Linux find directory

from https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-find-a-directory-linux-command/

Linux find directory command

The following example will show all files in the current directory and all subdirectories:

find find . find . -print

Finding a directory

To find a directory called apt in / (root) file system, enter:

Alert: When searching / (root) file system, you need to run the find command as root user.

find / -type d -name "apt" sudo find / -type d -name "apt"

Sample outputs:

/var/log/apt
/var/lib/apt
/var/cache/apt
/etc/apt
/etc/logrotate.d/apt
/etc/cron.daily/apt

Dealing with “Permission denied error messages” on Linux

Find will show an error message for each directory/file on which you don’t have read permission

To avoid those messages, append 2>/dev/null at the end of each command:

find /where/to/look/ criteria action 2>/dev/null sudo find / -type d -name "apt" 2>/dev/null

How to find a directory named Documents on Linux?

Type the following command to search for Documents directory in your $HOME dir:
$ find $HOME -type d -name Documents
Sample outputs:

/home/vivek/Documents

Getting a detailed list of files/dirs

Pass the -ls to list current file in ls command output format:

find / -name "apt" -ls

Sample outputs:

4719035    4 drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         4096 Aug 22 06:25 /var/log/apt
4718597    4 drwxr-xr-x   5 root     root         4096 Aug  4 13:46 /var/lib/apt
4718601    4 drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root         4096 Aug  8 09:37 /var/cache/apt
917524    4 drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         4096 Jun 18 02:28 /etc/apt
917721    4 -rw-r--r--   1 root     root          173 Apr 15  2011 /etc/logrotate.d/apt
918762   16 -rwxr-xr-x   1 root     root        14985 Mar 14 12:48 /etc/cron.daily/apt

How do I list only directories?

Just find directories and skip file names pass the -type d option as follows:

find / -type d -name "apt" -ls

Sample outputs:

4719035    4 drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         4096 Aug 22 06:25 /var/log/apt
4718597    4 drwxr-xr-x   5 root     root         4096 Aug  4 13:46 /var/lib/apt
4718601    4 drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root         4096 Aug  8 09:37 /var/cache/apt
917524    4 drwxr-xr-x   6 root     root         4096 Jun 18 02:28 /etc/apt

How do I perform a case insensitive search?

Replace -name option with -iname as follows:

find / -type d -iname "apt" -ls

OR

find / -type d -iname "apt"

The patterns ‘apt’ match the directory names ‘apt’, ‘APT’, ‘Apt’, ‘apT’, etc.

How do I find a directory called project.images?

Type any one of the following command:

find / -type d -iname "project.images" -ls

OR

find / -type d -name "project.images" -ls

OR

find / -type d -name "project.images"

It is also possible to use the wild cards as follows:

find / -type d -name "project.*" find /dir/to/search/ -type d -name "project.image??"

A note about locat

get modfiy file list which modfied within 2 day.

find /home/test -type f -mtime -2 >  modifyFileList.tmp