Finding files and directories

FLOPPIX

Finding files

Notes:

The find command searches for files in the filesystem by name, owner, size, date, ... The format of the find command is:
find [path...] [expression]
where path is the starting point for the search and expression can be a set of options, tests and actions. Some of the tests:

-name pattern : search for files whose name matches the given pattern
-mtime -n: search for files whose modification time is less than n days (n*24 hours)
-user username: search for files owned by the specified user
-type x: search for files of type x, where x can be f (file), d (directory), l (link) ...
-empty: search for empty files

Examples:

find /home -name readme
This starts the search in the directory /home and looks for a file named readme.

find / -user alterego
This starts the search at the root directory and looks for all files which belong to alterego.
find / -mtime -1
This starts the search at the root directory and looks for all files which were modified less than 1 day (24 hours) ago.
find / -type d -name read
This starts the search in the root directory and finds all directories named read.

As find scans through the directory tree, there will be directories which you do not have permissions to search. The find command will not scan these directories but will display permission denied messages on standard error. To suppress the permission denied messages, redirect standard error to /dev/null.

find / -mtime -1 2> /dev/null
This searches for all files that were modified in the last day (24 hours) starting the search in the root directory and sending all 'permission denied' messages to the bit bucket

Exercises:

Find a file named vtree.tgz.
Find all files with the filename alterego.
Find all files that belong to floopy.
Find all empty files in the /etc directory.
Find all files under the /etc directory with a filename that starts with K (in uppercase).
Find all directories starting in /var.
Find a file named penguin.
Find all files (not directories) that start with "p".
Find all files that end with ".gz".
Find everything that belongs to the mail group.

Questions & Answers:

What command will find all filenames ending in .html?

Answer: find / -name *.html
What command will find all files belonging to alterego?

Answer: find / -user alterego
What command will find a directory named netlp starting in the /var directory?

Answer: find /var -type d -name netlp
What command will suppress the display of the "permission denied" messages that are displayed when you use the find command?

Answer: find / -name penguin 2> /dev/null
What command will find all empty directories (use man to lookup options for the find command).

Answer: find / -type d -empty