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The Linux Find Command is one of the most important and much used command in Linux
systems. Find command used to search and locate list of files and directories based on
conditions you specify for files that match the arguments. Find can be used in variety of
conditions like you can find files by permissions, users, groups, file type, date, size and
other possible criteria.
The find command is available on most linux distros by default so you do not have to install
any package. The find command is an essential one to learn, if you want to get super
productive with the command line on linux.
The basic syntax of the find command looks like this
$ find location comparison-criteria search-term
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1. Find Files Using Name in Current Directory
Find all the files whose name is technology.txt in a current working directory.
# find . -name technology.txt
2. Find Files Under Home Directory
Find all the files under /home directory with name technology.txt.
# find /home -name technology.txt
3. Find Files Using Name and Ignoring Case
# find /home -iname technology.txt
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4. Find Directories Using Name
# find / -type d -name abcd
5. Find xyz Files Using Name
Find all xyz files whose name is technology.xyz in a current working directory.
# find . -type f -name technology.xyz
6. Find all xyz files in directory
# find . -type f -name "*.xyz"
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7. Find Files With 777 Permissions
# find . -type f -perm 0777 -print
8. Find Files Without 777 Permissions
# find / -type f ! -perm 777
9. Find Read Only Files
# find / -perm /u=r
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10. Find Executable Files
find / -perm /a=x
11.Find Files with 777 Permissions and Chmod to 644
Find all 777 permission files and use chmod command to set permissions to 644.
# find / -type f -perm 0777 -print -exec chmod 644 {} \;
12. Find Directories with 777 Permissions and Chmod to 755
Find all 777 permission directories and use chmod command to set permissions to 755.
# find / -type d -perm 777 -print -exec chmod 755 {} \;
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13. Find and remove single File
To find a single file called tecmint.txt and remove it.
# find . -type f -name "tecmint.txt" -exec rm -f {} \;
14. Find and remove Multiple File
To find and remove multiple files such as .mp3 or .txt, then use.
# find . -type f -name "*.txt" -exec rm -f {} \;
OR
# find . -type f -name "*.mp3" -exec rm -f {} \;
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15. Find all Empty Files
To find all empty files under certain path.
# find /tmp -type f -empty
16. File all Hidden Files
To find all hidden files, use below command.
# find /tmp -type f -name ".*"
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17. Find all Files Based on User
To find all files that belongs to user Tecmint under /home directory.
# find /home -user tecmint
Find Files and Directories Based on Date and Time
18.Find Last 50 Days Modified Files
To find all the files which are modified 50 days back.
# find / -mtime 50
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19.Find Last 50 Days Accessed Files
To find all the files which are accessed 50 days back.
# find / -atime 50
20. Find Changed Files in Last 1 Hour
To find all the files which are changed in last 1 hour.
# find / -cmin -60
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21. Find Modified Files in Last 1 Hour
To find all the files which are modified in last 1 hour.
# find / -mmin -60
22. Find Accessed Files in Last 1 Hour
To find all the files which are accessed in last 1 hour.
# find / -amin -60
23. Find 50MB Files
To find all 50MB files, use.
# find / -size 50M
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24. Find Size between 50MB – 100MB
To find all the files which are greater than 50MB and less than 100MB.
# find / -size +50M -size -100M
25. Find and Delete 100MB Files
To find all 100MB files and delete them using one single command.
# find / -size +100M -exec rm -rf {} \;
26. Find Specific Files and Delete
Find all .mp3 files with more than 10MB and delete them using one single command.
# find / -type f -name *.mp3 -size +10M -exec rm {} \;
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Find Top Running Processes by Highest Memory and CPU Usage in Linux
ps -eo pid,ppid,cmd,%mem,%cpu --sort=-%mem | head
ps -eo pmem,pcpu,vsize,pid,cmd | sort -k 1 -nr | head -5
ps axo ruser,%mem,comm,pid,euser | sort -nr | head -n 10
top -b -o +%MEM | head -n 22
From the command above, the option:
-b : runs top in batch mode
-o : used to specify fields for sorting processes
head utility displays the first few lines of a file and
the -n option is used to specify the number of lines to be displayed.
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Find Top Running Processes by Highest Memory and CPU Usage in Linux
Biggest cpu consuming processes
ps -eo pmem,pcpu,pid,args | tail -n +2 | sort -rnk 2 | head
ps Report a snapshot of the current processes
- -e Select all processes
- o Specify user-defined format
- pmem,pcpu,pid,args user-defined format: memory,cpu, pid number and command
- | tail -n +2 Output lines starting to the second line (to avoid column names such %MEM, etc ...)
- | sort -rnk 1 reverse (r), numeric sort (n) by column 1 (memory)
- | sort -rnk 2 reverse (r), numeric sort (n) by column 2 (cpu)
- | head output the 10 first lines
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