find command basics in Linux CLI - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Find Command Basics

📖 Scenario: You are organizing files on your computer. You want to find specific files quickly using the find command in Linux.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use the find command to search for files by name in a directory.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the find command to search files

Search files by exact name

Search files in a specific directory

Display the full path of found files

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Finding files quickly in large folders is common when managing documents, code, or media files.

💼 Career

System administrators and developers often use the <code>find</code> command to locate files for backup, cleanup, or deployment tasks.

1

Create a test directory with files

Create a directory called testdir and inside it create three files named file1.txt, file2.txt, and notes.txt using the mkdir and touch commands.

Linux CLI

# Create directory testdir and files file1.txt, file2.txt, notes.txt inside it
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use mkdir testdir to create the folder and touch to create empty files.

2

Set the search directory variable

Create a variable called search_dir and set it to the path of the testdir directory you created.

Linux CLI

mkdir testdir
touch testdir/file1.txt testdir/file2.txt testdir/notes.txt

# Set search_dir variable to the path of the testdir directory you created
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use search_dir=testdir to store the testdir directory path.

3

Use find command to search for a file

Use the find command with $search_dir to find the file named file2.txt.

Linux CLI

mkdir testdir
touch testdir/file1.txt testdir/file2.txt testdir/notes.txt
search_dir=testdir

# Use find to search for file2.txt in $search_dir
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use find "$search_dir" -name "file2.txt" to find the file by name.

4

Display the found file path

Run the script to display the full path of file2.txt found by the find command.

Linux CLI

mkdir testdir
touch testdir/file1.txt testdir/file2.txt testdir/notes.txt
search_dir=testdir
find "$search_dir" -name "file2.txt"

# Run the command to show output
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The output should show the full path ending with file2.txt.