How do I perform a file search in linux based on the size of the file?



  • Also see: Man page for find.

           -size n[cwbkMG]
                  File uses n units of space, rounding up.  The following suffixes
                  can be used:
    
                  `b'    for  512-byte blocks (this is the default if no suffix is
                         used)
    
                  `c'    for bytes
    
                  `w'    for two-byte words
    
                  `k'    for kibibytes (KiB, units of 1024 bytes)
    
                  `M'    for mebibytes (MiB, units of 1024 * 1024 = 1048576 bytes)
    
                  `G'    for gibibytes (GiB,  units  of  1024  *  1024  *  1024  =
                         1073741824 bytes)
    
                  The  size  is simply the st_size member of the struct stat popu‐
                  lated by the lstat (or stat) system call, rounded  up  as  shown
                  above.   In other words, it's consistent with the result you get
                  for ls -l.  Bear in mind that the `%k' and  `%b'  format  speci‐
                  fiers  of -printf handle sparse files differently.  The `b' suf‐
                  fix always denotes 512-byte blocks and never  1024-byte  blocks,
                  which is different to the behaviour of -ls.
    
                  The  +  and  -  prefixes  signify greater than and less than, as
                  usual; i.e., an exact size of n units does not match.   Bear  in
                  mind  that  the  size is rounded up to the next unit.  Therefore
                  -size -1M is not equivalent to -size -1048576c.  The former only
                  matches  empty  files,  the  latter  matches  files  from  0  to
                  1,048,575 bytes.
    

    Find all nonempty files in current directory.

    $ find . -size +0
    .
    ./bigfile
    ./filex
    ./test
    ./bigfile2
    

    Remember the -ls option of find to list the results, verify they are nonempty.

    $ find . -size +0 -ls
       237398      9 drwxrwxr-x   3 trainer  trainer        12 Nov 16 14:34 .
       237376      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 trainer  trainer  195429376 Nov 16 14:34 ./bigfile
       237332      1 lrwxrwxrwx   1 trainer  trainer          5 Nov 14 12:38 ./filex -> filea
       237402      1 drwxrwxr-x   2 trainer  trainer          3 Nov 14 11:45 ./test
       237378      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 trainer  trainer  498598912 Nov 16 14:34 ./bigfile2
    

    Find files that are nonempty and less than 10 blocks. (512 bytes) is 1 block, the default in find. This use the boolean logic AND -a option, is powerful as it used to find a size range.

    $ find . -size +0  -a -size -10 -ls
       237398      9 drwxrwxr-x   3 trainer  trainer        12 Nov 16 14:34 .
       237332      1 lrwxrwxrwx   1 trainer  trainer         5 Nov 14 12:38 ./filex -> filea
       237402      1 drwxrwxr-x   2 trainer  trainer         3 Nov 14 11:45 ./test
    

    Find an file of exacts size. Converting 195429376 blocks ends up as 187M. Notice we did not use the negative or positive symbols for the size value, which mean the exact size.

    $ find . -size 187M -ls
       237376      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 trainer  trainer  195429376 Nov 16 14:34 ./bigfile
    
    $ ls -lh bigfile
    -rw-rw-r-- 1 trainer trainer 187M Nov 16 14:34 bigfile
    

    Find a file greater than a certain size. We use the + sign to find file greater than the value.

    $ find . -size +187M
    ./bigfile2
    $ find . -size +187M -ls
       237378      1 -rw-rw-r--   1 trainer  trainer  498598912 Nov 16 14:34 ./bigfile2
    $ ls -lh bigfile2
    -rw-rw-r-- 1 trainer trainer 476M Nov 16 14:34 bigfile2
    


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