How to Find All Files With a Filename Beginning With a Specified String – Bash

Finding a specified file from many files in a directory can be difficult but one way to easily find all files with a name beginning with a specified string or word is by using the command line through bash. This article will discuss some of the ways to find all files with a name having a specified string in bash.

Finding All Files With a Filename Beginning With a Specified String in Bash

The significance of finding files is to locate some specific files that one is going to need and it is quite a difficult task especially if there are large number of files in a directory, here are some ways to quickly find the files in a directory:

• Using the ls Command
• Using the find Command
• Using the grep Command

Method 1: Using the ls Command

In bash, you can use the ls command to list all the files in a directory and to find all files with a filename beginning with a specified string, you can use the following syntax if you are looking for a file other than the current directory:

 

In the above syntax just replace “file-path” with the path to the directory where you want to search for files, and “file-name” with the specified string:

If you are searching for a file in the current directory, then just follow the below-given syntax:

 

One thing to note here is that this method just searches the file in the directory like if there have similar named files in a folder that is in the same directory, this method will not find them.

Method 2: Using the find Command

The find command can be used to locate files based on various criteria, including the filename and to find all files with a filename beginning with a specified string, we can use the following syntax if you want to search the files in the current directory:

 

In the above- given syntax just replace the “file-name” with the specified string:

On the other hand, if you want to search files in any specified directory then just give the path of the directory using the below-given syntax like this:

 

Method 3: Using the grep Command

The grep command can be used is bash to search for files and to find all files with a filename beginning with a specified string, you can use the following syntax in case you are looking for files in the same directory:

 

In this command, replace the “filename” with the specified string:

On the other hand, if you want to search files in any specified directory then just give the path of the directory using the below-given syntax like this:

 

One thing to note here is that this method also just searches files in the directory like if there have similar named files in a folder that is in the same directory, this method will not find them.

Conclusion

There are different ways to find all files with a filename beginning with a specified string and some of the most common ones are the ls, find, and grep commands, you can easily locate specific files in a directory and if you are looking for a method that deeply searches the directory then use the find method.