Using find

An Annoyance

Search on a Mac seems to be a real headache. It's slow. If you search for that file BigFraction.py, and you have a bunch of different versions, finding the newest one is a kafkaesque journey into endless point-and-click. ugh. Often you get fusillades of irrelevant cruft that is laborious to sift through.

garbage dump

Turboharge Search with find

bloodhound

The command-line offers a cure: find. The find command finds stuff with huge efficiency and specificity.

We will do an example on my system. I have opened a termianl and am now in my home directory.

unix> pwd
/Users/morrison
unix> ls
0323F.jsh                  comp                       node_modules
110                        convert.sed                ocw
20212022                   convert.set                p3
2022_2023                  crypt.js                   package-lock.json
211                        crypto                     package.json
96-1738.pdf                data                       pandas
Applications               data.dat                   pension.txt
CLASSES                    dataviz-with-python-and-js personal
Classes20161017            dict_games.py              personal2
Classes20172018            eclipse                    phone.txt
Classes20182019            eclipse-workspace          pictures2
Classes20192020            empty.html                 pix
Classes20202021            endian                     powshift.py
D3Book                     endian.c                   prime_meat.py
Desktop                    env                        programming
Documents                  env.c                      psvm
Downloads                  file                       public_html
HelloFX.java               first.cbl                  public_html.tar
LSPCobol                   first.js                   py4e
Library                    foot                       pymit
LifeCycle.java             gone.txt                   recursion
LinuxGuide.pdf             google-cloud-sdk           reeeet
Math-for-Programmers       gym.txt                    regex
Movies                     hello                      restore_ports.tcl
Music                      hello.cbl                  rhino.ico
Person.java                hello.cob                  rt.py
Pictures                   hello.js                   rust
Pictures.zip               htmlCssCourse              sample.aux
Point                      image.php                  sample.pdf
Point.java                 install-tl-20221121        sample.tex
Point.py                   intsqrt.py                 scherzo.py
Point.zip                  is_perfect.py              schoolImages
PracticeLP1.java           jarred                     shell.html
Public                     javaprep.sh                show_all
Sites                      junk                       show_all.c
Stand.java                 leaker                     sigma.py
Symmetry Test files.zip    leaker.c                   stackHeap.py
adventure                  leaker.dSYM                startPage.html
adventure.c                learning                   stateConvert.sed
aiPython                   letter.tex                 table_of_values.py
amigocode                  logins.csv                 teaching
api_key.txt                lst                        test.awk
apple.txt                  map.dump                   test.css
assorted                   map.svg                    test.html
bash                       mathbooks                  test.js
bigFractionAssignment      mess                       test_harder.py
bin                        miles1.dat                 try_pygal.py
book                       miniterm                   typescript-book
books                      moreProgramming            unix_dos_rosetta.html
books.txt                  morrison                   update-tlmgr-latest.sh
box                        morrison.c                 uses
cc4e                       movies.txt                 words.txt
challenge                  myports.txt                youTube
chararrays                 newEdition
codingBooks                nodeLists
unix>

Frightening, isn't it?

For a cheap parlor trick, I am going to find all directories named students in my home directory.

unix>  find /Users/morrison -name students -type d
/Users/morrison/public_html/1920T3/428/students
/Users/morrison/public_html/miniterm/Miniterm2014/students
/Users/morrison/CLASSES/20152016Classes/T2/LP2/students
/Users/morrison/CLASSES/20152016Classes/T3/BF/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20202021/S2/4240/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20202021/S2/4280/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20202021/S1/4240/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20202021/S1/4260/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20161017/T3/BC/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20161017/T1/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20182019/T2/352/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20182019/T2/424/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20182019/T2/426/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20182019/T3/426/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20182019/T3/428/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20182019/T1/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20192020/T2/424/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20192020/T2/426/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20192020/T2/402/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20192020/T3/424/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20192020/T3/426/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20192020/T3/428/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20192020/T1/424/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20192020/T1/402/students
/Users/morrison/pix/students
/Users/morrison/Classes20172018/T2/352/students
/Users/morrison/20212022/S2/4240/students
/Users/morrison/20212022/S2/4280/students
/Users/morrison/20212022/S1/4240/students
/Users/morrison/20212022/S1/4020/students
/Users/morrison/20212022/S1/students
/Users/morrison/2022_2023/accelerator/students

No stupidity here. Here I have every dirctory named students that lives in my home directory. I have the (useful) absolute path, too. We could also do this.

unix> find . -name studnets -type d
./public_html/1920T3/428/students
./public_html/miniterm/Miniterm2014/students
./CLASSES/20152016Classes/T2/LP2/students
./CLASSES/20152016Classes/T3/BF/students
./Classes20202021/S2/4240/students
./Classes20202021/S2/4280/students
./Classes20202021/S1/4240/students
./Classes20202021/S1/4260/students
./Classes20161017/T3/BC/students
./Classes20161017/T1/students
find: ./Library/Saved Application State/com.LaCie.LaCieSetup.savedState: Permission denied
./Classes20182019/T2/352/students
./Classes20182019/T2/424/students
./Classes20182019/T2/426/students
./Classes20182019/T3/426/students
./Classes20182019/T3/428/students
./Classes20182019/T1/students
./Classes20192020/T2/424/students
./Classes20192020/T2/426/students
./Classes20192020/T2/402/students
./Classes20192020/T3/424/students
./Classes20192020/T3/426/students
./Classes20192020/T3/428/students
./Classes20192020/T1/424/students
./Classes20192020/T1/402/students
./pix/students
./Classes20172018/T2/352/students
./20212022/S2/4240/students
./20212022/S2/4280/students
./20212022/S1/4240/students
./20212022/S1/4020/students
./20212022/S1/students
./2022_2023/accelerator/students

What happened here? The first item specified is a directory; in one case we used an absolute path, the other we used the relative path . (the current working directory). The -name students tells the OS to find files or directories named students. The -type d tells the OS only to find directories.

The command ls -lt lists files in reverse chronologcal format in long format. The -d flag for ls lists directories but not their contents. Hey, let's see who's the last modified here.

drwxr-xr-x    5 morrison  1671898719   160 Jun 16 11:16 ./2022_2023/accelerator/students
drwxr-xr-x   59 morrison  1671898719  1888 May 24  2022 ./20212022/S2/4240/students
drwxr-xr-x  103 morrison  1671898719  3296 Mar  3  2022 ./20212022/S1/4240/students
drwxr-xr-x   26 morrison  1671898719   832 Mar  2  2022 ./20212022/S2/4280/students
drwxr-xr-x   34 morrison  1671898719  1088 Dec 14  2021 ./20212022/S1/4020/students
drwxr-xr-x   20 morrison  1671898719   640 Oct 18  2021 ./Classes20172018/T2/352/students
drwxr-xr-x    4 morrison  1671898719   128 Oct 13  2021 ./pix/students
drwxr-xr-x   51 morrison  1671898719  1632 Oct  6  2021 ./Classes20161017/T3/BC/students
drwxr-xr-x   26 morrison  1671898719   832 Oct  6  2021 ./Classes20202021/S2/4280/students
drwxr-xr-x    6 morrison  1671898719   192 Oct  6  2021 ./Classes20182019/T2/352/students
drwxr-xr-x   45 morrison  1671898719  1440 Sep 20  2021 ./Classes20202021/S1/4240/students
drwxr-xr-x    3 morrison  1671898719    96 Sep  3  2021 ./20212022/S1/students
drwxr-xr-x   23 morrison  1671898719   736 May 27  2021 ./Classes20182019/T2/426/students
drwxr-xr-x   51 morrison  1671898719  1632 May 26  2021 ./Classes20202021/S2/4240/students
drwxr-xr-x   20 morrison  1671898719   640 Dec 14  2020 ./Classes20202021/S1/4260/students
drwxr-xr-x   34 morrison  1671898719  1088 May 26  2020 ./Classes20192020/T3/424/students
drwxr-xr-x   30 morrison  1671898719   960 May 25  2020 ./Classes20192020/T3/426/students
drwxr-xr-x   23 morrison  1671898719   736 May 25  2020 ./Classes20192020/T3/428/students
drwxr-xr-x   25 morrison  1671898719   800 May  7  2020 ./Classes20182019/T2/424/students
drwxr-xr-x    2 morrison  staff         64 Mar 19  2020 ./public_html/1920T3/428/students
drwxr-xr-x   30 morrison  1671898719   960 Feb 12  2020 ./Classes20192020/T2/402/students
drwxr-xr-x   28 morrison  1671898719   896 Jan 14  2020 ./Classes20192020/T2/426/students
drwxr-xr-x   23 morrison  1671898719   736 Dec  3  2019 ./Classes20192020/T2/424/students
drwxr-xr-x   25 morrison  1671898719   800 Oct 30  2019 ./Classes20192020/T1/402/students
drwxr-xr-x   29 morrison  1671898719   928 Oct 28  2019 ./Classes20192020/T1/424/students
drwxr-xr-x   17 morrison  1671898719   544 Mar 22  2019 ./Classes20182019/T3/428/students
drwxr-xr-x   21 morrison  1671898719   672 Mar 15  2019 ./Classes20182019/T3/426/students
drwxr-xr-x   76 morrison  1671898719  2432 Feb 28  2019 ./Classes20182019/T1/students
drwxr-xr-x   67 morrison  1671898719  2144 Sep 23  2016 ./Classes20161017/T1/students
drwxr-xr-x   32 morrison  1671898719  1024 Mar 22  2016 ./CLASSES/20152016Classes/T3/BF/students
drwxr-xr-x   47 morrison  1671898719  1504 Feb 15  2016 ./CLASSES/20152016Classes/T2/LP2/students
drwxr-xr-x   26 morrison  staff        832 Feb 24  2014 ./public_html/miniterm/Miniterm2014/students

What happened here? First of all, the + at the end of the line is necessary to end the -exec loop. The {} walks thrugh eaach item that find ferrets out and it executes the indicated command on it. We now know the last accessed directory was accessed on 16 June 2023.

commnd {}

Find Command Specifiers
`-name`	Specify ad file/directory name.
`-iname`	Specify ad file/directory name, case insensitive..
`-type`	Specify ad file/directory name.
	`d`	find directories only
	`f`	find regular files only
`-exec`	Do the `command` for each item foound

Wildcarding with * and ?

You can also use * as a wildcard for any number of characters and ? for a single character. Here I will find all .js in my directory programming. Note use of single-quotes.

unix> find programming -name '*.js'
programming/dataviz/sandpit/index.js
programming/python/python/c2/js/libs/l10n.js
programming/python/python/c2/js/app.js
programming/python/python/c2/c2/js/libs/l10n.js
programming/python/python/c2/c2/js/app.js
programming/python/python/c2/c2/c2/js/libs/l10n.js
programming/python/python/c2/c2/c2/js/app.js
programming/css/checkers.js
programming/css/jeopardy.js
programming/css/grid1.js
programming/js/stochastic.js
programming/js/rest.js
programming/js/months.js
programming/js/rowz.js
programming/js/0921FA.js
programming/js/no.js
programming/js/condon.js
programming/js/fmt.js
programming/js/final.js
programming/js/TrigTable.js
programming/js/0921F.js
programming/js/name.js
programming/js/0925F.js
programming/js/first.js
programming/js/sleep.js
programming/js/product.js
programming/web/script.js
programming/typescript/test.js
programming/typescript/hello.js
programming/c/SisterMary/testMe_files/0aaba1df8137a44ae17ad2987b98e96aembedcompiled__en.js

You can limit the depth of the search.

unix> find programming -name '*.js' -depth 2
programming/css/checkers.js
programming/css/jeopardy.js
programming/css/grid1.js
programming/js/stochastic.js
programming/js/rest.js
programming/js/months.js
programming/js/rowz.js
programming/js/0921FA.js
programming/js/no.js
programming/js/condon.js
programming/js/fmt.js
programming/js/final.js
programming/js/TrigTable.js
programming/js/0921F.js
programming/js/name.js
programming/js/0925F.js
programming/js/first.js
programming/js/sleep.js
programming/js/product.js
programming/web/script.js
programming/typescript/test.js
programming/typescript/hello.js

Hey let's find how how big these files are.

unix> find programming -name '*.js' -depth 2 -exec  wc -c {} +
      21 programming/css/checkers.js
      21 programming/css/jeopardy.js
      21 programming/css/grid1.js
     248 programming/js/stochastic.js
     354 programming/js/rest.js
    1649 programming/js/months.js
      21 programming/js/rowz.js
     491 programming/js/0921FA.js
      41 programming/js/no.js
     604 programming/js/condon.js
     286 programming/js/fmt.js
    4686 programming/js/final.js
       0 programming/js/TrigTable.js
     302 programming/js/0921F.js
     331 programming/js/name.js
     150 programming/js/0925F.js
      48 programming/js/first.js
     208 programming/js/sleep.js
     187 programming/js/product.js
    1400 programming/web/script.js
      57 programming/typescript/test.js
     112 programming/typescript/hello.js
   11238 total

Here are a couple of other fun examples. Any JS files out there with second letter 'a' and four letters? How about JS files containing 'ab'?

unix> find programming -name '?a??.js' 
programming/js/name.js
unix>  find programming -name '*ab*.js' 
programming/js/TrigTable.js