The Linux find command is a built in powerful tool that can be used to locate and manage files and directories based on a wide range of search criteria.For example, we can find files by their name, extension, size, permissions, etc.

Common Find commands

Searching for a file by name

1

find . -name data.txt

Find files larger than 100mb in the current dir:

1

find . -xdev -type f -size +100M

Searching for a specific file in a directory

1

find ./data -name tests*

Find files by extension:

1

find . -name *.jpg

Find files or directories with certain names:

1
2
3
4
5

# find only files, we need to use the -f option:
find ./ -type f -name "results*"

# To find only directories, we need to use the -d option:
find ./ -type d -name "results*"

Find files in multiple directories

1

find ./src ./res -name app*.* -type f

Find files containing a certain text

1

find ./src -type f -exec grep -l -i "getall" {} ;

Find files by size We can even find files by different sizes. Size options are:

• c - bytes
• k - kilobytes
• M - Megabytes
• G - Gigabytes

Example

1

find / -size 10M

Find and delete specific files

1

find . -type f -name "temp*" -exec rm {} ;