Master Linux File Searches: Powerful Find Command Techniques

Find command is one of the most valuable Linux commands, allowing you to locate files and directories based on criteria such as age, size, and name. All examples can be combined, e.g., filtering by name, size, and date in a single search.

Find Recently Modified Files

$ find /home -mmin -60 -type f
/home/kpatronas/.motd_shown

-mmin -60

: files modified in the last 60 minutes. -type f: search only files. /home: path to search.

To search by hour you can use the trick -$((26*60)), which evaluates to 120 minutes.

$ find / -mmin -$((26*60)) -type f
/home/kpatronas/.motd_shown
/etc/hosts
/etc/timezone
/etc/ld.so.cache
/etc/hostname
/etc/ld.so.conf.d/ld.wsl.conf
/var/cache/ldconfig/aux-cache

To find files by days use the -mtime option; note that rounding affects how modification times are interpreted.

$ find / -mtime -3 -type f
/home/kpatronas/.landscape/sysinfo.log
/home/kpatronas/.sudo_as_admin_successful
/home/kpatronas/.bash_history
/home/kpatronas/.motd_shown
/home/kpatronas/.profile
/home/kpatronas/.bash_logout

To find files modified between two timestamps, use the -newermt option. -newermt: finds files newer than the given timestamp; prefixing with ! negates the result.

$ find / -type f -newermt "2022-11-22 00:00:00" ! -newermt "2022-11-22 00:41:00"
/home/kpatronas/.motd_shown
/etc/hosts
/etc/timezone
/etc/ld.so.cache
/etc/hostname
/etc/ld.so.conf.d/ld.wsl.conf
/var/cache/ldconfig/aux-cache

Finding Directories

Replace -type d with -type f to apply the same examples to directories. Omitting -type searches both files and directories.

$ find / -mmin -60 -type d
/
/home/kpatronas
/etc
/mnt/wsl
/sys
/dev
/run
/proc
/var/cache/ldconfig

Find Files by Size

Use the -size option to find files of a specific size. Suffixes: b (512‑byte blocks, default), c (bytes), w (two‑byte words), k (kilobytes), M (megabytes), G (gigabytes).

$ find / -size 1M

Prefix the value with + or - to find files larger or smaller than the given size.

Greater than 1 MB

find / -size +1M

Less than 1 MB

find / -size -1M

To find files between two sizes, combine the criteria, e.g., find / -size +10M -size -20M for files between 10 MB and 20 MB.

Find Files by Name Pattern

Use the -name option to match file names, e.g., files named hosts:

find / -type f -name 'hosts'

Wildcards are supported; 'hosts*' matches all files starting with host.

find / -type f -name 'hosts*'

Some Useful Tips

Limit search depth with -mindepth and -maxdepth. The following command searches only between the 4th and 6th levels of subdirectories:

$ find / -mindepth 4 -maxdepth 6

Use -exec to run a command on each matched file, e.g., delete all *.test files in the home directory:

$ find ~ -name '*.test' -exec rm {} +

To search only the root partition while excluding a mounted /test partition, use -mount:

$ find / -mount -name '*.test'