Network, Computer and Programming Resources

Linux top 50 cmd - Find

Did you ever say to yourself, "Self, where did I put that file?" Well now, instead of talking to yourself and having those around you wonder about you, you can ask the computer. You can say, "Computer, where did I put that file?" Okay, it is not that simple, but it is close. All you have to do is ask the computer to find the file. The find command will look in whatever directory you tell it to, as well as all subdirectories under that directory, for the file that you specified. After it has found this list, it will then do with the list as you have asked it to. Typically, you just want to know where it is, so you ask it, nicely, to print out the list. The syntax of the command is the command itself, followed by the directory you want to start searching in, followed by the filename (metacharacters are acceptable), and then what you want done with the list. In the following example, the find command searches for files ending with .pl in the current directory (and all subdirectories). It then prints the results to standard output.