find – Linux usages
by mravin
1. Find files using names
# find -name “MyCProgram.c”
2. Find files using name & ignoring case
# find -iname “MyCProgram.c”
3. Limit search to specific directory level using mindepth & maxdepth
# find / -name passwd
# find / -maxdepth 2 -name passwd
# find / -mindepth 3 -maxdepth 5 -name passwd
4. Executing commands on the files found by Find
# find -iname “MyCProgram.c” -exec md5sum {} \;
Calculates md5sum of all the files. {} Is replacd by the current filename.
5. Inverting the match
# find / -not -iname “MyCProgram.c”
6. Finding files by inode number
#ls -il -> gives inode number
# find -inum 16187430 -exec mv {} new-filename \; -> renames the resultant files.
# find -inum 804180 -exec rm {} \;
7. Find files based on file permissions
# find . -perm -g=r -type f -exec ls -l {} \;
# find . -perm 040 -type f -exec ls -l {} \;
8. Find empty files in home dir
# find ~ -empty
# find . -empty -not -name “.*” -> non hidden files.
9. Find top 5 big files
# find . -type f -exec ls -s {} \; | sort -n -r | head -5
10. Find the top 5 small files
# find . -not -empty -type f -exec ls -s {} \; | sort -n | head -5
11. Find files based on file types
# find . -type s -> socket files
# find . -type d -> directory
# find . -type f -name “.*” -> hidden files
# find . -type d -name “.*” -> hidden directory
12. Find files modified after specific file
# ls -lrt
# find -newer
13. Find files by size
# find ~ -size +100M
# find ~ -size -100M
# find ~ -size 100M
14. Create alias for frequent find
# alias rmao=”find . -iname a.out -exec rm {} \;”
# rmao
15. Remove big archive files using find command
# find / -type f -name *.zip -size +10G -exec rm -i {} \;
16. Find files whose content got updated within last 1 hour
# find . -mmin -60
# find . -mtime -1 -> last 1 day
17. Find files which got accessed before 1 hour.
# find -amin -60
# find / -atime -1
18. Find files which got changed exactly 1 hour ago
# find . -cmin -60
# find . -ctime -1
19. Search only unhidden files using regular expression
# find . -mmin -15 \( | -regex “.*/\..*” \)
20. Find files which are accessed after modofication of a specified file.
# find -anewer /etc/hosts
21. Searching only in the current files system
# find / -name “*.log”
22. Using more than 1 {}
# find -name “*.txt” cp {} {}.bak \;
23. Redirectin errors to /dev/null
# find -name “*.txt” 2>>/dev/null
24. Substitute space with underscore
# find . -type f -name “*.mp3″ -exec rename “s/ /_/g” {} \;
