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I am trying to find settings.xml file in my Ubuntu machine. I have no clue where it is, and which directory it is in.

I tried using this - 

ls -R | grep settings.xml

But it doesn't show me the full path where it is.. Is there any other command which I need to try that can give me the full path?

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  • 4
    Whenever you think the solution is to parse the output of ls, you are almost certainly doing it the wrong way.
    – terdon ♦
    Feb 11, 2014 at 0:38

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
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For fast search (but not definitive):

locate -br '^settings.xml$'

From man locate:

   locate  reads  one or more databases prepared by updatedb(8) and writes
   file names matching at least one of the PATTERNs  to  standard  output,
   one per line.

   -b, --basename
          Match  only  the base name against the specified patterns.  This
          is the opposite of --wholename.
   -r, --regexp REGEXP
          Search for a basic regexp REGEXP.  No PATTERNs  are  allowed  if
          this  option  is used, but this option can be specified multiple
          times.

The ^ and $ ensure that only files whose name is settings.xml and not files whose names contain settings.xml will be printed.

You may need for the first time to run: updatedb (as root) to update/build the database of locate.

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  • @terdon, you surprised me, I have never though about looking to man locate before!!! assuming it just simple search tool. Thank you very much.
    – user.dz
    Feb 11, 2014 at 0:46
  • Yes, that was pretty much my reaction the first time I read the man page :)
    – terdon ♦
    Feb 11, 2014 at 0:47
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    it is worth noting the role of updatedb for this command -- locate often fails without that, for me, anyways
    – rm-vanda
    Feb 11, 2014 at 0:55
  • @rm-vanda, I've updated the answer to mention updatedb. Thank you.
    – user.dz
    Feb 11, 2014 at 1:07
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    locate '*/settings.xml' is probably more portable among the various different implementations of locate (where available).
    – Stéphane Chazelas
    Feb 26, 2016 at 22:23
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A slow but steady search through file-system, but Definitive.

find / -xdev -name settings.xml

It will take some time and you may get some permission errors but it will get there. If you've got some more idea where it may be located change the first directory from / to /where/you/guess

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    Appending 2>/dev/null to the end of the command will suppress all of the error output (by redirecting stderr to the null device).
    – Tanner Swett
    Feb 12, 2014 at 18:43
  • 2
    -xdev: Don't descend directories on other filesystems.
    – Pablo A
    May 17, 2017 at 13:51
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Example:

$ locate settings.xml
/usr/share/mime/application/x-cisco-vpn-settings.xml
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0

tree is another good way, if you aren't sure exactly what you're looking for, and it seems to be a bit faster- :

tree -f / | grep settings.xml

Other useful flags: -i on grep will ignore the case, -h for human readable on tree --

-- the man page has a lot of useful options -!

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  • 6
    Not a good idea, tree(1) shows an ASCII-art tree of the files, which is then mutilated by grep(1).
    – vonbrand
    Feb 11, 2014 at 1:24
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    Yes, if you're going to use tree, you may as well use find . type -f which will be faster.
    – terdon ♦
    Feb 11, 2014 at 1:29
0

The -la parameters print the long version of ls and the directories as well. ls -la | grep settings.xml

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  • 2
    This would still not give you the full path to the given file.
    – Kusalananda ♦
    Apr 30, 2019 at 9:45

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