This document discusses tools for finding files in Linux. It describes the 'find' command, which can search for files based on various criteria like name, size, ownership, and more. Some examples of find options are provided. It also briefly introduces the 'locate' command, which searches a database of all files rather than scanning the filesystem live like find.

1. Finding Files

2. Finding Files
• The Linux File System hierarchy includes a large amount of
directories and a deep tree of subdirectories
• When interacting with the system, one of the most common
need is finding a file’s location or find which files are included
in a custom search criteria.

3. find
• ‘find’ is a power-full file search tool. It can find files that
matches any type or criteria, such as:
– File name
– Modification or Access time
– File size
– Similarity to other files

4. find
• Syntax:
 find [options] [filename(s)]
• Options:
 -name ‘pattern’ find files with name matching name
 -iname ‘pattern’ same as above. Case insensitive
 -mtime +/-N find files with modification time of more (+) or less (+)
then N days
 -mmin +/-N same as above. N stands for minutes
 -[i]regex find files with name matching regex
 -user user find files owned by user
 -size +/-N[kMG] find files with size bigger or smaller than N

5. find
 -exec command {} ; execute command {} while replacing {} with the
file name. This option should be used in conjunction with at least one
filter option
Example
$ find . -name .b* -exec head -n1 {} ;
# .bash_profile
# .bashrc
# ~/.bash_logout
ls -ltr ~

6. locate
• ‘locate’ is another tool that finds files. It uses a database
which holds a list of all the files in the system and needs to be
updated periodically using the command ‘updatedb’
• Syntax:
 locate [options] PATTERN
• Options:
 -r ‘regex’ find file with names matching regex
 -c only report amount of times each file was found