Searching for Files by Type

If you are only interested in files of a certain type, use the -type argument, followed by one of the characters in Table 17.1 [some versions of find don't have all of these -JP ].

find -type Characters
`Character`	`Meaning`
b	Block special file ("device file")
c	Character special file ("device file")
d	Directory
f	Plain file
l	Symbolic link
p	Named pipe file
s	Socket

Unless you are a system administrator, the important types are directories, plain files, or symbolic links (i.e., types d, f, or l).

Using the -type operator, another way to list files recursively is:

xargs	% `find . -type f -print \| xargs ls -l`

It can be difficult to keep track of all the symbolic links in a directory. The next command will find all the symbolic links in your home directory and print the files that your symbolic links point to. [$NF gives the last field of each line, which holds the name a symlink points to. -JP] If your find doesn't have a -ls operator, pipe to xargs ls -l as above.

% find $HOME -type l -ls | awk '{print $NF}'

- BB