Master Linux File Search: 35 Essential find Command Examples

1. Find a file by name in the current directory

# find . -name rumenz.txt

./rumenz.txt

2. Find a file by name in the home directory

# find /home -name rumenz.txt

/home/rumenz.txt

3. Find a file by name (case‑insensitive)

# find /home -iname rumenz.txt

./rumenz.txt
./rumenz.txt

4. Find a directory by name

# find / -type d -name rumenz

/rumenz

5. Find a PHP file by exact name

# find . -type f -name rumenz.php

./rumenz.php

6. Find all PHP files in a directory

# find . -type f -name "*.php"

./rumenz.php
./login.php
./index.php

7. Find files with 777 permissions

# find . -type f -perm 0777 -print

8. Find files that do NOT have 777 permissions

# find / -type f ! -perm 777

9. Find files with SGID bit set to 644 (example command)

# find / -perm 2644

10. Find files with sticky bit set to 551

# find / -perm 551

11. Find SUID files

# find / -perm /u=s

12. Find SGID files

# find / -perm /g=s

13. Find read‑only files

# find / -perm /u=r

14. Find executable files

# find / -perm /a=x

15. Find files with 777 permissions and change them to 644

# find / -type f -perm 0777 -print -exec chmod 644 {} \;

16. Find directories with 777 permissions and change them to 755

# find / -type d -perm 777 -print -exec chmod 755 {} \;

17. Find and delete a single file

# find . -type f -name "rumenz.txt" -exec rm -f {} \;

18. Find and delete multiple files (e.g., *.txt or *.mp3)

# find . -type f -name "*.txt" -exec rm -f {} \;

# find . -type f -name "*.mp3" -exec rm -f {} \;

19. Find all empty files

# find /tmp -type f -empty

20. Find all empty directories

# find /tmp -type d -empty

21. Find all hidden files

# find /tmp -type f -name ".*"

22. Find a single file owned by a specific user

# find / -user root -name rumenz.txt

23. Find all files owned by a specific user

# find /home -user rumenz

24. Find all files belonging to a specific group

# find /home -group developer

25. Find a user’s specific file type (case‑insensitive)

# find /home -user rumenz -iname "*.txt"

26. Find files modified in the last 50 days

# find / -mtime 50

27. Find files accessed in the last 50 days

# find / -atime 50

28. Find files modified between 50 and 100 days ago

# find / -mtime +50 -mtime -100

29. Find files changed in the last hour

# find / -cmin -60

30. Find files modified in the last hour

# find / -mmin -60

31. Find files accessed in the last hour

# find / -amin -60

32. Find files of exactly 50 MB

# find / -size 50M

33. Find files between 50 MB and 100 MB

# find / -size +50M -size -100M

34. Find and delete files larger than 100 MB

# find / -type f -size +100M -exec rm -f {} \;

35. Find specific large files (e.g., *.mp3 >10 MB) and delete them

# find / -type f -name *.mp3 -size +10M -exec rm {} \;