- How to Search and Find Files Recursively in Linux?
- How to Search and Find Files Recursively Using the find Command in Linux?
- Search for a File Recursively
- Search and Find Files Recursively Based on Extension
- Search and Find Files Recursively Based on Extension and Size
- How to Find and Search Files Using the tree Command in Linux?
- Use tree Command to Find a File Based on Extension
- Use tree Command to Exclude Specific Pattern
- Use the tree Command to Copy the Output
- Display Full Path Using the tree Command
- Conclusion
- Linux Find Recursive
- Using Find
- Using fd Command
- find file linux recursive
- How do I find a file in Linux terminal recursively?
- How do I find files recursively?
- How do I find a file recursively in Unix?
- What is a recursive file search?
- How do I find a file in Linux terminal?
- How do I use grep to find a file in Linux?
- Which command will find all the files without permission 777?
- How do I find a file without knowing the path in Unix?
- Is grep recursive by default?
- How do I see all files in Linux?
- How do I grep all files in a directory?
- How do I find subfolders in Linux?
How to Search and Find Files Recursively in Linux?
When you search for a file recursively, the search begins in the current directory and then moves on to check all the subdirectories down through the directory tree until there is no sub-directory left.
The “recursive search and find” technique is helpful when you have many files and directories on your system and want to locate a specific file quickly.
This post will list and elaborate on all the methods to search and find files in Linux with the following outline:
How to Search and Find Files Recursively Using the find Command in Linux?
The ‘find’ command is one of the most straightforward command line tools to look for files recursively. Its basic syntax is explained below:
Here, the path is the directory where you want to search, whereas the -name specifies the pattern to search for.
Search for a File Recursively
Below is an example of the find command to search “file1” from the current directory (Home) and its sub-directories.
The above command, when executed, found three instances of “file1” that were being searched using the ‘find’ command.
If you want to do the above in a specified directory, use the ‘cd’ command below to navigate and search the same as above.
When the ‘cd’ command is executed on the provided folder, you will notice the same directory added next to the hostname, which is “Music,” in our case.
Search and Find Files Recursively Based on Extension
To search and find the files recursively based on their extension, use this format of the ‘find’ command.
In the output above, the paths and names of the files with the “.txt” extension are printed.
Search and Find Files Recursively Based on Extension and Size
If the files need to be found based on their size, use this format of the ‘find’ command.
$ find ~/ -name "*.txt" -and -size +10k
This will recursively look for files with the .txt extension larger than 10KB and print the names of the files you want to be searched in the current directory. The file size can be specified in Megabytes (M) or Gigabytes (G). Use this command to find only the files above 5MB free of extensions or names.
The above image shows that all files of the current directory with more than 5MB are printed with their paths.
How to Find and Search Files Using the tree Command in Linux?
Unlike the find command, the ‘tree’ command displays the path, total number of files, and directories where the searched file is in a tree form. It is not pre-installed but can be installed using either of these commands based on your distro.
$ sudo yum install tree #For CentOS/Fedora $ sudo sudo apt install tree #For Debian/Ubuntu-based
Here are examples of using the ‘tree’ command to search and find recursively in Linux by following the below syntax:
In the above command, the ‘path’ represents the directory or folder. At the same time, the ‘-P’ specifies the pattern to search for.
Use tree Command to Find a File Based on Extension
Let’s recursively use this command to find the files with the “.txt” extension.
Use tree Command to Exclude Specific Pattern
You can use the ‘-I’ option to exclude specific patterns from the search:
In the above image, the “.” is used to view the content, where the files with the “.txt” extension will be searched in the Music directory.
Use the tree Command to Copy the Output
If you want to copy the output of the tree command (we used the above example) to an output file, use this command.
To view the output, use any text editor (we’re using nano editor).
Display Full Path Using the tree Command
The tree command with the flag “-f” displays the full path of each file to be printed, which is used in this format.
The above image shows the full paths where the searched file is located, making it easier for the user to find it, and more information can be read using this help command for the tree command.
Conclusion
Finding files from the directories take time unless you know where your file is. If there are many files and directories, then the find and tree commands in Linux allow you to have a recursive search. This post has briefly explained the working/usage of the find and tree commands to search for files recursively in Linux.
Linux Find Recursive
Recursive directory listing allows you to view and find files that are nested inside other subdirectories.
One of the commands that are built for that purpose is the tree command. A tree is a simple and powerful directory listing utility. You can specify the level of depth that you wish to show in a single command.
Tree, as the name suggests, allows you to show files in nested directories in a tree-like format. It also gives you details about the specified path, including the total number of files and directories, etc.
To install it, use your system package manager:
You can then use the tree command followed by the path to the target directory.
For example, the command below shows all the files and directories inside the /var/logs directory:
To find all the files and directories, including hidden files, you can use the -a flag with the tree command:
Using Find
You can also use the find command followed by the target directory and the file you wish to locate.
For example, to locate the file access.logs in the root directory, use the command:
The command will start in the root directory and recursively search all the subdirectories and locate any file with the specified name.
To find any files ending with a specific extension, run the command:
The command will start in the current working directory as specified by the period and recursively search for all files ending with the .txt extension.
Using fd Command
The fd command is a free, open-source utility that is developed as an alternative to the find command.
It is very fast and user-friendly and has incredible functionality. It’s a great tool when you need to locate a file that is nested inside a series of subdirectories.
To install it, run the commands:
find file linux recursive
How do I find a file in Linux terminal recursively?
find is a command for recursively filtering objects in the file system based on a simple conditional mechanism. Use find to search for a file or directory on your file system. Using the -exec flag, files can be found and immediately processed within the same command.
How do I find files recursively?
- Solution: find + grep. For years I always used variations of the following Linux find and grep commands to recursively search subdirectories for files that match a grep pattern: find . — .
- Solution: `grep -r` .
- Search multiple subdirectories. .
- Using egrep recursively. .
- Summary: `grep -r` notes.
How do I find a file recursively in Unix?
grep command: Recursively Search All Files For A String
To ignore case distinctions: grep -ri «word» . To display print only the filenames with GNU grep, enter: grep -r -l «foo» .
What is a recursive file search?
Alternatively referred to as recursive, recurse is a term used to describe the procedure capable of being repeated. For example, when listing files in a Windows command prompt, you can use the dir /s command to recursively list all files in the current directory and any subdirectories.
How do I find a file in Linux terminal?
- Open your favorite terminal app. .
- Type the following command: find /path/to/folder/ -iname *file_name_portion* .
- If you need to find only files or only folders, add the option -type f for files or -type d for directories.
How do I use grep to find a file in Linux?
The grep command searches through the file, looking for matches to the pattern specified. To use it type grep , then the pattern we’re searching for and finally the name of the file (or files) we’re searching in. The output is the three lines in the file that contain the letters ‘not’.
Which command will find all the files without permission 777?
find /home/ -perm 777 -type f
This command will list all the files inside the home directory that has 777 permissions.
How do I find a file without knowing the path in Unix?
- -name file-name – Search for given file-name. .
- -iname file-name – Like -name, but the match is case insensitive. .
- -user userName – The file’s owner is userName.
Is grep recursive by default?
For instance, it’s recursive by default and automatically ignores files and directories listed in . gitignore , so you don’t have to keep passing the same cumbersome exclude options to grep or find. but grep -r is a better answer. Recurse in directories only searching file matching PATTERN .
How do I see all files in Linux?
- find . — name thisfile.txt. If you need to know how to find a file in Linux called thisfile. .
- find /home -name *.jpg. Look for all . jpg files in the /home and directories below it.
- find . — type f -empty. Look for an empty file inside the current directory.
- find /home -user randomperson-mtime 6 -iname «.db»
How do I grep all files in a directory?
To grep All Files in a Directory Recursively, we need to use -R option. When -R options is used, The Linux grep command will search given string in the specified directory and subdirectories inside that directory. If no folder name is given, grep command will search the string inside the current working directory.
How do I find subfolders in Linux?
3 Answers. Try find /dir -type d -name «your_dir_name» . Replace /dir with your directory name, and replace «your_dir_name» with the name you’re looking for. -type d will tell find to search for directories only.
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