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SYS-C0035 · Linux Command Builders

find Command Examples

Draft a find that starts at a path you named, with no delete in the first draft.

Updated 25 October 2026 · Cheat Sheet

This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.

What this hour is for

find walks a tree. The useful filters are name, type, size, and time. The builder drafts the command. It does not run it.

The first draft has no -delete and no -exec that removes files. A delete is a later ticket with a backup. The start path is a directory you named, not / and not another person's home.

Do not search a host you do not administer. Do not use find to collect files you were not asked to hold. 192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.

The change you can finish

Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.

Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.

  1. Name the start path.
  2. Name the filter.
  3. Draft the command.
  4. Reject -delete and a removing -exec.
  5. Do not run it during the reading.
  6. Stop.

Mistakes that outlive the command

find Command Examples goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.

Decisions to write down

One decision for find Command Examples: The start path is one directory you named. No delete is in the draft. The host is yours. The command was not run yet. And a delete would be a different ticket.

Checks before you call it done

Confirm this before you call the change done: The path is written. The filter is written. No -delete is present. Nothing was run. And the host is yours. If one of those fails, stop.

# Start at a path you named.
# No -delete in the first draft.
# Do not start at /.

Before you leave the host

find Command Examples ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.

The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.

192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.

prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.

One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.

If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.

A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.

This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.

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