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How to Search Files

Search for Files

  • vi/vim : Moves cursor to a certain location, based on a search
  • In command mode, press f and then a character; this moves to the next occurrence of value in the current line
  • To search for a value in the entire file, in command mode, use / and then type the value
  • Similar to sed, you can use vi/vim to replace values:
    • — :%s/oldvalue/newvalues/g
  • find : Commonly used to find files by name, by user and/or by type
  • find /start/dir -name "value" — Finds files in /start/dir with the name value
  • -maxdepth— The number of subdirectories to search
  • -type — f Regular file
  • -size — +#[MGT]— number and type of storage value (mega, giga, terabytes)
  • -perm— Numeric designation of permissions to look for
  • -exec — rm ‘{}’ + — Execute the command rm on the values/files within the results of the find command
  • Many more values and examples in the man pages