Find

Internal

• Linux

=Numeric Arguments

All numeric arguments are interpreted as follows:

• +n for greater than n
• n for exactly n
• -n for less than n

Target Type

find . -type <type-identifier>

where the type identifier can be:

• f regular file
• d directory
• l symbolic link
• b block special
• c character special
• p FIFO
• s socket

Case Insensitive Search

find . -iname ...

Control Descend Depth

The upper and lower limit of the descend depth can be controlled with -mindepth and -maxdepth, as follows:

find . -mindepth n

Configure find to apply tests and action at levels equal or deeper than n. -mindepth 1 processes the content of the directory specified as argument and recursively the content of its sub-directories.

find . -maxdepth n

Configure find to descend at most n directory levels below the command line arguments. -maxdepth 0 limits the whole search to the command line arguments.

In order to access directory between an upper and lower depth limit, both -mindepth and -maxdepth should be used.

Time Constraints

Time flags:

• -amin n - file was accessed n minutes ago.
• -anewer file - file was accessed more recently than file was modified.
• -atime n - file was accessed n * 24 hours ago. When find figures out how many 24-hour periods ago the file was last accessed, the fractional part is ignored, so to match -atime + 1, a file has to have been accessed at least two days ago.
• -cmin
• -cnewer file
• -ctime
• -mmin n -
• -mtime

Find all files modified less that 2 days ago

find . -mtime -2

-name Patterns

A pattern for file names with specific characters on specific positions can be specified with [...]:

find . -name *.[jw]ar

looks for *.jar and *.war.

Mac Detail

On Mac, the pattern must be specified between quotes:

find . -name "*.something"