find: search for files

Updated November 2026

find walks through a directory tree and lists every file that matches your conditions: name, size, age, owner, type or permissions. It can also run a command on each file it finds.

Find by name

find . -name "*.log"                 # files ending in .log below the current directory
find /etc -name "nginx.conf"
find ~ -iname "*report*"             # ignore case
find . -name "*.tmp" -o -name "*.bak"   # either pattern (-o = or)
find . -path "*/cache/*" -name "*.json" # match the whole path

Always quote the pattern, or the shell expands *.log before find sees it.

Find by type

find /srv -type d                    # directories only
find /srv -type f                    # regular files only
find /usr/bin -type l                # symbolic links
find . -type f -empty                # empty files

Find by size

find / -xdev -type f -size +500M     # larger than 500 MB, on the root file system only
find . -type f -size -10k            # 9 KiB or smaller (sizes round up to whole units; -size -10240c for exact bytes)
find /var/log -type f -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} +

Units: c bytes, k kilobytes, M megabytes, G gigabytes. To see which directories use the most space, use du.

Find by time

find . -mtime -1                     # modified in the last 24 hours
find /backup -mtime +30              # modified more than 30 days ago
find . -mmin -15                     # modified in the last 15 minutes
find . -newer reference.txt          # newer than another file
find /var/log -type f -newermt "2026-11-01"   # modified since a date (GNU, BSD)

-mtime counts in whole days and drops any fraction: +30 means at least 31 full days ago, -1 means less than 24 hours ago. -atime and -ctime use access time and status-change time.

Find by owner and permissions

find /home -user anna                     # owned by anna
find / -xdev -nouser                       # owner UID has no user account (e.g. a deleted user)
find / -xdev -type f -perm -4000           # set-user-ID programs
find /srv -type f -perm -o+w               # writable by everyone
find . -type f ! -perm 644                 # not exactly 644

See file system security for what these checks mean.

Run a command on the results

find . -name "*.sh" -exec chmod +x {} +           # many files per chmod call (fast)
find . -name "*.conf" -exec grep -l "Listen" {} + # which config files mention Listen
find . -type f -name "*.log" -exec gzip {} \;     # one gzip per file
find . -name "*.jpg" -print0 | xargs -0 -P4 -n20 jpegoptim   # in parallel with xargs

{} is replaced by the file name. End -exec with + to pass many names at once, or \; to run the command once per file. With xargs, always use -print0 and xargs -0 so names with spaces work.

Delete files safely

find /var/tmp/app -type f -mtime +14 -print    # first look at the list
find /var/tmp/app -type f -mtime +14 -delete   # then delete

Limit where find looks

find / -xdev -name core              # stay on one file system (skip /proc, network mounts)
find . -maxdepth 1 -type f           # only the current directory, not subdirectories
find . -path ./node_modules -prune -o -name "*.js" -print   # skip a directory
find / -name passwd 2>/dev/null      # hide "Permission denied" messages

Combine conditions

Conditions next to each other must all match (and). Use -o for or, ! for not, and escaped parentheses for grouping:

find . -type f \( -name "*.jpg" -o -name "*.png" \) -size +1M
find . -type f ! -name "*.gz" -mtime +7

Faster alternatives

• locate name (from the plocate package) searches a prebuilt index of all file names instantly. Update the index with sudo updatedb.
• fd is a fast, friendlier find for interactive use: fd '\.log$' /var.

The options shown work with GNU find on Linux and with BSD find on macOS, except where marked. Some commercial Unix versions lack some of them: AIX 7.3 find has no -delete, -maxdepth, -empty or -print0. Install GNU find there, or use -exec rm {} + and -prune.