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On this page you find all important commands for the CLI tool find. If the command you are looking for is missing please ask our AI.

find

The find program searches a directory tree to find a file or group of files. It traverses the directory tree and reports all occurrences of a file matching the user's specifications. The find program includes very powerful searching capability.

Articles in our magazine for find:

How to find files on the command line?

Sometimes it is important to find certain files. Be it particularly large ones or ones that contain certain information. All this is just a command away on the command line.

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List of commands for find:

  • cpio:tldr:7e278 cpio: Copy all files and directories in a directory and add them [o]nto an archive, in [v]erbose mode.
    $ find ${path-to-directory} | cpio -ov > ${archive-cpio}
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  • files:delete:extension Delete all files with the given extension
    $ find ${directory} -type f -name '*.${extension}' -delete
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  • find:tldr:0bc58 find: Find files matching multiple path/name patterns.
    $ find ${root_path} -path '${**-path-**-*-ext}' -or -name '${*pattern*}'
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  • find:tldr:1d82c find: Run a command for each file (use `{}` within the command to access the filename).
    $ find ${root_path} -name '${*-ext}' -exec ${wc -l {} }\;
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  • find:tldr:1e3af find: Find files matching a given pattern, excluding specific paths.
    $ find ${root_path} -name '${*-py}' -not -path '${*-site-packages-*}'
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  • find:tldr:35c1a find: Find files matching a given size range, limiting the recursive depth to "1":.
    $ find ${root_path} -maxdepth 1 -size ${+500k} -size ${-10M}
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  • find:tldr:4b725 find: Display lines that do not contain the specified string.
    $ find "${string}" ${path\to\file_or_directory} /v
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  • find:tldr:4fca5 find: Display line numbers with the list of lines.
    $ find "${string}" ${path\to\file_or_directory} /n
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  • find:tldr:8efff find: Find empty (0 byte) files and delete them.
    $ find ${root_path} -type ${f} -empty -delete
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  • find:tldr:9da7a find: Find files modified in the last 7 days.
    $ find ${root_path} -daystart -mtime -${7}
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  • find:tldr:b06eb find: Find lines that contain a specified string.
    $ find "${string}" ${path\to\file_or_directory}
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  • find:tldr:d74c9 find: Find directories matching a given name, in case-insensitive mode.
    $ find ${root_path} -type d -iname '${*lib*}'
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  • find:tldr:e5430 find: Display the count of lines that contain the specified string.
    $ find "${string}" ${path\to\file_or_directory} /c
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  • fzf:tldr:46b60 fzf: Select multiple files with `Shift + Tab` and write to a file.
    $ find ${path-to-directory} -type f | fzf --multi > ${filename}
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  • fzf:tldr:fc1f8 fzf: Start fzf on all files in the specified directory.
    $ find ${path-to-directory} -type f | fzf
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  • linux:files:count:directory Return the number of sub-directories in a given path
    $ find ${directory_to_count_in} -type d | wc -l
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  • linux:files:count:files Return the number of files in a given path
    $ find ${directory_to_count_in} -type f | wc -l
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  • linux:files:find:big Find all files that are larger than a given size.
    $ find ${path_to_check} -type f -size +${size_in_mega_byte}M
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  • linux:files:find:empty Find all empty files under a certain path
    $ find ${directory} -type f -empty
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  • linux:files:find:modified Find all files which are modified in a given timespan.
    $ find ${directory} -mmin -${time_in_minutes}
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  • linux:files:find:name Find all files with a given name.
    $ find ${dir_to_search_in} -name ${filename}
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  • linux:files:find:older Find all files that are older than a given period.
    $ find ${dir_to_search_in} -mtime +${number_on_days} -print
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  • pbcopy:tldr:61937 pbcopy: Place the results of a specific command in the clipboard.
    $ find . -type t -name "*.png" | pbcopy
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  • peco:tldr:9a45b peco: Start peco on all files in the specified directory.
    $ find ${path-to-directory} -type f | peco
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  • shell:warp:99fb0 Search for specified file types and run a certain command for each file
    $ find -E ${path} -iregex ".*\.(${extensions})" -print | xargs -n1 -I _item ${command} _item
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  • sk:tldr:21cd6 sk: Select multiple files with `Shift + Tab` and write to a file.
    $ find ${path-to-directory} -type f | sk --multi > ${filename}
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  • sk:tldr:d1259 sk: Start skim on all files in the specified directory.
    $ find ${path-to-directory} -type f | sk
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  • xargs:tldr:67693 xargs: Delete all files with a `.backup` extension (`-print0` uses a null character to split file names, and `-0` uses it as delimiter).
    $ find . -name ${'*-backup'} -print0 | xargs -0 rm -v
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  • xe:tldr:ef9aa xe: Delete all files with a `.backup` extension.
    $ find . -name ${'*-backup'} | xe rm -v
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