Recursively search for files in Bash

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Recursively search for files in Bash

Author：JIYIK Last Updated：2025/03/22 Views：

This article is about the command in Bash find. This article will discuss the method of using the command in Bash findto find files of a specific type.

Recursively search for files using find command in Bash

The command line tool for navigating file hierarchies is the command in Linux find. It can be used to find and monitor folders and files.

It allows searching by name, creation date, modification date, owner, and permissions of files and folders.

It has the following syntax:

$ find [directory where to start searching] [-options] [name of file]

Options can have the following attributes:

Serial number	Options	Target
1	-links N	It searches for some files that don't have the specified link.
2	-name	Searches for files with the specified name or pattern.
3	-newer [filename]	Searches for files created after the file name.
4	-perm	Search for all files with specific permissions.
5	-print	Used to find and display the full path name of a file.
6	-empty	It searches for empty files or directories.
7	-size +N/-N	Used to search for files of a specified size. If N is used as +N, it means the file size is greater than N; if it is used as -N, it means the file size is less than N.
8	-user	It searches for files with the specified owner name.

Let's look at findsome examples of the command.

Search using file name

$ find ./mydir -name myfile.txt

This command searches the directory mydir for the file name myfile.txt.

Output:

Search With the Filename-Output

Search using pattern

$ find ./mydir -name "*.jpeg"

This command searches the directory mydir for all files with the extension .jpeg.

Output:

Search With a Pattern-Output

Search for files with permissions

$ find ./mydir -perm 777

This command searches the directory mydir for all files with 777 permissions.

Output:

Search for Files With Permissions - Output

Find files with multiple names or patterns

In some cases, you need to search for files with multiple patterns, such as when you need to search for files with both .txt and .jpg extensions.

$ find . -name '*.txt' -o -name '*.jpg'

For this case, you can use -namethe option multiple times.

Output:

Find Files With Multiple Patterns - Output

Search for empty files

$ find mydir -empty

This command searches mydir for empty files or directories.

Output:

Search for Empty Files-Output

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