Finding or searching through files and folders

Search for a string

A case-sensitive search through all of the files from current folder and below.

$ find . | xargs grep -s "mystring" | more

A case-insensitive search through all of the files from current folder and below.

$ find . | xargs grep -si "mystring" | more

A case-insensitive search through all of the files from current folder and below, and truncate long search results.

$ find . | xargs grep -sioE ".{0,20}mystring.{0,20}" | more

$ cp -r folder1/. target/

$ find . -type f -name "*.mp4" -exec rm {} \;

This is to set permission for an existing folder for collaboration. This assumes the group name to be dev, and the folder to be /srv/www/project.

This sets setgid bit on the folder.

$ sudo find /srv/www/project -type d -exec chgrp dev {} +
$ sudo find /srv/www/project -type d -exec chmod g+s {} +

Make it writable by the group.

$ sudo chmod -R g+w /srv/www/project

Change group ownership of existing files.

$ sudo chown -R mhan:dev /srv/www/project

These commands should be executed for a new folder.

$ sudo chgrp dev /srv/www/project
$ sudo chmod g+s /srv/www/project

The files are compressed using Lempel-Ziv (LZ77) algorithm. GNU zip (gzip/gunzip) is used for this.

$ gunzip file.gz

or

$ gzip -d file.gz

This also works between servers. The first one is on the same server.

Explanation of parameters used:

$ rsync -azv /folder_a/ /folder_b/

This one is between different servers.

$ rsync -azv ~/folder_a/ mhan@tom.myserver.com:~/folder_b/

Make a list of files to copy. Example here is a list of files older than 365 days.

$ find . -type f -mtime +365 > /tmp/rsyncfiles

This is a list of files younger than 365 days

$ find . -type f -mtime -365 > /tmp/rsyncfiles

rsync across the network to another server. This command deletes the source files after they are moved.

$ rsync --remove-source-files -zvh --files-from=/tmp/rsyncfiles . mhan@zinc.wherever.com:/target/folder/