How can I search through directories starting with a certain letter with the Linux find command.
For example I want to search all directories starting with the letter a for a file or directory starting with b.
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3 Answers
Try a find in a find:
find . -type d -name "a*" -exec find {} -name "b" \;
Starting at the current directory (.), find will look for all directories starting with the letter a recursively. For each directory it finds, it will look inside it for a file named b.
If you only want it to look in the folders starting with a, and no directories in those a* folders, use maxdepth:
find . -type d -name "a*" -exec find {} -maxdepth 1 -name "b" \;
to get rid of errors:
find . -type d -name "a*" 2> /dev/null -exec find {} -maxdepth 1 -name "b" \;
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nix the
-type fon the interiorfind-- OP's question indicates "b" could be file or directory. Commented Dec 8, 2009 at 2:34 -
Yeah I had that part in mind so I just did a file example. If I take off the type it will also show symbolic links among other things he doesn't want -- if there happens to be one named "b".– user1931Commented Dec 8, 2009 at 4:05
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well, he doesn't specify not wanting symlinks, so i'd make the opposite assumption -- but we've pointed out the limitations now, so he can make up his own mind. :) Commented Dec 8, 2009 at 15:35
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True enough, that way my command wont wrap either.– user1931Commented Dec 8, 2009 at 19:18
Just a quick update for people who might end up on this question.
In addition to the solution John T provided, I have also found that you can exclude directories by using the prune switch (should have read the man pages sooner I guess, hehe.)
So for example if I want to search all directories for file or directory "b" except directories starting with an "a" I can do this
find . -path 'a*' -prune -o -name "b" -print
bing
you can also use find -regex...
find -regex .*/a.*/b
