# Find a File with Find and Locate Commands in Linux

> URL: https://www.atlantic.net/vps-hosting/find-a-file-with-find-and-locate-commands-in-linux/ | Published: 2021-10-23 | Updated: 2023-11-21 | Author: Hitesh Jethva

Finding a file and directory in Linux is easier than in Windows. The Linux find command provides many options to help you find any file type in the file system. The find command allows you to find files and directories and take action based on the results, for example, copying, moving, deleting, or changing permissions. The locate command can also be used to find files by their filename. The locate command is lightning-fast because a background process continuously finds new files and stores them in a database.

This post will show you how to find files and directories using the find and locate command.

## Step 1 – The Basic Syntax

The basic syntax of the find command is shown below:

```
find  directory-path option search-term
```

**Where**:

- **directorypath** – Where you want to find the file.
- **option** – It could be file name, type, date of creation, etc.
- **search-term** – Where you can specify keywords to search.

## Step 2 – Find File by Name

To find a file by name, use the following syntax:

```
find . -name filename
```

For example, to find a file named file1.txt in your current working directory, run:

```
find . -name file1.txt
```

If you want to perform a case-insensitive search, run:

```
find . -iname file1.txt
```

## Step 3 – Find a File by Type

You can find the type of file using the **-type** parameter as shown below:

```
find -type query
```

Some example file types are shown below:

- **f** – Regular file
- **d** – Directory
- **l** – Symbolic link
- **c** – Character devices
- **b** – Block devices

For example, to find a regular file, run the following command:

```
find . -type f -name "file1"
```

To find a directory, run:

```
find . -type d -name "Downloads"
```

## Step 4 – Find a File by Time

You can also find the file based on access time, modified time, and change time.

For example, to find all files modified more than two days ago, run the following:

```
find /opt -ctime +2
```

This will find all files inside **/opt** directory, which was changed two days ago.

To find all files modified less than **one** day ago, run the following:

```
find /opt -ctime -1
```

To find all files modified more than **10** minutes ago, run the following:

```
find /opt -mmin +10
```

## Step 5 – Find a File by Size

The find command will allow you to find files and filter the results by size. You can use the –**size** parameter to filter the result.

Some of the most commonly used options with –**size** is shown below:

- **c** – Bytes
- **k** – Kilobytes
- **M** – Megabytes
- **G** – Gigabytes
- **b** – 512-byte blocks

For example, to find a file that is exactly **10MB** in size, run:

```
find / -size 10M
```

To find a file that is greater than **10MB**, run:

```
find / -size +10M
```

To find a file that is less than 10MB, run the following:

```
find / -size -10M
```

## Step 6 – Find a File by User and Group

You can use the option –**user** and –**group** to find a file owned by user and group.

For example, to find all files owned by user **tom**, run:

```
find / -user tom
```

To find all files owned by group **sales**, run:

```
find / -group sales
```

## Step 7 – How to Use Locate Command to Find File

The locate command is an alternative to the find command. It builds a database of files on the system, so searches will be faster.

To install the locate command in CentOS and RHEL, run the following:

```
yum install mlocate -y
```

To install the locate command in Debian and Ubuntu, run:

```
apt-get install mlocate -y
```

After installing the locate command, update the database using the following command:

```
updatedb
```

Now, to use the locate command to find a file named **file.txt**, run:

```
locate file.txt
```

You can also find a file by extension. For example, to find all files ending in .**txt**, run:

```
locate *.txt
```

## Conclusion

In the above guide, we explained how to find a file and directory using the find and locate command. You can now quickly find any file using the find and locate command. Try it today on [VPS hosting](https://www.atlantic.net/vps-hosting/) from Atlantic.Net.