Find Files or Directories in Linux Command Line

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The linux find command is one of the best ways to find files and directories in the command line. The find command is extremely versatile providing many options for granular control over your search query. If it exists, the find command will find it.

The find command can also execute commands on the files or directories found. This allows you to do a multitude of things, like deleting and modifying the files and directories found with a one-liner command.

The syntax for the find command is as follows:

find path options expression

• path = By default the current directory is used unless given a path to search in.
• options = Control over your search(ie. files or directories, case, symbolic links, and much more).
• expression = What you’re searching for.

Find Files by Extension

In this example we search for all files with the png extension in the current directory.

find . -name '*.png'

• The dot(.) indicates the current directory. You can also provide a path to search such as (/home/username/directory).
• (-name) indicates the case sensitive file name.

Here we search for png files in a specific directory.

find /home/username/Pictures -name '*.png'

Find a File by Name

Here we search for a file named (file.txt) case sensitive.

find . -name 'file.txt'

Here we search for a file named (file.txt) case insensitive.

find . -iname 'file.txt'

• (-name) case sensitive
• (-iname) case insensitive

Find Empty Files

Here we search a directory for empty(0 bytes) files.

find . -type f -empty

• (-type f) = Searches for files only.

To delete all empty(0 bytes) files.

find . -type f -empty -delete

Find Files by Modification Time Frame

Find files modified in the last 7 days.

find . -daystart -mtime -7

Run a Command On Each File Found

Find all png files in directory and display each png file size.

find . -name '*.png' -exec wc -c {} \;

• (-exec) Executes a command.
• (wc -c) Command to display file size.
• ({}) All the files found to be processed by (wc -c) command.
• (;) Ends the command executed by (-exec).
• (\) Escapes the semicolon(;) so that it’s not treated as its own special character and instead is passed to the find command.

Find Files Within a Size Range

Find files within 5 and 10 megabytes.

find . -size +5M -size -10M

Find Directories

Find a directory named (music).

find . -type d -iname 'music'

• (-type d) Search for directories only.

If you only know part of the directory name, you can use wildcards to search for directory names containing the word (music).

find . -type d -iname '*music*'

Conclusion

We have step through a few ways to find files and directories efficiently in the linux command line with the find command. For more find command options, view the man page in your terminal:

man find

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