Edit

Find

Options

  • -type: f (file), d (directory)

  • -name, -iname: specify name of file/case insensitive

  • -size : size of files, e.g.: +30k (> 30 KB), -1M (< 1 MB), 30c (= 1 Byte)

  • -user: username of owner

  • -perm: permission in octal (owner-group-others, 4=r, 2=w, 1=x, more info) or symbolic

  • octal: 644 (exactly 644), -444 (at least readable by everyone, even when someone may have write permission), /666 (match any, readable and writable by at least one of the groups)

  • symbolic: u=r

  • time-related (- ): words are min = minute, time = day; prefixes are a=accessed, m=modified, c=changed

  • -amin +30: last accessed more than 30 mins ago

  • -mtime -7: modified less than 7 days ago

  • -mtime 0: last modified within the last 24 hours

  • -exec: exec new command, e.g.: -exec ls -l {} ;

Some Examples:

  • find . -type f -empty: find empty file in current directory

  • find /home -user someuser -mtime 7 -iname “.db”: find all .db files modified in the last 7 days by someuser

  • find ./ -name “file” -printf ‘%T+ %p\n’: find file with name include some text in current folder, then print Time and Path of file

  • find ./ -name “file” -printf ‘%T+ %p\n’ | sort -r | head -1: do the same, then sort in reverse order (latest first) and get the first one

  • find * -newermt 2019-11-27 ! -newermt 2019-11-30 | xargs ls -alSt: find files between 27 and 29/11/2019 then list them pipe them to list in time order

  • find * -newermt “2019-11-27 10:05:00” ! -newermt 2019-11-30 | xargs ls -alSt: same as above but include time value

  • find * -newermt “2019-11-27 10:05:00” ! -newermt 2019-11-30 -exec ls -al ;: similar to above command, but use -exec instead of pipe

  • find / -type f -user kittycat: find all files owned by the user “kittycat”

  • find / -type f -size 150c: Find all files that are exactly 150 bytes in size

  • find /home -type f -size -2k -name “.txt”: Find all files in the /home directory (recursive) wtth size less than 2K and extension “.txt”

  • find / -type f -perm 644: find all files that are exactly readable and writeable by the owner, and readable by everyone else (use octal format)

  • find / -type f -perm 444: find all files that are only readable by anyone (use octal format)

  • find / -type f -perm o=w: find all files with write permission for the group “others” , (use symbolic format)

  • find /usr/btn -type f -user root -perm u=s: find all files in the /usr/btn directory (recursive) that are owned by root and have at least the SUID permission (use symbolic format)

  • find / -type f -name “*.png” -atime +10: find all files that were not accessed in the last 10 days with extension png

  • find /usr/btn -type f -mmin 120: find all files in the /usr/btn directory (recursive) that have been modified within the last 2 hours

  • find . -type f | sort | tail -n 1: find the newest file in current folder

  • find . -type f | sort | head -n 1: find the oldest file in current folder

Delete all folder in current directory, except logs folder:

  • find . -type d ! -name logs | sudo xargs rm -rf

Delete files/folder older than x days

  • find ./ -mtime +550 -type d | xargs rm -rf

List folder (-type d) older than 550 days (mtime – modification time)

  • find ./ -mtime +550 -type d

Delete them, will work with file (-type f)

Find and sort files based on date

  • https://www.ostechnix.com/find-sort-files-based-access-modification-date-time-linux/

Find last 5 oldest files

  • find <$folder> -type f -printf ‘%T+ %p\n’ | sort | head -n 5

Find files based on Permission

Mode

  • If we specify the mode without any prefixes, it will find files of exact permissions.

  • If we use “-“ prefix with mode, at least the files should have the given permission, not the exact permission. OR operator

  • If we use “/” prefix, either the owner, the group, or other should have permission to the file. AND operator

Examples

  • Find / -perm 777: find files with permission of exactly 777

  • Find / -perm -766: find files with permission of at least 766 (so 777 should be included)

  • Find / -perm /222: find files writable by someone (either user, group or other)

  • Find / -perm /220: find files writable by either user or group, don’t have to match both

  • Fine / -perm -220: find files writable by both user and group

  • find / -type f -a ( -perm -u+s -o -perm -g+s ) -exec ls -l {} ; 2> /dev/null: find all file with sticky bit set in user or group

  • Reference: https://www.ostechnix.com/find-files-based-permissions/

Find and compare md5 hash with 2 files have only 1 characters different (0 and 1)

  • Find . -type f -exec md5sum {}; | sed ‘s/.[01]//g’

Find file and print details per format

  • find / -printf “%f\t%p\t%u\t%g\t%m\n” 2>/dev/null | column -t

    • \t: tab

    • %f: file name

    • %p: path

    • %u: user

    • %g: group

    • %m: permission

    • Column -t: print in column with tab, need \n in printf of find command

Find files older than n days and delete

  • find /opt/backup -type f -mtime +30 -delete: find and delete files older than 30 days

  • find /var/log -type d -mtime +30 -exec rm -rf {} ;: Find and delete folder recursively older than 30 days. Using the -delete option may fail, if the directory is not empty.

Some Other commands

  • find / -user -readable 2> /dev/null

Reference:

  • https://www.linode.com/docs/tools-reference/tools/find-files-in-linux-using-the-command-line/

  • https://linuxacademy.com/blog/linux/the-linux-find-command/

  • http://wisercoder.com/knowing-difference-mtime-ctime-atime/

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