Finding a directory in a Linux Terminal

Question

How can I find a particular directory in a terminal window in Linux? I think it involves using grep, but I'm not sure how.

removing find-in-files tag since you are locating a directory, no file-content-search is implied. — nik, Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 5:44
What do you know about the directory that would allow you to find it? — David Z, Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 5:58
you have to provide at least some search criteria, "particular" is a bit vague. one can find items on the disc based upon names, relation ships, sizes, content, etc etc. — akira, Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 7:16

nik · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-02 05:42:56Z

92

Would you be looking for something like this?

find . -type d | grep DIRNAME

answered Jul 2, 2010 at 5:42

nik

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28

what's wrong with find . -name DIRNAME -type d?
– Benjamin Bannier
Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 5:47
5

@honk, Nothing :-) -- the OP seems to like grep; and we all like variety
– nik
Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 5:51
whats the difference?
– Dobler
Commented May 22, 2015 at 5:13
Five years later I did notice the answer in the comment was slower to process than the original answer. Maybe a glitch. Anyone? Bueller?
– aCodeSmith
Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 3:45

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garyjohn · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-02 05:47:34Z

34

If you want to find a particular directory that might be anywhere on your computer, the following will work, but it might take a while.

find / -name DIRNAME -type d

answered Jul 2, 2010 at 5:47

garyjohn

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And, if you want to find within the working directory -- replace '/' with '.' -- could get quicker.
– nik
Commented Jul 2, 2010 at 5:52

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TREE · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-02 12:38:10Z

4

If you have it installed, locate is designed for this. Google "man locate"

answered Jul 2, 2010 at 12:38

TREE

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Though locate won't provide you real-time results, but instead returns the results it gathered while updatedb was last run. If the filesystem doesn't change much, then it isn't a real problem and locate is very fast.
– Janne Pikkarainen
Commented Jul 29, 2010 at 11:12
-1 Locate is designed to find files, not directories. Or is there an option I am not aware of?
– Martin R.
Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 16:26
locate works just fine for directories.
– TREE
Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 19:10

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3 Answers 3