Cheatsheet for find linux

find.sh

# Based on: https://alvinalexander.com/unix/edu/examples/find.shtml

# basic 'find file' commands
# --------------------------
find / -name foo.txt -type f -print             # find regular files under / with name foo.txt
find / -name foo.txt -type f                    # -print is the default action, and may be omitted
find . -name foo.txt                            # search under the current dir, and all types
find . -name "foo*" -type d                     # wildcard name-matching, and only directories
find /opt /usr /var -name foo.scala -type f     # search multiple dirs
find . -iname foo                               # case-insensitive: foo, Foo, FOo, FOO, etc.

# logical expressions
# -------------------
find . -type f \( -name "*.c" -o -name "*.sh" \)                  # *.c or (-o) *.sh files
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 Buffer {} \;          # find Buffer in all *.java files
find . -type f -name "*.java" -exec grep -l Buffer {} \+          # grep multiple files at once (much faster)
find . -type f -name "*.java" -exec grep -B5 -A10 Buffer {} \+    # print before- and after- context lines

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

# 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 0               # within 24 hours
find . -mtime +30             # more than 30 days
find . -mtime -7 -type f      # last 7 days, regular files

# find files by modification time relative to another file
# --------------------------------------------------------
touch -t 01281245 poop        # 1) create a file with timestamp [YY]MMDDhhmm
find . -mnewer poop           # 2) returns a list of newer files

# find with time: this works on mac os x
# --------------------------------------
find . -newermt "1 minute ago"  # string must be parse-able by `date --date="$string"`

# 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
# (`find -print0` and `xargs -0` helps handle spaces correctly in filenames)
# (see http://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-backup-filename-directories-spaces-find-tar-xargs)

# exclude files from other devices
find -xdev . -type f -name "*.java"

# finding large files
find / -type f -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} \; | awk '{ print $9 ": " $5 }'