Finding and Processing Files on Linux

locate command

• Locate - Find Files by Name
• Locate reads one or more databases prepared by updatedb command.

Options

/----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
|            |
| -n x  | List only the 1st X matches     |
| -i, ignore-case | Ignore case distinctions when matching patterns.  |
| -b, basename | Match  only  the base name against the specified patterns. |
|            |
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

Examples

# Search boot in File Name or Path
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ locate boot
/boot
/boot/grub
/boot/grub/grub.conf
/etc/pam.d/reboot
...output truncated...

# Search boot in File Name (Basename)
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ locate -b boot
/boot
/etc/pam.d/reboot
/etc/rc.d/init.d/firstboot
/sbin/reboot
/usr/bin/reboot
...output truncated...

find command

• Find - Searches Directory Trees In Real Time
• Slower But More Accurate Than Locate
• CWD Is Used If No Starting Directory Is Given
• All Files Are Matched If No Criteria Is Given

Examples:

# Find would only return the files that were named .png,
# Not files that contained in their name the string .png
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -name .png
.png

# Fortunately, You can use shell wild cards with find, But must be quoted
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -name "*.png"
Mahavir.png Ganesha.png Hello.png .png

# Search for files named snow.png in the current working directory
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -name snow.png

# Serach for files named snow.png Snow.png SNOW.PNG etc in the CWD
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -iname snow.png

# Search files anywhere on the system that ends with .txt
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -name "*.txt"

# Search files in the /etc directory that contain pass in their names
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find /etc -name "*pass*"

# Search files owned by the user joe and the group joe in the /home directory
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find /home -user joe -group joe

# Search files owned by UID 500 and the GID 600 in the /home directory
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find /home -uid 500 -gid 600

Logical Operators

• If multiple criteria are given to the find commands:
• All criteria are ANDed together by default.
• This behavior can be overridden with the -or or -not(!) options.

Operator Precedence

• \( Expression… \)
• The Logical Not(-not, !)
• The Logical And(-and, -a)
• The Logical Or(-or, -o)

NOTE!: \( Expression… \) Force Precedence, Include space after the \( and before the \)

Examples:

# Search files anywhere on the system that ends with .png AND owned by the user mitesh
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -name "*.png" -user mitesh
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -name "*.png" -a -user mitesh
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -name "*.png" -and -user mitesh

# Search files anywhere on the system that ends with .png OR owned by the user mitesh
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -name "*.png" -o -user mitesh
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -name "*.png" -or -user mitesh

# Search files anywhere on the system that ends with .png and NOT  owned by the user mitesh
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -name "*.png" ! -user mitesh
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -name "*.png" -not -user mitesh

Force Precedence

# List all the files that is not owned by the user mitesh
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -not \( -user mitesh \)

# List all the files that is not owned by the user mitesh or neo
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -not \( -user mitesh -o -user neo \)

Find And Permissions

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
|             |
| -perm  mode | File’s permission bits are exactly same as the mode.   |
| -perm -mode | File's permission bits are atleast contain the mode + Extra Mode |
| -perm /mode | Any of the permission bits mode are set for the file.   |
|             |
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

Examples:

[mitesh@Matrix find]$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-rw-r--. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file1
-rw-rw-r--. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file2
-rwxrw-r--. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file3
-r--rwxrw-. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file4
-rwxrwxrwx. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file5
-rw-r-----. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file6
-r--r-----. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file7
-r--r--r--. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file8
----------. 1 mitesh mitesh 0 Sep  5 15:26 file9

[mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm 664   [mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm 764
./file1       ./file3
./file2

[mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm -664   [mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm -222
./file1       ./file5
./file2
./file3       [mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm -755
./file5       ./file5

[mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm /444   [mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm -002
./file1       ./file4
./file2       ./file5
./file3
./file4
./file5       [mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm -764
./file6       ./file3
./file7       ./file5
./file8

[mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm /222   [mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm -004
./file1       ./file1
./file2       ./file2
./file3       ./file3
./file4       ./file4
./file5       ./file5
./file6       ./file8

[mitesh@Matrix find]$ find -perm /111
./file3
./file4
./file5

Find and Numeric Criteria

• Many Find Criteria Take Numeric Value Such As

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------\
|         |
| -size: | The size of the file (k=KB, M=MB, G=GB)  |
| -links: | Number of links to the file   |
|         |
| -amin: | When the file was last read   |
| -mmin: | When the file data last modified  |
| -cmin: | when the file data/metadata last changed |
|         |
| -atime: | When the file was last read   |
| -mtime: | When the file data last modified  |
| -ctime: | when the file data/metadata last changed |
|         |
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------/

Examples:

* Files with a size of exactly 10MB
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -size 10M

# Files with a size of over 10MB
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -size +10M

# Files with a size of less than 10MB
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -size -10M

# Looks for files on the system whose last accessed time stamp is exactly 5 days ago
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -atime 5

# Looks for files on the system whose last accessed time stamp is more than 5 days ago
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -atime +5

# Looks for files on the system whose last accessed time stamp is less than 5 days ago
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -atime -5

# List all the files in the /etc directory which are last accessed in less than 60 Minutes Ago
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find /etc -amin -60

# List all the files whose mtimes are newer than recentfile.txt
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -newer recentfile.txt

# List all the files whose mtimes are older than recentfile.txt
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -not -newer recentfile.txt

NOTE!: Use stat command to display files time stamps.

• Find Can Also Execute Commands On The Found Files By Using The Following Options

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------\
|         |
| ok | Prompts Before Acting On Each Found Files |
| exec   | Runs The Commands Without Any Prompts  |
|         |
| {} | File Name Placeholder    |
| space\; | Terminate Command    |
|         |
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------/

For Example:

# Fix other writable files in your home directory (Security Risk)
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find ~ -perm -002 -exec chmod o-w {} \;

# Fix any files that are writables by the others in the system (Security Risk)
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find / -perm -002 -exec chmod o-w {} \;

# Backup configuration files from the current directory and add .orig extension
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find -name "*.conf" -exec cp {} {}.orig \;

# Prompt to remove Joe's tmp files that are over 3 days old
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find /tmp -ctime +3 -user joe -ok rm {} \;

# Do an ls -l style listing of all directories in /home
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find /home -type d -ls

# Find all the .sh files in /data directory with a current permission of 644 and ask to make them executable
[mitesh@Matrix ~]$ find /data -type f -name "*.sh" -perm 644 -ok chmod 755 {} \;

The Gnome Search Tool

• The Gnome search tool is accessed via Places -> Search for Files…
• The Gnome search tool only look at the user’s home directory by default.
• The Gnome search tool uses the find command in the background, But not have all the find features.