 | Chapter 17 Finding Files with find |  |
| Chapter 17 Finding Files with find | |
If you are only interested in files of a certain type, use the -type argument, followed by one of the characters in Table 17.1 [some versions of find don't have all of these -JP ].
Character | Meaning |
|---|---|
| b | Block special file ("device file") |
| c | Character special file ("device file") |
| d | Directory |
| f | Plain file |
| l | Symbolic link |
| p | Named pipe file |
| s | Socket |
Unless you are a system administrator, the important types are
directories, plain files, or symbolic links (i.e., types
d,
f,
or
l).
Using the -type operator, another way to list files recursively is:
xargs | % |
|---|
It can be difficult to keep track of all the symbolic links
in a directory. The next command will find all the symbolic
links in your home directory and print the files that
your symbolic links point to.
[$NF gives the last field
of each line, which holds the name a symlink points to. -JP]
If your find doesn't have a -ls operator, pipe to
xargs ls -l as above.
%find $HOME -type l -ls | awk '{print $NF}'
-
|  | |
| 17.12 Finding Many Things with One Command |  | 17.14 Searching for Files by Size |
