Master Linux Find: 8 Powerful Ways to Locate and Manage Files

In Linux administration, the find command is essential for locating files and directories based on various criteria.

find . -type f -atime +365 -exec rm -rf {} \;

1. Search by name or regular expression

Example: find . -name test.txt Search for all PDF files: find ./yang/books -name "*.pdf" Specify file type for clarity:

find ./yang/books -type f -name "*.pdf"

2. Search by file type

Directories: find . -type d -name "yang*" Symbolic links:

find . -type l -name "yang*"

3. Search by timestamps

atime – last access time

mtime – last modification time

ctime – last status change time

Find files not accessed for over a year: find . -type f -atime +365 Find files modified exactly 5 days ago: find . -type f -mtime 5 Find files whose ctime is between 5 and 10 days ago:

find . -type f -ctime +5 -ctime -10

4. Search by size

Size units: b (512‑byte blocks), c (bytes), w (two‑byte words), k (KB), M (MB), G (GB).

Find files between 10 MB and 1 GB:

find . -type f -size +10M -size -1G

5. Search by permissions

Find files with permission 777:

find . -type f -perm 777

6. Search by ownership

Find files owned by user yang:

find -type f -user yang

7. Execute a command on matches

Delete files not accessed for over a year: find . -type f -atime +365 -exec rm -rf {} \; The {} placeholder represents each found file; the command must end with an escaped semicolon \;.

8. Search by directory name

Case‑insensitive search:

find /path/to/search -type d -iname "directory_name"

Find the most recently modified directory:

find /path/to/search -type d -printf '%T+ %p
' | sort -n | tail -1

Awk quick reference

Awk processes structured text. Basic syntax: awk [options] 'pattern { action }' file Example file file.txt:

name,age,sex,salary
Alice,30,女,9000
Bob,25,男,8000
Carol,35,男,7000
Karry,21,女,5000

Print each line: awk '{ print }' file.txt Specify field separator: awk -F ',' '{ print $1, $3 }' file.txt Filter rows where age > 30:

awk -F ',' '$2 > 30 { print $1 }' file.txt