files ignoring case sensitivity

To find a file ignoring case sensitivity (whether the file name contain small or uppercase letters) use -iname parameter with find command:

sk@sk:~$ find -iname UniXmeN.txt
./unixmen.txt
./Downloads/unixmen.txt
./Documents/unixmen.txt

As you seen in the above command, I have used combination of small and capital letters. The find command will ignore the case sensitivity and find the actual fileunixmen.txt.

6. Limit search to specific directory level

The following command will find the file unixmen.txt upto one directory level from root directory:

sk@sk:~$ find -maxdepth 2 -name unixmen.txt
./unixmen.txt
./Downloads/unixmen.txt
./Documents/unixmen.txt

To find the file up to two directory level specify the maxdepth as example 3:

sk@sk:~$ find -maxdepth 3 -name unixmen.txt
./unixmen.txt
./Downloads/unixmen.txt
./Downloads/Unixmen/unixmen.txt
./Documents/unixmen.txt

7. Find file using with its extension

For instance if you want to find all files with extensions FLV, enter the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find -type f -name *.FLV
./Entertainment/Video Songs/RightNow.FLV

If you know the exact name and extension of the file, then the command should be:

sk@sk:~$ find -type f -name RightNow.FLV
./Entertainment/Video Songs/RightNow.FLV

8. Find Files depending upon the size

To search files based on their size, use the parameter -size with find command.

To find the files which are 1GB or more enter the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find -size +1G 
./VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 12.10 server_ 1 nic_ Internet_ Bridge/Ubuntu 12.10 server_ 1 nic_ Internet_ Bridge.vdi
./Soft_Backup/OS Images/CentOS-6.3-i386-bin-DVD2.iso
./Soft_Backup/OS Images/CentOS-6.3-i386-bin-DVD1.iso
./Soft_Backup/OS Images/Win 7 Pro.iso

To search files in a particular directory which are 1GB or more, the command should be:

sk@sk:~$ find Soft_Backup/ -size +1G 
Soft_Backup/OS Images/CentOS-6.3-i386-bin-DVD2.iso
Soft_Backup/OS Images/CentOS-6.3-i386-bin-DVD1.iso
Soft_Backup/OS Images/Win 7 Pro.iso

To search files which are less than 1GB, enter the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find -size -1G

If your file size is exactly 10MB, just ignore the + or – sign. The command will be:

sk@sk:~$ find -size 10M

9. Find files with their Owner or Group name

To search the files whose Owner is sk, enter the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find -user sk -name unixmen.txt
./unixmen.txt
./Downloads/unixmen.txt
./Downloads/Unixmen/unixmen.txt
./Documents/unixmen.txt

To search files whose Group is sk, find them using the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find -group sk -name unixmen.txt
./unixmen.txt
./Downloads/unixmen.txt
./Downloads/Unixmen/unixmen.txt
./Documents/unixmen.txt

10. Find files with their permissions

Search for a particular file whose permissions is set to 777 using the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find -perm 777 -name unixmen.txt

Search for all files whose permissions are set to 777 using the following command:

sk@sk:~$ find -perm 775

Search a particular file whose owner permissions are set to read-only:

sk@sk:~$ find -perm /u=r

Search all files whose permissions are set to executable to all:

sk@sk:~$ find -perm /a=x

For more information about find command usages, refer the man pages.

sk@sk:~$ man find

35 Practical Examples of Linux Find Command

The Linux Find Command is one of the most important and much used command in Linux sytems. Find command used to search and locate list of files and directories based on conditions you specify for files that match the arguments. Find can be used in variety of conditions like you can find files by permissions, users, groups, file type, date, size and other possible criteria.

Through this article we are sharing our day-to-day Linux find command experience and its usage in the form of examples. In this article we will show you the most used 35 Find Commandsexamples in Linux. We have divided the section into Five parts from basic to advance usage of find command.

1. Part I: Basic Find Commands for Finding Files with Names
2. Part II: Find Files Based on their Permissions
3. Part III: Search Files Based On Owners and Groups
4. Part IV: Find Files and Directories Based on Date and Time
5. Part V: Find Files and Directories Based on Size

1. Find Files Using Name in Current Directory

Find all the files whose name is tecmint.txt in a current working directory.

# find . -name tecmint.txt

./tecmint.txt

2. Find Files Under Home Directory

Find all the files under /home directory with name tecmint.txt.

# find /home -name tecmint.txt

/home/tecmint.txt

3. Find Files Using Name and Ignoring Case

Find all the files whose name is tecmint.txt and contains both capital and small letters in /homedirectory.

# find /home -iname tecmint.txt

./tecmint.txt
./Tecmint.txt

4. Find Directories Using Name

Find all directories whose name is Tecmint in / directory.

# find / -type d -name Tecmint

/Tecmint

5. Find PHP Files Using Name

Find all php files whose name is tecmint.php in a current working directory.

# find . -type f -name tecmint.php

./tecmint.php

6. Find all PHP Files in Directory

Find all php files in a directory.

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

./tecmint.php
./login.php
./index.php

7. Find Files With 777 Permissions

Find all the files whose permissions are 777.

# find . -type f -perm 0777 -print

8. Find Files Without 777 Permissions

Find all the files without permission 777.

# find / -type f ! -perm 777

9. Find SGID Files with 644 Permissions

Find all the SGID bit files whose permissions set to 644.

# find / -perm 2644

10. Find Sticky Bit Files with 551 Permissions

Find all the Sticky Bit set files whose permission are 551.

# find / -perm 1551

11. Find SUID Files

Find all SUID set files.

# find / -perm /u=s

12. Find SGID Files

Find all SGID set files.

# find / -perm /g+s

13. Find Read Only Files

Find all Read Only files.

# find / -perm /u=r

14. Find Executable Files

Find all Executable files.

# find / -perm /a=x

15. Find Files with 777 Permissions and Chmod to 644

Find all 777 permission files and use chmod command to set permissions to 644.

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

16. Find Directories with 777 Permissions and Chmod to 755

Find all 777 permission directories and use chmod command to set permissions to 755.

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

17. Find and remove single File

To find a single file called tecmint.txt and remove it.

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

18. Find and remove Multiple File

To find and remove multiple files such as .mp3 or .txt, then use.

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

OR

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

19. Find all Empty Files

To file all empty files under certain path.

# find /tmp -type f -empty

20. Find all Empty Directories

To file all empty directories under certain path.

# find /tmp -type d -empty

21. File all Hidden Files

To find all hidden files, use below command.

# find /tmp -type f -name ".*"

22. Find Single File Based on User

To find all or single file called tecmint.txt under / root directory of owner root.

# find / -user root -name tecmint.txt

23. Find all Files Based on User

To find all files that belongs to user Tecmint under /home directory.

# find /home -user tecmint

24. Find all Files Based on Group

To find all files that belongs to group Developer under /home directory.

# find /home -group developer

25. Find Particular Files of User

To find all .txt files of user Tecmint under /home directory.

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

26. Find Last 50 Days Modified Files

To find all the files which are modified 50 days back.

# find / -mtime 50

27. Find Last 50 Days Accessed Files

To find all the files which are accessed 50 days back.

# find / -atime 50

28. Find Last 50-100 Days Modified Files

To find all the files which are modified more than 50 days back and less than 100 days.

# find / -mtime +50 –mtime -100

29. Find Changed Files in Last 1 Hour

To find all the files which are changed in last 1 hour.

# find / -cmin -60

30. Find Modified Files in Last 1 Hour

To find all the files which are modified in last 1 hour.

# find / -mmin -60

31. Find Accessed Files in Last 1 Hour

To find all the files which are accessed in last 1 hour.

# find / -amin -60

32. Find 50MB Files

To find all 50MB files, use.

# find / -size 50M

33. Find Size between 50MB – 100MB

To find all the files which are greater than 50MB and less than 100MB.

# find / -size +50M -size -100M

34. Find and Delete 100MB Files

To find all 100MB files and delete them using one single command.

# find / -size +100M -exec rm -rf {} \;

35. Find Specific Files and Delete

Find all .mp3 files with more than 10MB and delete them using one single command.

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