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3.4.2. Searching for Files and within Files
The find directory criteria command searches for files in the hierarchy under directory ac- cording to several criteria. The most commonly used criterion is -name filename, which allows searching for a file by name. You can also use common wildcards such as “*” in the filename search.
$ find /etc -name hosts
/etc/hosts
/etc/avahi/hosts
$ find /etc -name ”hosts*”
/etc/hosts
/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny
/etc/avahi/hosts
$ find /etc -name hosts
/etc/hosts
/etc/avahi/hosts
$ find /etc -name ”hosts*”
/etc/hosts
/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny
/etc/avahi/hosts
The grep expression files command searches the contents of the files and extracts lines matching the regular expression. Adding the -r option enables a recursive search on all files con- tained in the directory. This allows you to look for a file when you only know a part of its contents.