List file details linux how to#

The -O1 optimization is the default and forces find to filter based on filename before running all other tests. Three user-selectable optimization levels are specified as -O1, -O2, and -O3.

If you want find to follow and return symbolic links, you can add the -L option to the command, as shown in the example above.įind optimizes its filtering strategy to increase performance. The default configuration for find will ignore symbolic links (shortcut files). db files (ignoring text case) modified in the last 7 days by a user named exampleuser.

jpg files in the /home and sub-directories.įind an empty file within the current directory.įind /home -user exampleuser -mtime -7 -iname '.db'įind all. find searches the entire directory tree beneath /var/Basic Examples Commandįind a file called testfile.txt in current and sub-directories.įind all. This command enables the maximum optimization level (-O3) and allows find to follow symbolic links ( -L). The expression attribute controls the tests that search the directory hierarchy to produce output.Ĭonsider the following example command: find -O3 -L /var/www/ -name '*.html'.The starting/path attribute will define the top-level directory where find begins filtering.The options attribute will control the find process’s behavior and optimization method.Using Common find Commands and Syntax to Find a File in Linuxįind expressions take the following form: find options starting/path expression The following example searches for *.err files in the /home/username/ directory and all sub-directories: find /home/username/ -name '*.err' Use find from the command line to locate a specific file by name or extension. Find a File in Linux by Name or Extension By using the -exec flag ( find -exec), matches, which can be files, directories, symbolic links, system devices, etc., can be found and immediately You can use the find command to search for a file or directory on your file system. The find command in Linux is used to find a file (or files) by recursively filtering objects in the file system based on a simple conditional mechanism.

List file details linux how to#

This article covers the basics of how to find a file in Linux using the CLI. This is especially true if you are running Linux without a graphical user interface and need to rely on the command line. Recursively means it will list all the directory with is all subdirectory in a tree format.When you have to find a file in Linux, it’s sometimes not as easy as finding a file in another operating system. You can list directories recursively using Linux ls command with the argument -R. 13 root root 0 Apr 26 08:49 'sys'ĭrwxrwxrwt. 7 root root 0 Apr 26 08:49 'selinux'ĭrwxr-xr-x. ]# ls -lQ # Labels of Files and directories enclosed by Quotesĭr-xr-xr-x.