Windows Linux Text Processing Search

Windows `find` equivalent in Linux

Searches for files matching given criteria anywhere in the filesystem.

Windows find

→

Linux equivalents

Debian/Ubuntu same command

find

Fedora same command

find

Arch same command

find

Overview

What this command does

Searches for files matching given criteria anywhere in the filesystem.

Migration tip: Linux's find is much more powerful than Windows' — you can search by name, size, date, permissions, and even execute commands on results.

Practical tasks

Common use cases

Search for files and directories

Searches for files matching given criteria anywhere in the filesystem.

find . -name

Search by filename in current dir

find / -name

Search entire filesystem

find . -type f

Find files only (not directories)

Ready to run

Copyable Linux commands

Review paths, device names, package names and permissions before running any command.

find . -name "*.txt"

find /home -name "report.pdf"

find . -name "*.log" -mtime -1

find . -size +100M

find . -name "*.tmp" -delete

Walkthrough

Examples with explanations

# Windows: dir /s /b *.txt
find . -name "*.txt"           # find all .txt files here
find /home -name "report.pdf"  # search in /home
find . -name "*.log" -mtime -1 # logs from last 24hrs
find . -size +100M             # files over 100MB

# Find and delete (use with care!):
find . -name "*.tmp" -delete   # delete all .tmp files

Reference

Common options and variations

Command or option	Use
`find . -name`	Search by filename in current dir
`find / -name`	Search entire filesystem
`find . -type f`	Find files only (not directories)
`find . -type d`	Find directories only
`find . -mtime -7`	Files modified in last 7 days
`find . -size +10M`	Files larger than 10MB

Distro differences

Debian/Ubuntu vs Fedora vs Arch

This command is the same on Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch Linux when the relevant tool is installed.

Distribution	Package manager / base	Equivalent command	Difference to notice
Debian/Ubuntu	same command	`find`	Same command on this distribution.
Fedora	same command	`find`	Same command on this distribution.
Arch	same command	`find`	Same command on this distribution.

Keep learning

What this command does

Common use cases

Search for files and directories

find . -name

find / -name

find . -type f

Copyable Linux commands

Examples with explanations

Common options and variations

Debian/Ubuntu vs Fedora vs Arch

Related Text Processing commands