35 Practical Examples of Linux Find Command – Tecmint

The Linux search command is one of the most important and frequently used command-line utilities in Unix-like operating systems. The find command is used to find and locate the list of files and directories based on the conditions specified for the files that match the arguments.

The Find command can be used in a variety of conditions, such as you can search for files by permissions, users, groups, file types, date, size, and other possible criteria.

[ You May Also Like: 5 Command-Line Tools to Find Files Quickly

on Linux ] Through this article,

we share our daily experience of Linux search commands and their use in the form of examples

.

In this article, we will show you the 35 examples of Find Commands most commonly used in Linux. We have divided the section into five parts from basic use to advanced use of the find command.

Part

  • I: Basic Search Commands to Find Files with Names
  • Part II: Search for Files Based on Their Permissions Part III: Search for Files

  • Based on Owners and Groups
  • Part IV: Search for Files and Directories by Date and Time Part V: Search for

  • Files and Directories by Size
  • Part VI: Search for Multiple Filenames in Linux

1. Search for files using

the name in the current directory

Find all files named tecmint.txt in a current working directory. # find . -name tecmint.txt ./tecmint.txt

2. Find

files in the home directory Locate all files in the /home directory with the name tecmint.txt. # find /home -name tecmint.txt /

home/tecmint.txt

3. Search for files using Name and ignoring

case

Find all files named tecmint.txt and contain uppercase and lowercase letters in the /home directory. # find /home -iname tecmint.txt ./tecmint.txt ./tecmint.txt

4. Search

for directories using the name

Look for all directories named Tecmint in /directory. # find

/ –type d -name Tecmint /Tecmint

5. Find PHP files using the

name

Find all php files named tecmint.php in a current working directory. # find . -type f -name tecmint.php ./tecmint.php

6.

Find all PHP files in the directory

Find all php files in one directory

. # find . –type f -name “*.php” ./tecmint.php ./login.php ./index.php

7.

Find files with 777 permissions

Find all files whose permissions are 777. # find . -type f -perm 0777

print

8.

Search for files without permission 777

Find all files without permission 777.

# find / -type f ! -perm 777

9.

Find SGID files with 644 permissions

Find all SGID bit files whose permissions are set to 644. # Search / -Perm 2644

10.

Find sticky bit files with 551 permissions Find

all sticky bit set files whose permission is 551. # Search / -Perm 1551 11. Search

SUID files

Find all SUID set files

.

# find / -perm /u=s

12. Search

SGID files

Finds all SSID set files

. # find / -perm /g=s

[ You may also be interested in: How to find files with SUID and SGID permissions on Linux ]

13. Find

read-only files

Search for all read-only files

. # find / -perm /u=r

14. Find

executable files

Search for all executable files

. # find / -perm /a=x

15. Find files with

777 and chmod to 644 permissions

Locate all 777 permission files and use the chmod command to set permissions to 644. # find / -type f -perm 0777 -print -exec chmod 644

{} \;

16. Find

directories with permissions 777 and chmod to 755 Locate the 777

permission directories and use the chmod command to set permissions to 755. # find / -type d -perm 777 -print -exec chmod 755

{} \; 17

. Find

and delete a single file

To find a single file named tecmint.txt and delete it. # find . -type f -name “tecmint.txt

exec rm -f {} \;

18. Find

and delete multiple files

To find and delete multiple files, such as .mp3 or .txt, use them. # search .

-type f -name “*.txt” -exec rm -f {} \; Or #find . -type f -name “*.mp3″ -exec rm -f {} \;

[ You may also be interested: 4 useful tools to find and remove duplicate files in Linux ]

19. Find

all empty files

To find all empty files in a given path

. # find /tmp -type f -empty

20. Find

all empty directories

To archive all empty directories under a given path

. # find /tmp -type d -empty

21. Archive

all hidden files

To find all hidden files, use the following command

. # find /tmp -type f -name “.*”

22. Find a single user-based file

To find all or individual files named tecmint.txt in /root directory of the owner’s root. # find / -user root -name tecmint.txt

23. Search

all files by user

To find all files belonging to the user Tecmint in the

/home directory. # find /home -user tecmint

24. Find

all files by group

To find all files that belong to the Developer group in the /home directory

. # find /home -group developer

25. Search for particular

user files

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

. # find /home -user tecmint -iname “*.txt”

26. Search for the last

50 days modified files

to find all files that were modified

50 days ago. # find / -mtime 50

27. Search the last

50 days accessed

Files to find all files that were accessed 50 days ago

. # find / -atime 50

28. Search for the last

50-100 days of modified files

To find all files that are modified more than 50 days ago and less than 100 days. # find / -mtime +50 -mtime –100

29. Search for files modified

in the last

1 hour to find all files that have been changed in the last 1 hour

. # find / -cmin -60 30

. Search for

files modified in the last 1 hour

To find all files that were modified in the last 1 hour

. # find / -mmin -60

31. Search for

files accessed in the last

1 hour To find all files accessed in the last 1 hour

. # find / -amin -60

32. Search

for 50MB files

To find all 50MB files, use

. # find / -size 50M

33. Search size between

50MB – 100MB

to find all files that are larger than 50MB and smaller than 100MB. # find / -size +50M -size –100M

34. Find

and delete 100 MB files

to find all 100 MB files and delete them with a single command

. # find / -type f -size +100M -exec rm -f {} \;

35

. Find specific files and delete

Find all .mp3 files larger than 10 MB and delete them with a single command.

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

[ You may also be interested in: How to find a specific string or word in files and directories ] That’s

it, we’re finishing this post here, In our next article, we’ll discuss more other Linux commands in depth with practical examples. Let us know your thoughts on this article using our comments section.