Milinda Pathirage’s Blog

The find command allows the Linux users to process a set of files and/or directories in a file subtree.Users can specify where to search, what type of file to search for (-type: directories, data files, links), how to process the files (-exec: run a process against a selected file), the name of the file(s) (-name) and perform logical operations on selections (-o and -a). Here are some examples:

• Search for file with a specific name in a set of files:

  find . -name "soap_fault_text.c" -print

  This command will search in the current directory and all sub directories for a file named soap_fault_text.c.
• Applying a Linux command to a set of file (-exec):

  find . -name "soap_fault_text.c" -exec chmod o+r '{}' \;

  This command will search in the current directory and all sub directories. All files named soap_fault_text.c will be processed by the chmod -o+r command. The argument '{}' inserts each found file into the chmod command line. The \; argument indicates the exec command line has ended.
• Search for a string in a selection of files (-exec grep ...):

  find . -exec grep "www.athabasca" '{}' \; -print

  This command will search in the current directory and all sub directories. All files that contain the string will have their path printed to standard output.

For more information:

• Man page
• Advanced techniques for using the UNIX find command

Sphere: Related Content