Find files by name pattern
Read-only
What do risk levels mean?
- Read-only
- Inspects state without changing anything.
- Low risk
- Reversible with a routine follow-up command.
- Medium risk
- Changes state; undo path documented.
- Destructive
- Deletes or overwrites; confirmation required.
Searches a directory tree for files whose names match a glob pattern, such as every "*.log" file or a misplaced config file.
filessearchfindglob
Parameters
Directory to search under.
Glob pattern to match file names, e.g. "*.log".
Commands
List every file under the directory whose name matches the pattern
find "." -type f -name "<pattern>"Verification
find "." -type f -name "<pattern>" | wc -lA count of matching files; zero means nothing matched the pattern.
Undo
Not undoable
This recipe only searches for files and changes nothing.
Pitfalls
- Quote the pattern so the shell does not expand the glob before find sees it.
- Use -iname (or -Filter with PowerShell's case-insensitive default) when the file's exact casing is unknown.