The find command is very useful for locating files on your Linux filesystem. Below is an example of wildcards to locate files in the /boot directory.
ubuntu@ip-172-31-20-16:~$ sudo find /boot -name "vm*" /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-44-generic |
Here I am searching the whole / filesystem for a set of files that end in *.log.
ubuntu@ip-172-31-20-16:~$ sudo find / -name "log" /var/log /var/cache/pollinate/log /dev/log /usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-44-generic/include/config/log /usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-44-generic/include/config/dm/log |
The whereis command allows the user to search for programs and it will return where the program is installed.
ubuntu ~ $ whereis rm rm: /bin/rm /usr/share/man/man1/rm.1.gz |
To list all mounted filesystems on a Linux machine; use this command.
ubuntu ~ $ findmnt TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS / /dev/disk/by-uuid/ee515a1e-7735-4529-822f-4cc9e7632cd3 ext4 rw,relatime,discard,data=ordered ├─/sys sysfs sysfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime │ ├─/sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs rw,relatime,size=4k,mode=755 │ │ └─/sys/fs/cgroup/systemd systemd cgroup rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,name=systemd │ ├─/sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw,relatime │ ├─/sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime │ ├─/sys/kernel/security securityfs rw,relatime │ └─/sys/fs/pstore pstore rw,relatime ├─/proc proc proc rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime ├─/dev udev devtmpfs rw,relatime,size=503184k,nr_inodes=125796,mode=755 │ └─/dev/pts devpts devpts rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000 └─/run tmpfs tmpfs rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=101632k,mode=755 ├─/run/lock tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k ├─/run/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime └─/run/user tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=102400k,mode=755 |
This gives you a good picture of your filesystem. All mounted filesystems are printed in a tree format by default.
Another command for searching your filesystem is the locate command. This can search your filesystem for various files.
ubuntu ~ $ locate dmesg /bin/dmesg /etc/init/dmesg.conf /usr/lib/klibc/bin/dmesg /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/dmesg /usr/share/man/man1/dmesg.1.gz /var/log/dmesg /var/log/dmesg.0 |