Finding files with find · ⁨用 find 查找文件⁩ — Linux & the command line

English

Searching the whole tree

ls shows one folder. find searches a folder and everything inside it, however deep:

. means "start in the current folder". find lists every file and folder it can reach.

中文

搜索整棵树

ls 只显示一个文件夹。find 会搜索一个文件夹及其内部的一切,无论藏得多深:

find .

. 表示“从当前文件夹开始”。find 会列出它能到达的每个文件和文件夹。

English

Find by name

Usually you want files matching a pattern. Use -name:

This finds every .txt file in the tree — even ones buried three folders down.
Quote the pattern ("*.txt") so the shell passes it to find untouched.

中文

按名字查找

通常你想要匹配某种模式的文件。用 -name:

find . -name "*.txt"

这会找出树中每一个 .txt 文件 —— 哪怕它埋在三层文件夹之下。
给模式加上引号("*.txt"),让 shell 原封不动地把它交给 find。

English

Why it is handy

"Where did I put that file?" — find answers it in one line.
Combined with pipes, you can act on the results — for example count them with wc -l.

中文

它为什么好用

“我把那个文件放哪了?” —— find 一行就能回答。
配合管道,你还能对结果进一步处理 —— 比如用 wc -l 数一数有多少个。

English

Common mistakes

find . -name "*.txt" searches by name from the current folder down.
Quote the pattern so the shell does not expand it first.

中文

常见错误

find . -name "*.txt" 从当前目录向下按名字搜索。
给模式加引号,免得 shell 先展开它。

Explore · ⁨探索⁩

find walks the tree · ⁨find 遍历目录树⁩

find searches the whole tree below a directory. · ⁨find 搜索某个目录下的整棵树。⁩

Find every .txt file, even deep inside subfolders, with find . -name "*.txt". (. means "start from here".) · ⁨用 find . -name "*.txt" 找出每一个 .txt 文件,哪怕它藏在很深的子文件夹里。(. 表示“从这里开始”。)⁩

You can also start the search from a subfolder. Find just the .txt files inside docs (and below) with find docs -name "*.txt". · ⁨你也可以从某个子文件夹开始搜索。用 find docs -name "*.txt" 只查找 docs(及其子目录)里的 .txt 文件。⁩