Goal: How to search for a file, by name, across a hierarchy of folders.

Table of Contents

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Searching for Files:

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Info
Let us look at a folder with many subfolders and files.

Code Block
[]$ cd ~/intro_to_linux [intro_to_linux]$ ls clusters data fruits.txt software.csv vegatables.txt workshop_all.txt workshop_me.txt

Info

The ls by default only lists the first level of folders and files.

What does the -R option do?

Code Block

[intro_to_linux]$ ls -R
.:
clusters  data  Intro_to_linux.pdffruits.txt  software.csv  vegatables.txt  workshop_all.txt  workshop_me.txt
./clusters:
beartooth.html  loren.html  teton.html  wildiris.html
./data:
2021  2022  2023  dd.tx
./data/2021:
Apr  feb  Nov  README.txt  Sep
./data/2021/Apr:
20210403.txt  20210427.txt  20210428.txt

Searching for Files: find

Code Block
./data/2021/feb: february_01_2021.tx ./data/2021/Nov: 20211114.txt 20211115.txt 20211116.txt hello.txt

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Searching for Files: Recursive List Continued

Code Block

./data/2021/Sep:
20210908.txt  20210921.txt
./data/2022:
Dec  FebFebruary  Hello.csv  Jul  Jun  readme.txt
./data/2022/Dec:
20221207.txt  20221220.txt  20221230.txt  20221231.txt  2022_dec_01.txt
./data/2022/FebFebruary:
20220203.txt  20220223.txt
./data/2022/Jul:
20220720.txt  20220722.txt  20220723.TX
./data/2022/Jun:
20220611.txt  20220615.txt  20220624.txt
./data/2023:
Feb  Jan  Mar  ReadMe.txt
./data/2023/Feb:
20230204.txt  20230217.txt  20230223.txt  20230224.txt
./data/2023/Jan:
20230102.txt  20230108.txt  20230115.txt  20230121.txt  texttx
./data/2023/Mar:
20230305.txt  20230311.txt  20230313.txt  20230326.txt  20230327.txt  HELLO.txt
./data/dd.tx:

Info

Check the manual page:

Code Block
[]$ man ls ... -R, --recursive list subdirectories recursively ...

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Searching for Files: find

Command

Description

find

Code Block

Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-Olevel] [-D help|tree|search|stat|rates|opt|exec] [path...] [expression]
default path is the current directory; default expression is -print
expression may consist of: operators, options, tests, and actions:
...
EXPRESSION
       The  part  of the command line after the list of starting points is the expression.  This is a
       kind of query specification describing how we match files and what we do
...
  TESTS
    ...
    -name pattern
      Base of file name (the path with the leading directories removed) matches shell pattern pattern.
    ...
    -iname pattern
       Like -name, but the match is case insensitive.
    ...

Info
The find command is naturally recursive.

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Examples

Info
Find the file named: `20230121.txt`

Code Block

[]$ cd ~/intro_to_linux/
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name 20230121.txt
./data/2023/Jan/20230121.txt

# Check that this file is within the returned location.
[intro_to_linux]$ ls data/2023/Jan/
20230102.txt  20230108.txt  20230115.txt  20230121.txt
# Nothing returned – no file exists called “20230120.txt”

Info
Find the file named: `20230120.txt`

Code Block
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name 20230120.txt [arcc-t05@blog1 intro_to_linux]$

Info

The command completed since we got back to the prompt and no errors were displayed.

No output means that this file could not be found.

Info
The `find` command is case-sensitive. Find the file with the exact filename `README.txt`

Code Block
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name README.txt ./data/2021/README.txt # find is case–sensitive: use –iname option

Info
Use the alternative `-iname` option to search for a file name that is case-insensitive:

Code Block
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -iname README.txt ./data/2021/README.txt ./data/2022/readme.txt ./data/2023/ReadMe.txt

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Examples

Code Blockinfo

#

Use

wildcards

to

find

all

files

with

the

postfix

.csv:

Lets look at two versions:

Info

With quotes:

Code Block
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name "*.csv" ./software.csv ./data/2022/Hello.csv

# Find any files/folders that contain the string “dec” [arcc-t05@blog1

Info

Without quotes:

Code Block
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -iname *.csv ./software.csv

Note

Using or not using quotes across commands is an advanced and confusing subject.

If you do not use quotes, then if you have a file in the current directory ending with .csv, the wildcard is essentially expanded by the shell.

So, if you have a file named say "software.csv" (which we do), the command that gets executed is find . -name software.csv.

This single file is found, and the command stops.

Surrounding the search term with quotes prevents this from happening.

Info
Find any files/folders that contain the string `dec`. Case-sensitive versus case-insensitive.

Code Block

[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name "*dec*"
./data/2022/Dec/2022_dec_01.txt

[arcc-t05@blog1 intro_to_linux]$ find . -iname "*dec*"
./data/2022/Dec
./data/2022/Dec/2022_dec_01.txt
# Find only folders.
[arcc-t05@blog1

Info

Find only folders using the type option and d for only directory.

Question: Are we searching with respect to case-sensitive or insensitive?

Code Block
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -type d -iname "dec" ./data/2022/Dec # Find only files [arcc-t05@blog1

Info
Find only files using the `f` (for file) value for the `type` option.

Code Block
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -type f -iname "dec" ./data/2022/Dec/2022_dec_01.txt

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Exercises: Find Files

Info

Questions:

What do we notice about some of the find command options?
Find any files that contain the string “hello”, regardless of case, within their filename.
Find any folders or files that contain the string “feb” regardless of case.
1. Can you list only the folders?
Find any files that have the postfix “tx” – must be lowercase.

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Answers (1, 2)

Info
1

...

. What do we notice about some of the find command options?

That some of the single dash options (-name) are similar to long-names and not single letters.

Info
2

...

. Find any files that contain the string “hello”, regardless of case, within their filename.

Code Block

[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name "hello"hello“

[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name "hello.*"
./data/2021/Nov/hello.txt

[intro_to_linux]$ find . -iname "hello.*"
./data/2021/Nov/hello.txt
./data/2022/Hello.csv
./data/2023/Mar/HELLO.txt

...

Answers (3)

Info
3

...

. Find any folders or files that contain the string “feb” regardless of case.

Can you list only the folders?

Code Block

[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name feb
./data/2021/feb
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -iname feb
./data/2021/feb
./data/2023/Feb
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -iname "*feb*"
./data/2021/feb
./data/2021/feb/february_01_2021.tx
./data/2022/February
./data/2023/Feb
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -type d -iname "*feb*"
./data/2021/feb
./data/2022/February
./data/2023/Feb

...

Answers (4)

Info
4

...

. Find any files that have the postfix “tx” – must be lowercase.

Code Block

[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name "tx"

[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name "*tx*"
./data/2021/README.txt
./data/2021/Nov/20211115.txt
./data/2021/Nov/hello.txt
./data/2021/Nov/20211114.txt
…
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name "*tx"
./data/dd.tx
./data/2021/feb/february_01_2021.tx
./data/2023/Jan/texttx
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -name "*.tx"
./data/dd.tx
./data/2021/feb/february_01_2021.tx

...

Answers (4)

Code Blockinfo

#

Notice: dd.tx

is

actually

a

folder. # Notices the ’d’ in the long format list.

folder, defined by the ’d’ in the long format list.

Code Block

[intro_to_linux]$ ls -l data
total 4
drwxrwxr-x 6 arcc-t05 arcc-t05<username> <username> 2021
drwxrwxr-x 6 arcc-t05 arcc-t05<username> <username> 2022
drwxrwxr-x 5 arcc-t05 arcc-t05<username> <username> 2023
drwxrwxr-x 2 arcc-t05 arcc-t05<username> <username> dd.tx

[intro_to_linux]$ find . -type f -name "*.tx"
./data/2021/feb/february_01_2021.tx
# We explicitly want lowercase.

Note

If we (forget and) ignore the case (using iname), we would see:

Code Block
[intro_to_linux]$ find . -type f -iname "*.tx" ./data/2021/feb/february_01_2021.tx ./data/2022/20220723.TX

Notice this has listed a file with a capital a postfix .TX - this is not what we wanted.

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Exercises: Find Files

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