Finding files

Navigation walks you through the directory tree by hand. Searching answers a different question: where a file lives at all when you do not know the exact place. In this lesson you find files by name and by type, run a command on what you found, and work out where a command itself lives.

The tree ~/tree with a few files is already set up in the sandbox.

What to understand

find walks the tree live. It enters every directory and selects files by a property: name, type, size, date.

locate searches a prebuilt index. It is instant, but it only sees what made it into the index at the last update.

which and type are about the commands themselves: where a program lives and what kind of command it is.<