📖 Guide

Find — Complete Reference

Comprehensive find cheat sheet covering name, type, size, time, permission filters, actions, combined expressions, and common patterns.

58 commands across 9 categories

Basic Usage By Name By Type By Size By Time By Permissions Actions Combining Expressions Common Patterns

Basic Usage

Command	Description
`find .`	List all files and directories recursively from current directory
`find /path/to/dir`	Search starting from a specific directory
`find . -maxdepth 1`	Limit search to current directory only (no recursion)
`find . -mindepth 2`	Skip the first level; start searching from depth 2
`find . -maxdepth 3 -mindepth 2`	Search only at depth 2 and 3
`find . -follow`	Follow symbolic links during search

By Name

Command	Description
`find . -name '*.txt'`	Find files matching a glob pattern (case-sensitive)
`find . -iname '*.jpg'`	Find files matching pattern (case-insensitive)
`find . -name '.log' -not -name 'error.'`	Match one pattern but exclude another
`find . -path '/src/.ts'`	Match against the full path, not just filename
`find . -regex '.*\.[ch]pp$'`	Match filename using full regex
`find . -name '.*'`	Find hidden files (dotfiles)

By Type

Command	Description
`find . -type f`	Find regular files only
`find . -type d`	Find directories only
`find . -type l`	Find symbolic links only
`find . -type f -empty`	Find empty files
`find . -type d -empty`	Find empty directories
`find . -type f -executable`	Find executable files (GNU find)

By Size

Command	Description
`find . -size +100M`	Find files larger than 100 MB
`find . -size -1k`	Find files smaller than 1 KB
`find . -size 0`	Find zero-byte files
`find . -size +1G`	Find files larger than 1 GB
`find . -size +10M -size -100M`	Find files between 10 MB and 100 MB
`find . -type f -size +50M -exec ls -lh {} +`	List large files with human-readable sizes

By Time

Command	Description
`find . -mtime -7`	Files modified in the last 7 days
`find . -mtime +30`	Files modified more than 30 days ago
`find . -atime -1`	Files accessed in the last 24 hours
`find . -ctime -7`	Files with status changed in the last 7 days
`find . -mmin -60`	Files modified in the last 60 minutes
`find . -newer reference.txt`	Files modified more recently than reference.txt
`find . -newermt '2024-01-01'`	Files modified after a specific date (GNU find)

By Permissions

Command	Description
`find . -perm 644`	Find files with exact permissions 644
`find . -perm -u+x`	Find files where owner has execute permission
`find . -perm /o+w`	Find files where others have write permission
`find . -user root`	Find files owned by root
`find . -group staff`	Find files owned by group 'staff'
`find . -nouser`	Find files with no matching user in /etc/passwd
`find . -perm -4000`	Find setuid files (potential security concern)

Actions

Command	Description
`find . -name '*.tmp' -delete`	Delete matching files (use with caution!)
`find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;`	Run command on each file (\; runs once per file)
`find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} +`	Run command with multiple files at once (more efficient)
`find . -name '*.log' -exec rm -i {} \;`	Interactive delete (asks for each file)
`find . -name '*.js' -print0 \| xargs -0 wc -l`	Pipe to xargs with null delimiter (handles spaces in names)
`find . -type f -ok mv {} /backup/ \;`	Like -exec but prompts for confirmation on each file
`find . -name '*.txt' -exec grep -l 'pattern' {} +`	Find files containing a specific pattern

Combining Expressions

Command	Description
`find . -name '.js' -o -name '.ts'`	OR: match .js or .ts files
`find . -name '*.log' -a -size +1M`	AND: match .log files larger than 1 MB (default operator)
`find . ! -name '*.txt'`	NOT: exclude .txt files
`find . \( -name '.js' -o -name '.ts' \) -newer ref.txt`	Group expressions with parentheses
`find . -name '.bak' -prune -o -name '.txt' -print`	Exclude a pattern from results using -prune
`find . -path './node_modules' -prune -o -name '*.js' -print`	Skip node_modules directory entirely

Common Patterns

Command	Description
`find . -name 'node_modules' -type d -prune -exec rm -rf {} +`	Recursively delete all node_modules directories
`find . -type f -name '*.py' \| wc -l`	Count Python files in a project
`find . -type f -mtime +90 -delete`	Clean up files older than 90 days
`find . -type f -printf '%s %p\n' \| sort -rn \| head -20`	Find 20 largest files with sizes (GNU find)
`find . -type l ! -exec test -e {} \; -print`	Find broken symbolic links
`find . -type f -name '*.jpg' -exec cp {} /backup/photos/ \;`	Copy all JPG files to a backup directory
`find /var/log -name '*.gz' -mtime +30 -delete`	Clean up old compressed log files

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