The "find" utility allows you to search for and optionally perform operations on files according to various parameters such as name, location, size, type, permissions, age, ownership, etc.

Let's Play

find all jpg images under your home directory that are bigger than 100k

find ~ -iname *.jpg -size +100k

find all python files under your home directory that were edited in the last day

find ~ -iname *.py -ctime -1

find all files under your home directory that you DO NOT own

find ~ -not -user duane

One precaution with "find" is that it can take a long time to complete if you do some complicated search starting at a high directory level (like /). Try to narrow down your search domain to a lower level directory if possible, or use the tool that we talk about in the next slide.