CLI:Basics – Searching for Files and Text in Linux

Welcome back to the CLI:Basics series! In this post, we’re going to cover how to search for files, patterns, and specific content on your Linux system using core terminal tools. Whether you’re trying to find a lost file or narrow down log entries, these commands are essential.

We’ll go over the following:

• wc – Word count and data stats
• locate – Quickly find files
• grep – Search inside files
• find – Precision file/directory search

Let’s get started.

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📏 wc – Word Count Utility

wc -l text.txt

The wc command gives you stats about a file:

• -l → number of lines
• -w → number of words
• -c → number of bytes
• -m → number of characters
• -L → length of the longest line

You’ll use wc a lot when piping results and counting lines of output from other commands.

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🔎 locate – Find Files Quickly

Before using locate, make sure the plocate package is installed and updated:

sudo apt install plocate
sudo updatedb

To search for files:

locate bashrc

Useful options:

• -c → Count results instead of showing them
• -i → Case-insensitive search
• --limit N → Show only the first N results

⚠️ Note: locate relies on a database and may not include files added since your last updatedb.

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🔍 grep – Search Inside Files

grep ltl /etc/group

This searches for a pattern (ltl) in the /etc/group file. You can combine it with wc -l using a pipe to count how many lines match:

grep -c ltl /etc/group

Other useful options:

• -v → Invert match (exclude)
• -w → Match whole words only
• -i → Case-insensitive search

Example: Count all groups that don’t include the current user

grep -v ltl /etc/group | wc -l

This is a great example of a pipeline, where the output of one command (grep) is passed as input to another (wc).

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🧠 Understanding Pipelines (Command Stacks)

command1 | command2

This setup is called a pipeline or “command stack.” It uses the pipe | symbol to redirect output from one command as input into the next. You’ll use this everywhere in Linux once you start combining commands for more powerful operations.

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🔎 find – Search With Precision

Unlike locate, find scans the live filesystem. It’s slower but more accurate.

Basic example:

find . -name text.txt

This searches for a file named text.txt in the current directory and all subdirectories.

Case-insensitive search:

find . -iname text.txt

Search a specific directory:

find /home -name text.txt

Find directories named log system-wide (requires sudo):

sudo find / -type d -name log

Find all MP3 files in current directory and below:

find . -type f -name "*.mp3"

You can search by file type:

• -type f → file
• -type d → directory

⚠️ Running find / without sudo will generate many “permission denied” messages. Use sudo when necessary to get cleaner, complete results.

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Final Thoughts

These tools—wc, locate, grep, and find—give you powerful ways to search, count, and narrow results from the Linux terminal. They form the backbone of more complex workflows you’ll encounter later.

👀 Coming soon: More file manipulation commands, and eventually deeper topics like I/O redirection and scripting.

If you found this post helpful, check out the YouTube playlist and subscribe to catch the next video in the CLI:Basics series!

https://youtu.be/F4TPjLtrbr0