How to Use the find Command Effectively

Basic Syntax

find [path] [options] [expression]

Find by Name

# Exact name
find /var/www -name "index.php"

# Case-insensitive
find / -iname "readme.md"

# Wildcards
find /etc -name "*.conf"

Find by Type

# Files only
find /var -type f -name "*.log"

# Directories only
find /home -type d -name ".ssh"

# Symbolic links
find / -type l

Find by Size

# Files larger than 100MB
find / -type f -size +100M

# Files smaller than 1KB
find /tmp -type f -size -1k

# Empty files
find /var/log -type f -empty

Find by Time

# Modified in last 24 hours
find /var/www -type f -mtime -1

# Accessed more than 30 days ago
find /tmp -type f -atime +30

# Changed in last 60 minutes
find /etc -type f -mmin -60

Actions

# Delete files
find /tmp -type f -name "*.tmp" -delete

# Execute command on each result
find /var/www -name "*.php" -exec grep -l "eval(" {} \;

# Change permissions
find /var/www -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /var/www -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;