find2perl Command in Linux

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The Linux find2perl command translates the find command syntax into a Perl code. The Perl code typically runs faster than the find command itself. They can also be modified for further operations to enhance the search process.

Table of Contents

Here is a comprehensive guide to the options available with the find2perl command −

• Prerequisites to Use find2perl Command
• Syntax of find2perl Command
• Options of find2perl Command
• Examples of find2perl Command in Linux

Prerequisites to Use find2perl Command

The find2perl is a Perl module that needs to be installed in Linux. The steps of installing find2perl in Linux are listed below.

First, ensure that the Perl is installed by checking its version −

perl --version

In all modern Linux distributions, Perl is pre-installed. If it is not, install it using the respective package manager.

Now, install CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) using the commands given below −

sudo apt install cpanminus     #Debian/Ubuntu
sudo yum install cpanminus     #CentOS/Fedora
sudo pacman -S cpanminus       #Arch Linux

Now, install the find2perl module using the command given below −

sudo cpanm App::find2perl

Verify the installation using the which command −

which find2perl

If it shows the path of the find2perl command bin file, then it indicates that the utility has been installed.

Syntax of find2perl Command

The syntax of the find2perl command is as follows −

find2perl [paths] [predicates] | perl

In the above syntax, the [paths] option is used to specify the path from where the search will start. The [predicates] field is used to specify conditions such as wildcards or patterns, just like the find command. The | is used to pipe the output of the find2perl command to the perl interpreter. The | perl is optional; it executes the Perl code and displays it to the standard output; and without it, the Perl code will be displayed.

Options of find2perl Command

The options used with the Linux find2perl command are listed below −

Predicates in the list above that take numeric arguments N can come in three forms: +N, -N, and N. "+N" is greater than "N", "-N" is less than "N", and "N" is equal to "N".

Examples of find2perl Command in Linux

This section demonstrates the usage of the find2perl command in Linux through examples −

• Translating find Command to Perl Code
• Saving the Perl Code to a File
• Generating Perl Code to Search Excluding Specific Files
• Generating Perl Code to Search a Group of Files
• Generating Perl Code to Search with Multiple Arguments
• Generating Perl Code to Search with Depth-first Traversal
• Generating Perl Code to Search Excluding a Specific Directory
• Generating Perl Code to Search with the File Path
• Generating Perl Code to Search with Specific Permission Bits
• Generating Perl Code to Search by Specific User or Group
• Generating Perl Code to Search by Time
• Generating Perl Code to Search by Executing a Command

Translating find Command to Perl Code

To translate the find command output to the Perl code, use the find2perl command with the file path argument and predicate −

find2perl . -name "*.txt"

The above command will find all the files with .txt extension in the current directory and display the Perl code to the standard output. The dot "." indicates the current working directory.

To interpret the code and display its output to the stdout, use the | perl argument −

find2perl . -name "*.txt" | perl

To ignore the case, use the -iname option −

find2perl . -iname "*.txt"

Saving the Perl Code to a File

To save the Perl code to a file, use the redirection operation > with the file name −

find2perl . -name "*.txt" > output.perl

To execute the Perl code, use the perl interpreter with the file name −

perl output.perl

Generating Perl Code to Search Excluding Specific Files

To exclude the specific files from the search and generate Perl code, use the ! with the predicate. For example, to exclude .pdf files, use the following command −

find2perl . ! -name "*.pdf"

Generating Perl Code to Search a Group of Files

To include a group of files in the search, use the -o option with the predicates −

find2perl . \( -name "*.html" -o -name "*.c" \)

The above command generates the Perl code that can search including .html and .c files.

Generating Perl Code to Search with Multiple Arguments

Files can be searched using multiple arguments, such as name, time, or size. The following command only searches the text files exactly equal to the specified size in the current working directory and generates the Perl code.

find2perl . -name "*.txt" -size 1M

To search all files that are greater than 1M, use the + sign −

find2perl . -name "*.txt" -size +1M

Similarly, to search all files smaller than the specified size, use the - sign −

find2perl . -name "*.txt" -size -1M

Generating Perl Code to Search with Depth-first Traversal

To enable the depth-first traversal in the search, use the -depth option −

find2perl . -depth -name "*.txt"

Generating Perl Code to Search Excluding a Specific Directory

To search and exclude a specific directory, use the -prune option. The following command skips the my_docs directory while searching all the files with the .txt extension in the current working directory and generates a Perl code.

find2perl . -name "my_docs" -prune -name "*.txt"

Generating Perl Code to Search with the File Path

To generate the Perl code of all the text files in the specific directory path in the current working directory −

find2perl . -path "*/my_docs/*.txt"

To ignore the case, use the -ipath option.

Generating Perl Code to Search with Specific Permission Bits

To get the Perl code for files with specific permission bits, use the -perm option −

find2perl . -perm 644

Generating Perl Code to Search by Specific User or Group

To generate the Perl code of the find command that searches the files owned by a specific user, use the -user option −

find2perl . -user sam -name "*.txt" 

Similarly, for files owned by a specific group, use −

find2perl . -group linux -name "*.txt"

Generating Perl Code to Search by Time

To generate the Perl code of the find command that searches the files by a specific modification time in days, use the -mtime option −

find2perl . -mtime -4 -name "*.txt"

The above command searches for files that have been modified in the last four days.

Similarly, the commands for the last access time and change time are given below −

find2perl . -ctime -4 -name "*.txt"
find2perl . -atime -4 -name "*.txt"

Generating Perl Code to Search by Executing a Command

The files can be searched by executing an external command. For this purpose, the -exec option is used. To execute the ls command to each searched file in the current working directory and generate a Perl code, use the command given below −

find2perl . -name "*.txt" -exec ls {} \;

Similarly, to execute the cat command, use −

find2perl . -name "*.txt" -exec cat {} \;

To enable prompt on each execution, use the -ok option −

find2perl . -name "*.txt" -ok cat {} \;

Conclusion

The find2perl command in Linux is used to translate the find command into the Perl code. The Perl code of a complex find command can execute faster than the find command. To use the find2perl command on Linux, it needs to be installed.

In this tutorial, we explained the find2perl command, its syntax, options, and usage in Linux through various examples.