How to find file accessed/created just few minutes ago

linux bash shell unix find
yuan picture yuan · Dec 25, 2012 · Viewed 117k times · Source

I always forget which file I edit one minutes ago, so I input find . -cmin 1 or some other value but it worked exactly 1 minutes. I had to try find . -ctime 2 /*or 3,4...*/.

Then I find another approach which be better:

touch -t 12251134 empty /*similar format which 5 or 10 minutes ago */
find . -newer empty

I can use date -d'-5minutes' +%m%d%H%M caculate the time for me. I want to know if there is a simple way to find files accessed 1, 2 or 3... minutes ago.

Answer

Rubens picture Rubens · Dec 25, 2012

Simply specify whether you want the time to be greater, smaller, or equal to the time you want, using, respectively:

find . -cmin +<time>
find . -cmin -<time>
find . -cmin  <time>

In your case, for example, the files with last edition in a maximum of 5 minutes, are given by:

find . -cmin -5

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