This page last modified: Aug 07 2009
keywords:find,tar,pipe,stdin,stdout,redirect,io,touch,shell,path,file,
title:Exmaples and tricks using the Linux (Unix, OSX) "find" command.
Description: Arbitrary dates and other tricks with the Linux find command.
# use -T - to get tar to read file list from stdin find will get all
# the files in the current directory, except emacs backups "*~" and a
# presumably confidential file .thepass.
find ./ -maxdepth 1 -type f ! -name "*~" ! -name ".thepass" | /bin/tar -cvf ./backup/home.tar -T -
# Same command, but simpler.
find ./ -maxdepth 1 -type f | /bin/tar -cvf ./backup/pg_home.tar -T -
# List files in reverse date order. With this we discover that
# we want to delete x.txt and all older files.
ls -alt
# Run find in listing mode to verify what we're going to delete.
find /var/lib/tripwire/report/ ! -cnewer x.txt -ls
# Delete file x.txt and all files older.
find /var/lib/tripwire/report/ ! -cnewer x.txt -exec /bin/rm -i {} \;
The Apple OSX "touch" command is doesn't support the --date extension.
# create tmp.txt or set it's last modification date using touch.
# This example sets it's time of last mod to 9:15 am, today.
touch --date="09:15:00" tmp.txt
find ./ -cnewer tmp.txt
# tar up files newer than /etc/rc.local
tar -zcvf ~/2004-11-01_tull_etc.tar.gz --exclude /etc/shadow `find /etc -newer '/etc/rc.local' -type f`
# Remove write privs, depth first. Can't use chmod -R since that starts with the
# parent directory, and when it isn't writable, files and subdirs can't chmod.
find ./cmdev_save -depth -exec chmod a-w {} \;
# Tar up things in /etc that have changed, more or less since install, and leave out /etc/shadow.
tar -zcvf ~/2004-11-01_tull_etc.tar.gz --exclude /etc/shadow `find /etc -newer '/etc/rc.local' -type f`
egrep -ho "http://.*a.jpg" file*.html | xargs wget
# This should delete files older than 7 days, and print the name of each file it deletes.
find ./ -ctime +7 -name "*.zip" -exec rm -f {} \; -ls
#
# If you want to be prompted before it deletes a file:
find ./ -ctime +7 -name "*.zip" -exec rm -i {} \; -ls
#
# If you want to put this in cron, then send the output to a log file:
find ./ -ctime +7 -name "*.zip" -exec rm -f {} \; -ls > /home/mst3k/clean_zip.log 2>&1