Cheatsheet for find linux

find.sh

# List of cheatsheet for linux find.
# Taken from here http://alvinalexander.com/unix/edu/examples/find.shtml

# basic 'find file' commands
# --------------------------
find / -name foo.txt -type f -print             # full command
find / -name foo.txt -type f                    # -print isn't necessary
find / -name foo.txt                            # don't have to specify "type==file"
find . -name foo.txt                            # search under the current dir
find . -name "foo.*"                            # wildcard
find . -name "*.txt"                            # wildcard
find /users/al -name Cookbook -type d           # search '/users/al'

# search multiple dirs
# --------------------
find /opt /usr /var -name foo.scala -type f     # search multiple dirs

# case-insensitive searching
# --------------------------
find . -iname foo                               # find foo, Foo, FOo, FOO, etc.
find . -iname foo -type d                       # same thing, but only dirs
find . -iname foo -type f                       # same thing, but only files

# find files with different extensions
# ------------------------------------
find . -type f \( -name "*.c" -o -name "*.sh" \)                       # *.c and *.sh files
find . -type f \( -name "*cache" -o -name "*xml" -o -name "*html" \)   # three patterns

# find files that don't match a pattern (-not)
# --------------------------------------------
find . -type f -not -name "*.html"                                # find all files not ending in ".html"

# find files by text in the file (find + grep)
# --------------------------------------------
find . -type f -name "*.java" -exec grep -l StringBuffer {} \;    # find StringBuffer in all *.java files
find . -type f -name "*.java" -exec grep -il string {} \;         # ignore case with -i option
find . -type f -name "*.gz" -exec zgrep 'GET /foo' {} \;          # search for a string in gzip'd files

# 5 lines before, 10 lines after grep matches
# -------------------------------------------
find . -type f -name "*.scala" -exec grep -B5 -A10 'null' {} \;
# (see http://alvinalexander.com/linux-unix/find-grep-print-lines-before-after-search-term)

# find files and act on them (find + exec)
# ----------------------------------------
find /usr/local -name "*.html" -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;      # change html files to mode 644
find htdocs cgi-bin -name "*.cgi" -type f -exec chmod 755 {} \;   # change cgi files to mode 755
find . -name "*.pl" -exec ls -ld {} \;                            # run ls command on files found

# find and copy
# -------------
find . -type f -name "*.mp3" -exec cp {} /tmp/MusicFiles \;       # cp *.mp3 files to /tmp/MusicFiles

# copy one file to many dirs
# --------------------------
find dir1 dir2 dir3 dir4 -type d -exec cp header.shtml {} \;      # copy the file header.shtml to those dirs

# find and delete
# ---------------
find . -type f -name "Foo*" -exec rm {} \;                        # remove all "Foo*" files under current dir
find . -type d -name CVS -exec rm -r {} \;                        # remove all subdirectories named "CVS" under current dir

# find files by modification time
# -------------------------------
find . -mtime 1               # 24 hours
find . -mtime -7              # last 7 days
find . -mtime -7 -type f      # just files
find . -mtime -7 -type d      # just dirs

# find files by modification time using a temp file
# -------------------------------------------------
touch 09301330 poop           # 1) create a temp file with a specific timestamp
find . -mnewer poop           # 2) returns a list of new files
rm poop                       # 3) rm the temp file

# find with time: this works on mac os x
# --------------------------------------
find / -newerct '1 minute ago' -print

# find and tar
# ------------
find . -type f -name "*.java" | xargs tar cvf myfile.tar
find . -type f -name "*.java" | xargs tar rvf myfile.tar
# (see http://alvinalexander.com/blog/post/linux-unix/using-find-xargs-tar-create-huge-archive-cygwin-linux-unix for more information)

# find, tar, and xargs
--------------------
find . -name -type f '*.mp3' -mtime -180 -print0 | xargs -0 tar rvf music.tar
     (-print0 helps handle spaces in filenames)
# (see http://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-backup-filename-directories-spaces-find-tar-xargs)

# find and pax (instead of xargs and tar)
# ---------------------------------------
find . -type f -name "*html" | xargs tar cvf jw-htmlfiles.tar -
find . -type f -name "*html" | pax -w -f jw-htmlfiles.tar
# (see http://alvinalexander.com/blog/post/linux-unix/using-pax-instead-of-tar)

# exclude files from other devices (like depreceted -xdev in macOS). For linux: -xdev
find -x . -type f -name "*.java"

One very useful thing that could have a place here is -xdev which prevents find from indexing other filesystems that might me in the path.

This is particularly useful when a autofs or any other kind of remote mount is located within the search path.

Searching remote servers is usually not desired since it is very slow.

Just my idea

One very useful thing that could have a place here is -xdev which prevents find from indexing other filesystems that might me in the path.

This is particularly useful when a autofs or any other kind of remote mount is located within the search path.

Searching remote servers is usually not desired since it is very slow.

Just my idea

👍

Hi, can you point me to any relevant documentation about the -xdev being deprecated?

My current find version (under Fedora 32) doesn't accept a -x toggle..

find (GNU findutils) 4.7.0
Copyright (C) 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

I am using macOS, and it says that -x is equivalent to the deprecated -xdev primary. here . There could be difference between macOS and Linux.

# search for files containing spaces and replace them with underscores using perl-rename
find . -depth -name '* *' -execdir perl-rename -v 's/ /_/g' {} +