Today we will explore the find command, and its several use cases. The find command is a tool used for searching files or directories within a given directory or its subdirectories. Although it is quite simple, we can do many special things with this command, improving our quality of life.
The -name option allows us to search for files based off their file name.
Example 1: Input:
find ./technical -name "rr*.txt"This command searches for all files that start with "rr" and end with ".txt" within ./technical directory and its subdirectories.
Output:
./technical/biomed/rr166.txt
./technical/biomed/rr167.txt
./technical/biomed/rr171.txt
./technical/biomed/rr172.txt
./technical/biomed/rr191.txt
./technical/biomed/rr196.txt
./technical/biomed/rr37.txt
./technical/biomed/rr73.txt
./technical/biomed/rr74.txtExample 2: Input:
find ./technical -name "og*"This command searches for all files that start with "og" and end with ".txt" within ./technical directory and its subdirectories.
Output:
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96009.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96011.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96012.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96014.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96015.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96020.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96021.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96022.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96023.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96026.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96027.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96028.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96031.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96032.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96033.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96034.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96036.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96037.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96038.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96040.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96041.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96042.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96043.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96045.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og96047.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97001.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97002.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97003.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97011.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97019.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97020.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97023.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97028.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97032.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97038.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97039.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97041.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97043.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97045.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97046.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97050.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97051.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og97052.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98018.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98019.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98022.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98024.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98026.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98029.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98030.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98032.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98040.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98041.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98044.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98045.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og98046.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/og99036.txtOverall, the -name command is great in finding specific files that are needed, and can help specify certain groups of subjects, whether its political, medical, etc. To find more details about this option, visit find command -name option
The -size option allows searching for files based on their size.
Example 1: Input:
find ./technical -size +400bThis command searches for all files within the ./technical directory and its subdirectories that are larger than 400 512-byte blocks. The +400b parameter specifies the size criterion.
Output:
./technical/911report/chapter-13.4.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-13.5.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-3.txt
./technical/government/About_LSC/commission_report.txt
./technical/government/Env_Prot_Agen/bill.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/GovernmentAuditingStandards_yb2002ed.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/Statements_Feb28-1997_volume.txt
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office/d01591sp.txtExample 2: Input:
find ./technical -size -1000cThis command searches for all files within the ./technical directory and its subdirectories that are smaller than 1000 bytes. The -1000c parameter specifies the size criterion.
Output:
./technical/plos/pmed.0020191.txt
./technical/plos/pmed.0020226.txtOverall, the -size command is great in filtering out different sizes of files, and can help you find the smallest/largest files within the directory. To find more details about this option, visit find command -size option
The -type option allows us to search based on file type
Example 1: Input:
find ./technical -type f | head -n 10This command searches for all normal files within the ./technical directory and its subdirectories. The -type f option filters the search to only include regular files. HOWEVER, for the sake of the assignment, using the piping method of only requesting the first 10 files instead of ALL the ".txt" files was done.
Output:
./technical/911report/chapter-1.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-10.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-11.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-12.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-13.1.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-13.2.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-13.3.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-13.4.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-13.5.txt
./technical/911report/chapter-2.txtExample 2: Input:
find ./technical -type dThis command searches for all directories within the ./technical directory and its subdirectories. The -type d option filters the search to only include directories.
Output:
./technical
./technical/911report
./technical/biomed
./technical/government
./technical/government/About_LSC
./technical/government/Alcohol_Problems
./technical/government/Env_Prot_Agen
./technical/government/Gen_Account_Office
./technical/government/Media
./technical/government/Post_Rate_Comm
./technical/plosOverall, the -type command is great in sorting the different types of file, directories, etc. We can focus on certain types without worrying about other types being involved.
To find more details about this option, visit find command -type option
The -exec option allows us to include an extra command after using -find. It essentially makes a two liner a one liner.
Example 1: Input:
find ./technical -name "pmed.0020191.txt" -exec cat {} \;This command searches for all files that have the name pmed.0020191" within ./technical directory and its subdirectories. It then executes the cat command on each found file, displaying them , {} being their placeholder.
Output:
The excellent article by Jordan Paradise, Lori B. Andrews, and colleagues, “Ethics.
Constructing Ethical Guidelines for Biohistory” [1], neither advocates nor argues against
biohistorical research; instead, it points out that such investigations are currently
taking place without guidelines—ethical, scientific, moral, or religious. The question
remains: if such guidelines were to be established, what individuals, institutions,
governments, medical examiners, family members, or intrepid biographers are to be given
permission? Who is to decide what is “historically significant”? Not to mention the
meta-question: who is to decide who is to decide? I apologize to the authors if my brief
comments [2] implied that they took a position on this issue.
Example 2: Input:
find ./technical -type f -exec rm {} \;This command searches for all normal files within the ./technical directory and its subdirectories. It then executes the rm command on each found file, removing them , {} being their placeholder.
Output:
(After the code was executed, all subdirectories within ./technical had their files deleted, and left blank. Using the -ls command on each of 911report, biomed, government, and plos, they had no ".txt" files stored in them)
Overall, the -exec command is great in not only finding certain files, types, etc, but it also includes an extra action do be done, simplifying longer lines of code. It is great for deleting everything, if that is what is desired. To find more details about this option, visit find command -exec option