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Accepted
Tom
Asked: 2010-05-06 23:47:41 +0800 CST

How to view hidden files using Linux `find` command

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On a Linux server, I need to find all files with a certain file extension in the current directory and all sub-directories.

Previously, I have always used the following command:

find . -type f | grep -i *.php

However, it doesn't find hidden files, for example .myhiddenphpfile.php. The following finds the hidden php files, but not the non-hidden ones:

find . -type f | grep -i \.*.php

How can I find both the hidden and non-hidden php files in the same command?

linux command-line-interface files find grep

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    ...

    find . -type f -name '*.php'
    • 26

  2. It's better to use iname (case insensitive).

    I use this find command to search hidden files:

    find /path -type f -iname ".*" -ls

    Extracted from: http://www.sysadmit.com/2016/03/linux-ver-archivos-ocultos.html

    • 8

  3. The issue is grep, not the find (try just find . -type f to see what I mean).

    If you don't quote the * then the shell will expand it - before grep even sees its command line arguments; since the shell doesn't find hidden files by default, you'll have issues.

    The reason it's only finding the hidden file is because the shell has already expanded the * and so grep is only matching that one file.

    • 1