How to Find a File in Centos

Community Enterprise Operating System, abbreviated as "CentOS," is a Linux-type freely distributed operating system. While working on a CentOS computer, a user often needs to locate a particular file or a group of files having common attributes -- the same extension, for example. CentOS offers the command "find" that allows you to efficiently look for files on your hard drive.

Instructions

1. Click on the button "terminal" on the CentOS desktop to open the Linux command prompt window.

2. Type the command "find -name tables.txt" and press "Enter" to start searching a file. In this example, you search the file "tables.txt."

3. Use an asterisk (*) in the file name as a wild-card character to search for multiple files or if you do not know the exact name. For example, the command "find -n tables.*" finds all files with the name "tables" and any extension such as files "tables.txt", "tables.doc" or tables.xls."

4. Read the command output that is the list of found files with the full directory path. If no files are found, the command produces no output.

References

• Linux man page: Find
• "Fedora Linux Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat Power Users"; Christopher Negus and Francois Caen; 2007

Resources

• CentOS: CentOS Overview