{"id":2134,"date":"2023-12-17T13:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-17T13:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/datmt.com\/?p=2134"},"modified":"2023-12-17T13:35:02","modified_gmt":"2023-12-17T13:35:02","slug":"linux-find-command-cheat-sheet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/datmt.com\/linux\/linux-find-command-cheat-sheet\/","title":{"rendered":"Linux find Command Cheat Sheet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The find command is one of the most useful commands in Linux (for me). This cheat sheet serves as a reference so you (and I) can quickly find the correct command to get what we search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basic usages of the find command<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is the pattern of the find command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

find [path] -name [filename]<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
For example, I have the following folder:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
For example, if I want to find the file “sdk.json”, this is the command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -name "sdk.json"<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sure enough, I got the file back:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"find<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
As you can see, the find command also finds in the nested folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Case Insensitive search<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
By default, the find command treats the search term case-sensitively. That means, if I run:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -name "SDK.json"<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
There would be no result returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I want to ignore case sensitivity, I can use iname<\/code> instead of name<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -iname "SDK.json"<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Find directory only & file only<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Consider the following structure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The first loki is a file and the second loki is a folder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Execute the following command would return both files:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -name "loki"<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
You can specify the type you want to return with -type<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n
#returns only the directory\nfind . -name "loki" -type d<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# returns only the file\nfind . -name "loki" -type f<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Find by size (greater than, less than)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Let’s consider the following files in a folder:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
I can execute the following commands to find the files that are less than 50KB<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# returns only the file\nfind . -size -50k\n# returns\n# .\/dockermetrics.json\n# .\/sdk.json<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This command would result in the files that are larger than 50KB:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
# returns only the file\nfind . -size +50k\n# returns\n#.\/postgres.json\n#.\/temporal.json<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Find finds by permission<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You can find files by permission with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find [path] -perm [permissions]<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Let’s say I have the following files:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Files<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
As you can see, they are all 664.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can issue a command to find by permission 664 and sure enough, I can see the 4 files:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"find<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Find files with logical condition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You are not limited to just one condition. Let’s say you want to find JSON files with a size > 50KB. You can do the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find -name "*.json" -size +50k<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
These conditions are implicity AND. If you want to do OR condition, you can use the following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . \\( -name "sdk*" -o -name "post*" \\)<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Here, I use the wildcard to match the file names. Essentially, what I did was to ask the command to return the files that either start with sdk<\/code> or post<\/code>. The result was quite expected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Execute commands on found files<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
if you want to execute a command on found files, you have it covered. For example, I want to find all the shell files and make them executable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, here are the nonexecutable files:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
They are not executable as you can see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s make them all executable:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find *sh -exec chmod +x {} \\;<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
If I list the files again, they are all executable:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Files<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
in the command above, the {}<\/code> is the placeholder for the found files. the \\; at the end signifies this is the end of the command that needs to be executed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Negate search<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There are times you want to find files that don’t match a pattern, you can precede the -name with !<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . ! -name "sdk*"<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"negate<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
As you can see, all files returned except for sdk.json.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Find files by users and groups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Similar to finding by names, you can find files by user and group. The syntaxes are familiar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find [path] -user [username]\nfind [path] -group [groupname]\n<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In the list of files above, you can see that the run1.sh file is owned by the user jenkins-agent. The following command return that single file:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find . -user jenkins-agent<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Find with limit depth of search<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There are times you don’t want to search through all levels of the directory tree. For example, in the following directory tree:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
You only want to find all the ‘loki’ files in the first level but not the ones inside sub folders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can specify the depth with -maxdepth<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find [path] -maxdepth N -name [pattern]\nfind -maxdepth 1 -name "loki"<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Find and delete files<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Combining the find command with the -delete<\/code> can be very useful (and dangerous).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s say I want to find all .sh files in the current folder and delete them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
find -name "*sh" -exec rm {} \\;<\/pre><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In this post, I’ve introduced you to the usage of the find command in Linux. This is a very powerful and useful command. Using it right can serve you well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Basic usages of the find command This is the pattern of the find command: For example, I have … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[297,173],"class_list":["post-2134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux","tag-find-command","tag-linux"],"yoast_head":"\nLinux find Command Cheat Sheet - datmt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/datmt.com\/linux\/linux-find-command-cheat-sheet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Linux find Command Cheat Sheet - datmt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Overview The find command is one of the most useful commands in Linux (for me). This cheat sheet serves as a reference so you (and I) can quickly find the correct command to get what we search. Basic usages of the find command This is the pattern of the find command: For example, I have ... 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