Find all files with name containing string

The -maxdepth option should be before the -name option, like below.,

find . -maxdepth 1 -name "string" -print

Use find:

find . -maxdepth 1 -name "*string*" -print

It will find all files in the current directory (delete maxdepth 1 if you want it recursive) containing "string" and will print it on the screen.

If you want to avoid file containing ':', you can type:

find . -maxdepth 1 -name "*string*" ! -name "*:*" -print

If you want to use grep (but I think it's not necessary as far as you don't want to check file content) you can use:

ls | grep touch

But, I repeat, find is a better and cleaner solution for your task.


Use grep as follows:

grep -R "touch" .

-R means recurse. If you would rather not go into the subdirectories, then skip it.

-i means "ignore case". You might find this worth a try as well.


find $HOME -name "hello.c" -print

This will search the whole $HOME (i.e. /home/username/) system for any files named “hello.c” and display their pathnames:

/Users/user/Downloads/hello.c
/Users/user/hello.c

However, it will not match HELLO.C or HellO.C. To match is case insensitive pass the -iname option as follows:

find $HOME -iname "hello.c" -print

Sample outputs:

/Users/user/Downloads/hello.c
/Users/user/Downloads/Y/Hello.C
/Users/user/Downloads/Z/HELLO.c
/Users/user/hello.c

Pass the -type f option to only search for files:

find /dir/to/search -type f -iname "fooBar.conf.sample" -print
find $HOME -type f -iname "fooBar.conf.sample" -print

The -iname works either on GNU or BSD (including OS X) version find command. If your version of find command does not supports -iname, try the following syntax using grep command:

find $HOME | grep -i "hello.c"
find $HOME -name "*" -print | grep -i "hello.c"

OR try

find $HOME -name '[hH][eE][lL][lL][oO].[cC]' -print

Sample outputs:

/Users/user/Downloads/Z/HELLO.C
/Users/user/Downloads/Z/HEllO.c
/Users/user/Downloads/hello.c
/Users/user/hello.c