The Linux command line offers useful tools that enable you to find files easily. The find command is one useful example.
Here I am using the find command to look for all *.png files in a folder.
homer@deusexmachina ~/Documents $ find /usr/share/backgrounds -name "*.png" /usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint-petra/linux_mint_16.png /usr/share/backgrounds/linuxmint-petra/petra.png /usr/share/backgrounds/warty-final-ubuntu.png |
And using wildcards to find all files with init in their name.
homer@deusexmachina ~/Documents $ find /lib -name "init*" /lib/modules/3.11.0-12-generic/initrd /lib/modules/3.11.0-12-generic/kernel/drivers/scsi/initio.ko /lib/lsb/init-functions.d /lib/lsb/init-functions /lib/init |
This is how to find a file from the root directory and suppress all errors.
homer@deusexmachina ~/Documents $ sudo find / -name "vmlinuz" 2> /dev/null [sudo] password for homer: /vmlinuz |
Another example.
homer@deusexmachina ~/Documents $ sudo find / -name "vim.tiny" 2> /dev/null /usr/bin/vim.tiny |
The locate command for Linux also allows you to search for files on your Linux system. Below is an example.
homer@lollinux-machina:~/c-plus-equality ☠ $ locate vim.tiny /usr/bin/vim.tiny |
Use the updatedb command to update the database for the locate command.
[root@localhost boot]# updatedb |
These commands allow you to find files on your Linux system very easily. Here is a final example; using the find command.
[root@localhost boot]# find / -name 'vmlinuz*' 2> /dev/null /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.3-201.fc20.x86_64 /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.4-200.fc20.x86_64 /boot/vmlinuz-0-rescue-96f268a55cb54041bfbb56390631336b /boot/vmlinuz-3.12.10-300.fc20.x86_64 |