How To Find A File In Linux(Through The Shell)

In *nix family of operating systems, we can find a file easily with the help of find command.

SYNTAX : $ find {directory-name} -name {filename}

To find a file in root directory :

Sometimes, it happens that we don't have any clue about the location of the file we are trying to search. In such a case we can search the entire system via the root directory (/). For example, if we want to search for a file named demo.txt, but we don't know where it could probably be present, then we would do something like this :

$ sudo find / -name 'demo.txt'

NOTE : Sometimes we may need special privileges to search for a particular file, so we'll use 'sudo' for that.

To find a file in a specific directory :

If we know the probable location of the file, but not sure about it, we can do this :

$ sudo find /path/of/the/directory -name 'demo.txt'