Master Linux ‘find’: Powerful File Search Techniques & Real‑World Examples

find: Search and locate files

Function description:

Using the find command you can list files that meet specified criteria such as name, type, time, size, permissions, etc. Only files that fully match are displayed.

Note: find's fuzzy search can be resource‑intensive; avoid running it during peak load.

Command syntax:

find [path] [options]

Option meanings:

The options are described below: -name <filename>: search by name -iname <filename>: case‑insensitive name search -user <username>: search by file owner -group <groupname>: search by group -size n[ckMG]: search by size (c=bytes, k=KB, M=MB, G=GB) -type <filetype>: search by file type -nouser: files without an owner -nogroup: files without a group -atime n: accessed within the last n days -amin n: accessed within the last n minutes -ctime n: metadata changed within the last n days -cmin n: metadata changed within the last n minutes -mtime n: content modified within the last n days -mmin n: content modified within the last n minutes

Parameter examples:

Example 1 – Search by name

# find /test -name abc
/test/abc
# find /test -iname abc
/test/abc
/test/ABC

Example 2 – Search by size

# find /date -size +10M
# find /date -size -1G
# find /date -size 98k

Example 3 – Search by time

# find / -mtime -1 -type f
# find / -mtime +1 -type f
# find / -atime +1 -type f
# find / -atime -1 -type f
# find / -ctime -1 -type f
# find / -cmin +60 -type f

Example 4 – Search by permissions

# find /test -perm 777

Example 5 – Search by owner/group

# find / -user esight -type f
# find / -nouser -type f
# find / -group esight -type f
# find / -nogroup -type f

Example 6 – Execute actions

# find /test -name "te.txt" -ok rm {} \;
# find /test -name "te.txt" -exec cp {} {}.bak \;