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melolontha
Asked: 2019-12-31 11:53:42 +0800 CST

How can I find out which file was changed a few minutes ago?

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I want to transport a configuration from one user to another one. But I don't know in which file the program in question stores its configuration.

In order to find out where the configuration is stored, I want to change one setting of them and then look for any file which has changed in the last few minutes.

I know about find . -mmin -10 -ls but there are quite a few in the output and I would like the result ordered by last change time. Unfortunately the date is somewhere in the middle of the ls output of that command.

command-line find ls

1 Answers

  1. Let's look at a few examples of using find:

    1. with the -ls directive:

      $ find /var/log -maxdepth 1 -mmin -30 -ls
15533117     60 -rw-r--r--   1 root     wheel       60616 Jan  2 09:46 /var/log/daily.out
15955192     12 -rw-r-----   1 root     admin        8638 Jan  2 10:00 /var/log/system.log
15870477    132 -rw-r-----   1 root     admin      117797 Jan  2 09:45 /var/log/wifi.log
1081546  32088 -rw-r--r--   1 root     admin    31966363 Jan  2 09:46 /var/log/install.log

      Clearly very hard to sort.

    2. using -ls and -printf

      $ find /var/log -maxdepth 1 -mmin -30 -ls -printf '%T+'
15533117     60 -rw-r--r--   1 root     wheel       60616 Jan  2 09:46 /var/log/daily.out
2020-01-02+09:46:36.1361086600 15955192     12 -rw-r-----   1 root     admin        8710 Jan  2 10:06 /var/log/system.log
2020-01-02+10:06:54.3077120650 15870477    132 -rw-r-----   1 root     admin      117797 Jan  2 09:45 /var/log/wifi.log
2020-01-02+09:45:28.8952892010  1081546  32088 -rw-r--r--   1 root     admin    31966363 Jan  2 09:46 /var/log/install.log
2020-01-02+09:46:04.0508866900

      Quite a mess with the timestamp printed on the next line with no newline.

    3. using -printf only: we'll print the mtime, a tab, the pathname and a newline:

      $ find /var/log -maxdepth 1 -mmin -30 -printf '%T+\t%p\n'
2020-01-02+09:46:36.1361086600  /var/log/daily.out
2020-01-02+10:06:54.3077120650  /var/log/system.log
2020-01-02+09:45:28.8952892010  /var/log/wifi.log
2020-01-02+09:46:04.0508866900  /var/log/install.log

      OK, straightforward. Let's sort it so the newest is on top

      $ find /var/log -maxdepth 1 -mmin -30 -printf '%T+\t%p\n' | sort -r
2020-01-02+10:06:54.3077120650  /var/log/system.log
2020-01-02+09:46:36.1361086600  /var/log/daily.out
2020-01-02+09:46:04.0508866900  /var/log/install.log
2020-01-02+09:45:28.8952892010  /var/log/wifi.log

      And then just print the pathname

      $ find /var/log -maxdepth 1 -mmin -30 -printf '%T+\t%p\n' | sort -r | cut -f 2-
/var/log/system.log
/var/log/daily.out
/var/log/install.log
/var/log/wifi.log
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