One reader asked how find can be used to find various file patterns. For example in a directory which could be littered with various logs and other files, how do I use a single find command to find all shell scripts, perl scripts and say php scripts. Simple answer is to use multiple -name arguments combined with -o (or ORed) and if needed with -a (or ANDed). Other find conditions (like -mtime, -type etc) can be combined as well. Let’s see an example.
unixite@theunixtips:~/test> ls -1 1.dat 2.txt 33.sh 3.sh 4.pl 5.php unixite@theunixtips:~/test> find . ( -name "*.sh" -o -name "*.pl" -o -name "*.php" ) ./3.sh ./33.sh ./4.pl ./5.php
With above command more patterns can be specified where more ANDing or ORing can be done. For example to search all scripts that start with 3.
unixite@theunixtips:~/test> find . ( ( -name "*.sh" -o -name "*.pl" -o -name "*.php" ) -a ( -name "3*" ) ) ./3.sh ./33.sh
Using this user can combine many other conditions (e.g. search for the files with size ranges between 100K and 500K). Or simply if one has a simple pattern to search.
unixite@theunixtips:~/test> find . -name "*.sh" -o -name "*.pl" -o -name "*.php" ./3.sh ./33.sh ./4.pl ./5.php
Note: The brackets have to be escaped correctly and also there should be space between brackets and the patterns.
