Find command for lookup up a directory tree

Is there any equivalent command, or options for, GNU find that will search up the directory tree? I'd like to look backwards through the tree for files with a given name. For example, say I'm in /usr/local/share/bin and I want to search look for a file called foo. Ideally I'd like the command to look for the file in the following order:

/usr/local/share/bin/foo

/usr/local/share/foo

/usr/local/foo

/usr/foo

/foo

I know that I can write something like this as a shell function, but I was hoping there would be a command as rich as gnu find that I could leverage.

asked Apr 29 '14 at 4:22

Bryan Kyle

bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 6 mins ago

This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.

migrated from serverfault.com May 2 '14 at 10:56

This question came from our site for system and network administrators.

2

Have you tried find with the -depth option? -depth Process each directory's contents before the directory itself..

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 5:54

As far as I can tell, the -depth switch just changes the find's mode of operation in terms of which directories it looks at first. It doesn't appear to make find look upwards through the directory hierarchy.

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 29 '14 at 16:25

What exactly do you mean by upwards? When doing a tree search you either do depth first, or breadth first. A depth first search should return results like you describe above.

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 16:36

find looks downwards through the directory structure, towards the leaves of the file system. I want to look upwards, meaning towards the root of the file system. See the list in my original question. Notice that it starts with a longer path (deeper in the file system) and moves towards towards short paths (shallower in the file system).

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 30 '14 at 15:38

And how do you think a command could actually acomplish that? The is no magical way for a command to know the deepest folder. Are you going to pass the starting folder on the command line, or?

– Zoredache
Apr 30 '14 at 15:48

|
show 2 more comments

/usr/local/share/bin/foo

/usr/local/share/foo

/usr/local/foo

/usr/foo

/foo

I know that I can write something like this as a shell function, but I was hoping there would be a command as rich as gnu find that I could leverage.

asked Apr 29 '14 at 4:22

Bryan Kyle

bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 6 mins ago

This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.

migrated from serverfault.com May 2 '14 at 10:56

This question came from our site for system and network administrators.

2

Have you tried find with the -depth option? -depth Process each directory's contents before the directory itself..

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 5:54

As far as I can tell, the -depth switch just changes the find's mode of operation in terms of which directories it looks at first. It doesn't appear to make find look upwards through the directory hierarchy.

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 29 '14 at 16:25

What exactly do you mean by upwards? When doing a tree search you either do depth first, or breadth first. A depth first search should return results like you describe above.

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 16:36

find looks downwards through the directory structure, towards the leaves of the file system. I want to look upwards, meaning towards the root of the file system. See the list in my original question. Notice that it starts with a longer path (deeper in the file system) and moves towards towards short paths (shallower in the file system).

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 30 '14 at 15:38

And how do you think a command could actually acomplish that? The is no magical way for a command to know the deepest folder. Are you going to pass the starting folder on the command line, or?

– Zoredache
Apr 30 '14 at 15:48

|
show 2 more comments

/usr/local/share/bin/foo

/usr/local/share/foo

/usr/local/foo

/usr/foo

/foo

I know that I can write something like this as a shell function, but I was hoping there would be a command as rich as gnu find that I could leverage.

asked Apr 29 '14 at 4:22

Bryan Kyle

/usr/local/share/bin/foo

/usr/local/share/foo

/usr/local/foo

/usr/foo

/foo

I know that I can write something like this as a shell function, but I was hoping there would be a command as rich as gnu find that I could leverage.

find

asked Apr 29 '14 at 4:22

Bryan Kyle

asked Apr 29 '14 at 4:22

Bryan Kyle

asked Apr 29 '14 at 4:22

Bryan Kyle

asked Apr 29 '14 at 4:22

Bryan Kyle

asked Apr 29 '14 at 4:22

Bryan Kyle

bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 6 mins ago

This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.

bumped to the homepage by Community♦ 6 mins ago

This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed.

migrated from serverfault.com May 2 '14 at 10:56

This question came from our site for system and network administrators.

migrated from serverfault.com May 2 '14 at 10:56

This question came from our site for system and network administrators.

2

Have you tried find with the -depth option? -depth Process each directory's contents before the directory itself..

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 5:54

As far as I can tell, the -depth switch just changes the find's mode of operation in terms of which directories it looks at first. It doesn't appear to make find look upwards through the directory hierarchy.

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 29 '14 at 16:25

What exactly do you mean by upwards? When doing a tree search you either do depth first, or breadth first. A depth first search should return results like you describe above.

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 16:36

find looks downwards through the directory structure, towards the leaves of the file system. I want to look upwards, meaning towards the root of the file system. See the list in my original question. Notice that it starts with a longer path (deeper in the file system) and moves towards towards short paths (shallower in the file system).

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 30 '14 at 15:38

And how do you think a command could actually acomplish that? The is no magical way for a command to know the deepest folder. Are you going to pass the starting folder on the command line, or?

– Zoredache
Apr 30 '14 at 15:48

|
show 2 more comments

2

Have you tried find with the -depth option? -depth Process each directory's contents before the directory itself..

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 5:54

As far as I can tell, the -depth switch just changes the find's mode of operation in terms of which directories it looks at first. It doesn't appear to make find look upwards through the directory hierarchy.

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 29 '14 at 16:25

What exactly do you mean by upwards? When doing a tree search you either do depth first, or breadth first. A depth first search should return results like you describe above.

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 16:36

find looks downwards through the directory structure, towards the leaves of the file system. I want to look upwards, meaning towards the root of the file system. See the list in my original question. Notice that it starts with a longer path (deeper in the file system) and moves towards towards short paths (shallower in the file system).

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 30 '14 at 15:38

And how do you think a command could actually acomplish that? The is no magical way for a command to know the deepest folder. Are you going to pass the starting folder on the command line, or?

– Zoredache
Apr 30 '14 at 15:48

Have you tried find with the -depth option? -depth Process each directory's contents before the directory itself..

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 5:54

As far as I can tell, the -depth switch just changes the find's mode of operation in terms of which directories it looks at first. It doesn't appear to make find look upwards through the directory hierarchy.

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 29 '14 at 16:25

What exactly do you mean by upwards? When doing a tree search you either do depth first, or breadth first. A depth first search should return results like you describe above.

– Zoredache
Apr 29 '14 at 16:36

find looks downwards through the directory structure, towards the leaves of the file system. I want to look upwards, meaning towards the root of the file system. See the list in my original question. Notice that it starts with a longer path (deeper in the file system) and moves towards towards short paths (shallower in the file system).

– Bryan Kyle
Apr 30 '14 at 15:38

And how do you think a command could actually acomplish that? The is no magical way for a command to know the deepest folder. Are you going to pass the starting folder on the command line, or?

– Zoredache
Apr 30 '14 at 15:48

|
show 2 more comments

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

find_backwards () {

  test $# -ne 1 && return 2

  if [ -z "$find_backwards_recurse" ]; then

    pushd . &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=yes

  fi

  if [ -f "$1" ]; then

    echo "${PWD}/${1}"

    popd &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=

    return 0

  else

    if [ / != "$PWD" ]; then

      cd ..

      find_backwards "$1"

    else

      popd &>/dev/null

      find_backwards_recurse=

      return 1

    fi

  fi

}



start cmd:> pwd

/home/hl/tmp/tmp



start cmd:> find_backwards foo

/home/hl/tmp/foo

answered May 2 '14 at 11:15

Hauke Laging

56.5k1285135

add a comment |

I don't know any command who would do that.

One possible script implementation.

rfind:

#!/bin/bash

d=$1

[[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

until  [[ ${d%%*/*} ]] || [[ -z  "$d"  ]]

do

   d=${d%/*}

   [[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

done

Usage rfind path filename

edited May 2 '14 at 12:53

answered May 2 '14 at 12:30

Emmanuel

3,03411120

add a comment |

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2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

find_backwards () {

  test $# -ne 1 && return 2

  if [ -z "$find_backwards_recurse" ]; then

    pushd . &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=yes

  fi

  if [ -f "$1" ]; then

    echo "${PWD}/${1}"

    popd &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=

    return 0

  else

    if [ / != "$PWD" ]; then

      cd ..

      find_backwards "$1"

    else

      popd &>/dev/null

      find_backwards_recurse=

      return 1

    fi

  fi

}



start cmd:> pwd

/home/hl/tmp/tmp



start cmd:> find_backwards foo

/home/hl/tmp/foo

answered May 2 '14 at 11:15

Hauke Laging

56.5k1285135

add a comment |

find_backwards () {

  test $# -ne 1 && return 2

  if [ -z "$find_backwards_recurse" ]; then

    pushd . &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=yes

  fi

  if [ -f "$1" ]; then

    echo "${PWD}/${1}"

    popd &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=

    return 0

  else

    if [ / != "$PWD" ]; then

      cd ..

      find_backwards "$1"

    else

      popd &>/dev/null

      find_backwards_recurse=

      return 1

    fi

  fi

}



start cmd:> pwd

/home/hl/tmp/tmp



start cmd:> find_backwards foo

/home/hl/tmp/foo

answered May 2 '14 at 11:15

Hauke Laging

56.5k1285135

add a comment |

find_backwards () {

  test $# -ne 1 && return 2

  if [ -z "$find_backwards_recurse" ]; then

    pushd . &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=yes

  fi

  if [ -f "$1" ]; then

    echo "${PWD}/${1}"

    popd &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=

    return 0

  else

    if [ / != "$PWD" ]; then

      cd ..

      find_backwards "$1"

    else

      popd &>/dev/null

      find_backwards_recurse=

      return 1

    fi

  fi

}



start cmd:> pwd

/home/hl/tmp/tmp



start cmd:> find_backwards foo

/home/hl/tmp/foo

answered May 2 '14 at 11:15

Hauke Laging

56.5k1285135

find_backwards () {

  test $# -ne 1 && return 2

  if [ -z "$find_backwards_recurse" ]; then

    pushd . &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=yes

  fi

  if [ -f "$1" ]; then

    echo "${PWD}/${1}"

    popd &>/dev/null

    find_backwards_recurse=

    return 0

  else

    if [ / != "$PWD" ]; then

      cd ..

      find_backwards "$1"

    else

      popd &>/dev/null

      find_backwards_recurse=

      return 1

    fi

  fi

}



start cmd:> pwd

/home/hl/tmp/tmp



start cmd:> find_backwards foo

/home/hl/tmp/foo

answered May 2 '14 at 11:15

Hauke Laging

56.5k1285135

answered May 2 '14 at 11:15

Hauke Laging

56.5k1285135

answered May 2 '14 at 11:15

Hauke Laging

56.5k1285135

answered May 2 '14 at 11:15

Hauke Laging

56.5k1285135

add a comment |

I don't know any command who would do that.

One possible script implementation.

rfind:

#!/bin/bash

d=$1

[[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

until  [[ ${d%%*/*} ]] || [[ -z  "$d"  ]]

do

   d=${d%/*}

   [[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

done

Usage rfind path filename

edited May 2 '14 at 12:53

answered May 2 '14 at 12:30

Emmanuel

3,03411120

add a comment |

I don't know any command who would do that.

One possible script implementation.

rfind:

#!/bin/bash

d=$1

[[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

until  [[ ${d%%*/*} ]] || [[ -z  "$d"  ]]

do

   d=${d%/*}

   [[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

done

Usage rfind path filename

edited May 2 '14 at 12:53

answered May 2 '14 at 12:30

Emmanuel

3,03411120

add a comment |

I don't know any command who would do that.

One possible script implementation.

rfind:

#!/bin/bash

d=$1

[[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

until  [[ ${d%%*/*} ]] || [[ -z  "$d"  ]]

do

   d=${d%/*}

   [[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

done

Usage rfind path filename

edited May 2 '14 at 12:53

answered May 2 '14 at 12:30

Emmanuel

3,03411120

I don't know any command who would do that.

One possible script implementation.

rfind:

#!/bin/bash

d=$1

[[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

until  [[ ${d%%*/*} ]] || [[ -z  "$d"  ]]

do

   d=${d%/*}

   [[ -f  "$d/$2" ]] && echo  "$d/$2" 

done

Usage rfind path filename

edited May 2 '14 at 12:53

answered May 2 '14 at 12:30

Emmanuel

3,03411120

edited May 2 '14 at 12:53

answered May 2 '14 at 12:30

Emmanuel

3,03411120

answered May 2 '14 at 12:30

Emmanuel

3,03411120

answered May 2 '14 at 12:30

Emmanuel

3,03411120

add a comment |

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