Find files with file extension linux

Find All Files with Extension in Linux

We can use various Linux utilities for finding or locating files on a file system, but searching all files or filenames with the same or different extensions can be difficult and require specific patterns or expressions. In the upcoming section of the article, we will understand the working, syntax, and execution of these utilities.

Find command

One of the most powerful file searching tools in the Linux system is the “find command.” It searches the entire directory for files and folders to get matched with the user’s expression and performs actions on these files. File permission, file size, type are some other factors based on finding files on Linux. Find command also be combined with other utilities such as sed or grep. Now, lets’ head towards the practical implication of find command.

Find command syntax:

Finding all files with a single extension:

To find all files with a file extension, write out its path to find a command with the options and expression specifying the extension. In the below-given example, we will find all files with the “.txt” extension.

“.” in this command denotes that this tool will find all the “.txt” files in the current directory.

Find “.exe” files in the same find command by adding the extension as “*exe.”

Configuration files are also an essential part of any file system that can be used for multiple purposes. Write out this command for searching configuration files in the current directory.

Finding files with multiple extension:

You can also add more than extension in your find command so that you can find several extension files easily and quickly.

The execution of below given command will retrieve files with extension “.sh” and “.txt”

Locate command

The locate command is a faster and better tool as compared with “find.” When a file is initiated, instead of searching it in the file system, locate utilize the database for the searching requirement. This database stores parts and bits of the information related to files and their addresses on your system.

locate command syntax:

Finding a file with a specific extension, such as “.conf,” which is considered in our case, adds the directory path where the process of searching files will occur.

Find configuration files in the present working directory by utilizing the below-given command.

Similarly, you can follow the syntax of locate command for finding all files with any specific extension such as “.txt.”

Conclusion:

This post covers two powerful yet simple utilities for you to find all files with the same or different extensions. We have provided you the fundamental concepts regarding the “find” and “locate” command and shown you how to utilize these two Linux command-line tools to find all files with several extensions.

About the author

Talha Saif Malik

Talha is a contributor at Linux Hint with a vision to bring value and do useful things for the world. He loves to read, write and speak about Linux, Data, Computers and Technology.

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How to Find Files in Linux Using the Command Line

When you have to find a file in Linux, it’s sometimes not as easy as finding a file in another operating system. This is especially true if you are running Linux without a graphical user interface and need to rely on the command line. This article covers the basics of how to find a file in Linux using the CLI. The find command in Linux is used to find a file (or files) by recursively filtering objects in the file system based on a simple conditional mechanism. You can use the find command to search for a file or directory on your file system. By using the -exec flag ( find -exec ), files can be found and immediately processed within the same command.

Find a File in Linux by Name or Extension

Use find from the command line to locate a specific file by name or extension. The following example searches for *.err files in the /home/username/ directory and all sub-directories:

Using Common find Commands and Syntax to Find a File in Linux

find expressions take the following form:

• The options attribute will control the find process’s behavior and optimization method.
• The starting/path attribute will define the top-level directory where find begins filtering.
• The expression attribute controls the tests that search the directory hierarchy to produce output.

Consider the following example command:

This command enables the maximum optimization level (-O3) and allows find to follow symbolic links ( -L ). find searches the entire directory tree beneath /var/www/ for files that end with .html .

Basic Examples

Command	Description
find . -name testfile.txt	Find a file called testfile.txt in current and sub-directories.
find /home -name *.jpg	Find all .jpg files in the /home and sub-directories.
find . -type f -empty	Find an empty file within the current directory.
find /home -user exampleuser -mtime -7 -iname «.db»	Find all .db files (ignoring text case) modified in the last 7 days by a user named exampleuser.

Options and Optimization for find

The default configuration for find will ignore symbolic links (shortcut files). If you want find to follow and return symbolic links, you can add the -L option to the command, as shown in the example above.

find optimizes its filtering strategy to increase performance. Three user-selectable optimization levels are specified as -O1 , -O2 , and -O3 . The -O1 optimization is the default and forces find to filter based on filename before running all other tests.

Optimization at the -O2 level prioritizes file name filters, as in -O1 , and then runs all file-type filtering before proceeding with other more resource-intensive conditions. Level -O3 optimization allows find to perform the most severe optimization and reorders all tests based on their relative expense and the likelihood of their success.

Command	Description
-O1	(Default) filter based on file name first.
-O2	File name first, then file type.
-O3	Allow find to automatically re-order the search based on efficient use of resources and likelihood of success.
-maxdepth X	Search current directory as well as all sub-directories X levels deep.
-iname	Search without regard for text case.
-not	Return only results that do not match the test case.
-type f	Search for files.
-type d	Search for directories.

Find a File in Linux by Modification Time

The find command contains the ability to filter a directory hierarchy based on when the file was last modified:

The first command returns a list of all files in the entire file system that end with the characters conf and modified in the last seven days. The second command filters exampleuser user’s home directory for files with names that end with the characters conf and modified in the previous three days.

Use grep to Find a File in Linux Based on Content

The find command can only filter the directory hierarchy based on a file’s name and metadata. If you need to search based on the file’s content, use a tool like grep . Consider the following example:

This searches every object in the current directory hierarchy ( . ) that is a file ( -type f ) and then runs the command grep «example» for every file that satisfies the conditions. The files that match are printed on the screen ( -print ). The curly braces ( <> ) are a placeholder for the find match results. The <> are enclosed in single quotes ( ‘ ) to avoid handing grep a malformed file name. The -exec command is terminated with a semicolon ( ; ), which should be escaped ( \; ) to avoid interpretation by the shell.

How to Find and Process a File in Linux

The -exec option runs commands against every object that matches the find expression. Consider the following example:

This filters every object in the current hierarchy ( . ) for files named rc.conf and runs the chmod o+r command to modify the find results’ file permissions.

The commands run with the -exec are executed in the find process’s root directory. Use -execdir to perform the specified command in the directory where the match resides. This may alleviate security concerns and produce a more desirable performance for some operations.

The -exec or -execdir options run without further prompts. If you prefer to be prompted before action is taken, replace -exec with -ok or -execdir with -okdir .

How to Find and Delete a File in Linux

To delete the files that end up matching your search, you can add -delete at the end of the expression. Do this only when you are positive the results will only match the files you wish to delete.

In the following example, find locates all files in the hierarchy starting at the current directory and fully recursing into the directory tree. In this example, find will delete all files that end with the characters .err :

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

This page was originally published on Monday, October 25, 2010.

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How to Use ‘find’ Command to Search for Multiple Filenames (Extensions) in Linux

Many times, we are locked in a situation where we have to search for multiple files with different extensions, this has probably happened to several Linux users especially from within the terminal.

There are several Linux utilities that we can use to locate or find files on the file system, but finding multiple filenames or files with different extensions can sometimes prove tricky and requires specific commands.

Find Multiple File Names in Linux

One of the many utilities for locating files on a Linux file system is the find utility and in this how-to guide, we shall walk through a few examples of using find to help us locate multiple filenames at once.

Before we dive into the actual commands, let us look at a brief introduction to the Linux find utility.

The simplest and general syntax of the find utility is as follows:

Let us proceed to look at some examples of find command in Linux.

1. Assuming that you want to find all files in the current directory with .sh and .txt file extensions, you can do this by running the command below:

Find .sh and .txt Extension Files in Linux

Interpretation of the command above:

1. . means the current directory
2. -type option is used to specify file type and here, we are searching for regular files as represented by f
3. -name option is used to specify a search pattern in this case, the file extensions
4. -o means “OR”

It is recommended that you enclose the file extensions in a bracket, and also use the \ ( back slash) escape character as in the command.

2. To find three filenames with .sh , .txt and .c extensions, issues the command below:

Find Multiple File Extensions in Linux

3. Here is another example where we search for files with .png , .jpg , .deb and .pdf extensions:

Find More than 3 File Extensions in Linux

When you critically observe all the commands above, the little trick is using the -o option in the find command, it enables you to add more filenames to the search array, and also knowing the filenames or file extensions you are searching for.

Conclusion

In this guide, we covered a simple yet helpful find utility trick to enable us find multiple filenames by issuing a single command. To understand and use find for many other vital command line operations, you can read our article below.

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