find 🔍

Finds files matching given criteria.

Detailed result -ls

find /home/babak -name "*bash*" -ls

11053679      4 -rw-r--r--   1 babak    babak        3772 Nov 25 12:45 /home/babak/.bashrc
11010465     28 -rw-------   1 babak    babak       24763 Nov 16 12:26 /home/babak/.bash_history

Evaluate by executing a command on files -exec

Example 1: looking for a word within files

find ~ -name '*.txt' -exec grep -q "hello" {} \; -print
  • Finds all .txt files that contain word “hello” in their content.
  • The -print option is necessary to print file names.
  • {} is the placeholder for the file path.
  • \; indicates the end of the command string.

Example 2: looking for damages ZIP archives

find ~ -name '*.zip' -not -exec zip -qT {} \; -print
  • zip -qT quietly checks ZIP archive integrity.
  • -not negates the logical expression.

Example 3: detect unformatted code files in a Python codebase

find . -type f -name '*.py' -not -path '*/venv/*' -not -path '*/__pycache__/*' -not -exec sh -c 'python3 -m autopep8 {} >/dev/null' \; -print
  • autopep8 applies Python PEP8 standard formatting.
  • >/dev/null avoids cluttered/unnecessary output.
  • -not -path '*/venv/*' and -not -path '*/__pycache__/*' exclude venv and __pycache__ directories.

Example 4: detect unformatted code files in a JavaScript codebase

find . -type f -name '*.js' -not -exec sh -c 'eslint --no-eslintrc {} >/dev/null' \; -print
  • eslint is the ESLint CLI.
  • --no-eslintrc is for safety, to eliminate the need for a .eslintrc file.

About Living in the Shell
Obsessed with doing things in the shell, I’ve decided to share my daily struggles on living in the shell as terse but informative posts.