Find & Locate

---

FIND

Find is a linux search tool that can be used to find a variety of files based on the given criteria.

find [options] {search location} {search criteria} [actions]

OPTION	Function
-type	Specify the file type for the search. Either f or d.
-name	Specify file/directory name to search for
-perm	Specify file permissions to search for.
-size	Find files based on file size.
-user & -group	Find files based on ownership properties.
-mmin -00	Find files that have been updated within a specified number of minutes.
ACTION	FUNCTION
-print	Print the specific path of files found.
-exec	Execute a command on the files found.
-delete	Delete the files found.
-fprint	Store the findings in a target file.

Basic find

find / -type f -name hello.txt

wildcards

find / -name "*.txt"

Discard errors (ie permission denied)

find / -name "*.txt" 2>/dev/null

 Find files with specific permissions

Find files with read,write, and execute permissions

find / -perm +rwx

Find files by size

Find files that are greater than 2MB:

find / -size +2M

Find files that are less than 2MB:

find / -size -2M

Find files that are exactly 2MB:

find / -size 2M

Find files by owner/group

Find files based on group

find / -group groupname

Find files based on owner

find / -user username

---

LOCATE

Locate is similar to find in its functionality, but it operates quite differently. Locate performs quick searches using its own mlocate database - a database of files that are stored on a server. The database needs to be regularly updated in order for the locate command to work accurately.

Update mlocate DB

updatedb

Locate file based on name

locate [options] test.txt

Option	Function
-r	Search file names using regex
-c	Count the number of matching entries found
-e	Return only files that exist at the time of the search
-i	Ignore casing
--n [number of entries]	Retirn the first few matches up to the specified number.

Additional configuration for locate command

The mlocate database used by the locate command is stored at;
/var/lib/mlocate/mlocate.db

The configuration for this database is stored at;
/etc/updatedb.conf

Within this config file, you can add exclusions for directories to be skipped within the mlocate DB, this is done using the below syntax;
PRUNEPATH = "/path/to/exclude"

---

---