The Linux command line is very useful for finding files, the find command is the best way to locate files on your filesystem.
This is a simple example.
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo find /proc -name "meminfo" /proc/meminfo |
Use the -maxdepth parameter to only search a certain number of levels deep into directories.
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo find / -maxdepth 2 -name "meminfo" /proc/meminfo |
Use the -cmin parameter to display files that changed a certain number of minutes ago.
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo find /home/knoppix -cmin 5 find: `/home/knoppix/.gvfs': Permission denied /home/knoppix/.config/chromium/Default/Current Session |
In this example I am looking for files that changed 5 minutes ago.
This command will find all files in your home directory that have changed in the last 24 hours.
find $HOME -mtime 0 |
The locate command is another way to find files on your filesystem. In this example, I am finding all files in the /bin directory that start with ‘ls’.
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ locate /bin/ls locate: warning: database `/var/cache/locate/locatedb' is more than 8 days old (actual age is 503.1 days) /bin/ls /bin/lsblk /bin/lsmod /usr/bin/lsattr /usr/bin/lsb_release /usr/bin/lscpu /usr/bin/lsdistcc /usr/bin/lsdvb /usr/bin/lshal /usr/bin/lsinitramfs /usr/bin/lsof /usr/bin/lspci /usr/bin/lspgpot /usr/bin/lss16toppm /usr/bin/lsusb /usr/lib/klibc/bin/ls |
Use the sudo updatedb
command to update the database that the locate command uses. This is a faster way to search for files than find.