Ignore case when trying to match file names using find command in Linux

Question

Right now, all I know to use is:

find / -name string.*

that is case sensitive and it won't find files named:

1string.x
STRing.x
string1.x

How can I search so that all the above would be returned in the search to a case-insensitive matching?

should be under http://unix.stackexchange.com/ – setzamora Sep 22 '10 at 15:32 — setzamora, Sep 22 '10 at 15:32

score 26 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 22 '10 at 15:31

26

Use the -iname option instead of -name.

answered Sep 22 '10 at 15:31

llasram

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what about the characters before and after the string? will -iname return names with extra characters? – Captain Claptrap Sep 22 '10 at 15:35
5

@micah: If you tell it to. `find . -iname '*string*'` – Daenyth Sep 22 '10 at 15:38
Ok, but `-iname` is not a Posix find option. Posix does specify shell pattern matching for `-name`. – DigitalRoss Sep 23 '10 at 19:03
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@DigitalRoss The original poster specified the 'linux' tag, so I think assuming the GNU findutils is reasonable. – llasram Sep 23 '10 at 19:06

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 22 '10 at 15:44

7

Or you could use find / | grep -i string

answered Sep 22 '10 at 15:44

DigitalRoss

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`find` does this natively. Creating another process just to do that is going to make it slower. – Daenyth Sep 23 '10 at 01:16
True but it's easy to remember and consistent with the software tools pattern. Find does do shell globbing on plain old `-name`, it is true. – DigitalRoss Sep 23 '10 at 19:03

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 22 '10 at 15:53

6

This works as well, if you want to avoid the single quotes:

find . -iname \*string\*

answered Sep 22 '10 at 15:53

JustinShoffstall

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find . -iname \*YOUR_PATTERN\* -type f – Benj Jun 11 '16 at 22:01

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 22 '10 at 15:31

2

Use -iname in find for case insensitive file name matches.

answered Sep 22 '10 at 15:31

Anya Shenanigans

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 14 '17 at 12:08

1

If the system you are in does not have the find command provided by the GNU utils package, you can use the -name tag alone with POSIX bracket expressions as

find . -name '*[Ss][Tt][Rr]ing*'

answered Dec 14 '17 at 12:08

Inian

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Ignore case when trying to match file names using find command in Linux

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