This document is a WORK IN PROGRESS.
This is just a quick personal cheat sheet: treat its contents with caution!

Find¶

find is a tool to search for files in a directory hierarchy.

Reference(s)

$ man find

Table of contents¶

Use

Use¶

search based on symlinks¶

Print the list of all the broken symbolic links in the current directory:
```
$ find . -xtype l
```

search based on file or folder name¶

Search files or directories containing string in it's name:
```
$ find ./path/where/to/search -name "*string*"
```

Search files containing string in their name (case insensitive):

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -iname "*string*"

Search files ending with .test in their name:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -name "*.test"

Search files containing string in their name, but not test:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -name "*string*" ! -name "*test*"

or

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -name "*string*" -not -name "*test*"

Search files containing string or gnirts in their name, but not test or tset:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f \( -name "*string*" -o -iname "*gnirts*" \) ! \( -iname "*test*" -o -iname "*tset*" \)

Search files containing string in their name, but not in the dir folder

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -name "*string*" -not -path "./dir/*"

Search files containing string in their name, but not in the dir and the rid folder

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -name "*string*" -not -path "./dir/*" -not -path "./rid/*"

search based on file size¶

Search files smaller than 2 Mo:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -size -2M

Search files bigger than 1 Go:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -size +1G

Search files bigger than 1 Ko and smaller than 5 Ko:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -size +1k -size -5k

search based on file rights¶

Search executable files:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -executable

Search 644 files:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -perm 644

Search files that are not 755 :

$ find ./path/where/to/search -type f -not -perm 755

search based on file content¶

Search files containing string in their name and plop in their content:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -name "*string*" -exec grep -H "plop" {} \; # print files name and lines
$ find ./path/where/to/search -name "*string*" -exec rg -H "plop" {} \; # print files name and lines IN COLOR (with ripgrep)

search based on folder location¶

Search files containing string in their name, not farther than 2 levels of directories below:
```
$ find ./path/where/to/search -maxdepth 2 type f -name "*string*"
```
Search files containing string in their name, at least farther than 2 levels of directories below:
```
$ find ./path/where/to/search -mindepth 2 type f -name "*string*"
```

search based on owner and/or group¶

Search files containing string in their name, belonging to the group group-name:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -group group-name type f -name "*string*"

Search files containing string in their name, belonging to the user user-name:

$ find ./path/where/to/search -user user-name type f -name "*string*"

tips and tricks¶

Search all the broken symlinks of your system:
```
# find / -xtype l -print
```

You should not blindly delete all broken symbolic links, as some of them serve a purpose.

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