TOOL » LINUX » PACKAGE

Find

Last updated:

Man page:find

Usage

shell

find LOCATION OPTIONS

Option	Description
`(` `)`	Force precedence. Usually you need to escape them on the shell.
`-delete`	Delete files (make sure to put it last).
`-empty`	File is empty and is either a regular file or a directory.
`-exec`	Execute a command instead of printing. `;` 1 match 1 run; `+` X matches 1 run (like `xargs`)
`-iname`	Like `-name`, but the match is case insensitive.
`-maxdepth`	Maximum depth to search for files/directories. Default is unlimited depth.
`-mindepth`	Minimum depth to search for files/directories. Default 0.
`-mtime`	If `-N` last edited less than N days, if `+N` last edited more than N days.
`-name`	Base of file name to be matched.
`-not` `!`	Negates the next condition.
`-o` `-or`	Logical OR.
`-path`	File name matches shell pattern pattern. The metacharacters do not treat `/` or `.` specially
`-prune`	Do not descend into the selected directories.
`-print0` `-fprint0`	Print the exact filename separated by `\0`.
`-print` `-fprint`	Print the full file name on the standard output.
`-type`	File type to be matched. `d` for directory, `f` for file, `l` for symbolic link.

Examples

Find files by name:

shell

find . -name '*.js'

Print the filenames without the ./ prefix:

shell

find . -printf '%P\n'

Find and delete empty directories:

shell

find . -type d -empty -delete

Exclude folders from search (prefer -prune, and -print is important):

shell

find . -not -path '*/.*'  # Exclude hidden folders
find . -type d -path '*/.*' -prune -o -type f -printf '%P\n'  # Better exclude hidden folders
find . -type d \( -name .git -o -name node_modules \) -prune -o -type f -printf '%P\n'

Delete all but:

shell

find . -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -not \( -name 'filename1' -or -name 'filename2' \) -delete

List all image files separated by \0:

shell

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f \( -iname '*.jpg' -o -iname '*.jpeg' -o -iname '*.png' -o -iname '*.webp' -o -iname '*.gif' \) -print0

Run file on every file in or below the current directory:

shell

find . -type f -exec file '{}' \;

Rename multiple files (does not work if the path have spaces):

shell

find . -type f -name '*.robot' | sed -E 'p;s/([a-z_]).robot/\1.resource/g' | xargs -n 2 mv
find . -type f -name 'Screenshot_*_*.png' | sed -E 'p;s/Screenshot_([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2})_([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2})([0-9]{2})([0-9]+)\.png/Screenshot_\1-\2-\3T\4:\5:\6.\7.png/g' | xargs -n 2 mv

Find

Usage ​

Examples ​

Usage

Examples