Linux Command-Line – How to Find a File with Partially Known Path

command linefindlinux

I have a file located at folderA/folderB/myFile. This however is a relative address and I don't know where on my computer it is. myFile has a very generic name and searching just for it will give me hundreds of results. So I am trying to search for the entire path.

After looking here, I tried these options:

find / -path folderA/folderB/myFile 2>/dev/null

find / -path "folderA/folderB/myFile" 2>/dev/null

However, neither returns any results even though I know with certainty that the file exists.

So how can I search for a file using its containing folder structure?

Best Answer

In your examples folderA/folderB/myFile is matched against the entire path. You need a wildcard, something like:

find / -path "*/folderA/folderB/myFile"

Also note quoting is important. In general unquoted * triggers shell globbing (example).

Related Solutions

Windows – find command doesn’t seem to work in cygwin

You're using the Windows find command, not cygwin's.

This is made clear if you type 'which find'

To fix it, edit your path (System Properties -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System Variables -> Path) and move the entry for cygwin to the front of the path. (An easy way to do this is to copy the whole path, paste it into Notepad edit it there, and paste it back).

As pointed out in the comments, another route is to edit the bash startup scripts and change the path there. I'd even say this is the preferred solution as I've now found a case in which having cygwins versions first caused a problem.

Linux – is there an ‘upwards’ find

You can use this simple script. It walks the directory tree upwards and seraches for the specified files.

#!/bin/bash
while [[ $PWD != / ]] ; do
    find "$PWD"/ -maxdepth 1 "$@"
    cd ..
done

Usage:

upfind -name 'x*'

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – find command doesn’t seem to work in cygwin

Linux – is there an ‘upwards’ find

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