`mc find`

Table of Contents

Syntax
- Parameters
- Global Flags
Examples
Behavior

Syntax

The mc find command supports searching for objects on a MinIO deployment. You can also use the command to search for files on a filesystem.

EXAMPLE

The following command searches for all objects matching the specified pattern in the mydata bucket on the myminio MinIO deployment:

mc find myminio/mydata --name "*.jpg"

SYNTAX

The command has the following syntax:

mc [GLOBALFLAGS] find                    \
                 [--exec "string"]       \
                 [--ignore "string"]     \
                 [--larger "string"]     \
                 [--maxdepth "string"]   \
                 [--name "string"]       \
                 [--newer-than "string"] \
                 [--older-than "string"] \
                 [--path "string"]       \
                 [--print "string"]      \
                 [--regex "string"]      \
                 [--smaller "string"]    \
                 [--watch]               \
                 ALIAS

Brackets [] indicate optional parameters.
Parameters sharing a line are mutually dependent.
Parameters seperated using the pipe | operator are mutually exclusive.

Copy the example to a text editor and modify as-needed before running the command in the terminal/shell.

Parameters

ALIAS

Required

For objects on MinIO or an S3-compatible host, specify the alias and the full path to search (e.g. bucket and prefixes). For example:

mc find play/mydata/

For objects on a filesyste, specify the full path to search. For example:

mc find ~/mydata/

Issuing mc find ALIAS with no other arguments returns a list of all objects or files at the specified path, similar to mc ls.

--exec: Optional Spawns an external process for each object returned by mc find. Supports substitution formatting of the output.

--ignore: Optional Exclude objects whose names match the specified wildcard pattern.

--larger: Optional Match all objects larger than the specified size in units.

--maxdepth: Optional Limits directory navigation to the specified depth.

--name: Optional Return objects whose names match the specified wildcard pattern.

--newer-than: Optional Mirror object(s) newer than the specified number of days. Specify a string in #d#hh#mm#ss format. For example: --older-than 1d2hh3mm4ss

--older-than

Optional Mirror object(s) older than the specified time limit. Specify a string in #d#hh#mm#ss format. For example: --older-than 1d2hh3mm4ss

Defaults to 0 (all objects).

--path: Optional Return the contents of directories whose names match the specified wildcard pattern.

--print: Optional Prints results to STDOUT. Supports substitution formatting of the output.

--regex: Optional Returns objects or the contents of directories whose names match the specified PCRE regex pattern.

--smaller: Optional Match all objects smaller than the specifized size in units.

--watch: Optional Continuously monitor the ALIAS and return any new objects which match the specified criteria.

Global Flags

--debug

Optional

Enables verbose output to the console.

For example:

mc --debug COMMAND

--config-dir: Optional
The path to a JSON formatted configuration file that mc uses for storing data. See Configuration File for more information on how mc uses the configuration file.

--JSON

Optional

Enables JSON lines formatted output to the console.

For example:

mc --JSON COMMAND

--no-color: Optional
Disables the built-in color theme for console output. Useful for dumb terminals.

--quiet: Optional
Suppresses console output.

--insecure: Optional
Disables TLS/SSL certificate verification. Allows TLS connectivity to servers with invalid certificates. Exercise caution when using this option against untrusted S3 hosts.

--version: Optional
Displays the current version of mc.

--help: Optional
Displays a summary of command usage on the terminal.

Examples

Find a Specific Object in a Bucket

mc find ALIAS/PATH --name NAME

Replace ALIAS with the alias of the S3-compatible host.
Replace PATH with the path to a bucket on the S3-compatible host. Omit the path to search from the root of the S3 host.
Replace NAME with the object.

Find Objects with File Extention in Bucket

mc find ALIAS/PATH --name *.EXTENSION

Replace ALIAS with the alias of the S3-compatible host.
Replace PATH with the path to a bucket on the S3-compatible host.
Replace EXTENSION with the file extention of the object.

Find All Matching Files and Copy To S3 Service

Use mc find with the --exec option to find files on a local filesystem and pass them to an mc command for further processing. The following example uses mc cp to copy the output of mc find to an S3-compatible host.

mc find FILEPATH --name "*.EXTENSION" --exec "mc cp {} ALIAS/PATH"

Replace FILEPATH with the full file path to the directory to search.
Replace EXTENSION with the file extention of the object.
Replace ALIAS with the alias of the S3-compatible host.
Replace PATH with the path to a bucket on the S3-compatible host.

To continuously watch the specified directory and copy new objects, include the --watch argument:

mc find --watch FILEPATH --name "*.EXTENSION" --exec "mc cp {} ALIAS/PATH"

Behavior

Units of Measurement

The mc find --smaller and mc find --larger flags accept the following case-insensitive suffixes to represent the unit of the specified size value:

Suffix	Unit Size
`k`	KB (Kilobyte, 1000 Bytes)
`m`	MB (Megabyte, 1000 Kilobytes)
`g`	GB (Gigabyte, 1000 Megabytes)
`t`	TB (Terrabyte, 1000 Gigabytes)
`ki`	KiB (Kibibyte, 1024 Bites)
`mi`	MiB (Mebibyte, 1024 Kibibytes)
`gi`	GiB (Gibibyte, 1024 Mebibytes)
`ti`	TiB (Tebibyte, 1024 Gibibytes)

Omitting the suffix defaults to bytes.

Substitution Format

The mc find --exec and mc find --print commands support string substitutions with special interpretations for following keywords.

The following keywords are supported for both filesystem and S3 service targets:

{} - Substitutes to full path.
{base} - Substitutes to basename of path.
{dir} - Substitutes to dirname of the path.
{size} - Substitutes to object size of the path.
{time} - Substitutes to object modified time of the path.

The following keyword is supported only for S3 service targets:

{url} - Substitutes to a shareable URL of the path.

S3 Compatibility

The mc commandline tool is built for compatibility with the AWS S3 API and is tested MinIO and AWS S3 for expected functionality and behavior.

MinIO provides no guarantees for other S3-compatible services, as their S3 API implementation is unknown and therefore unsupported. While mc commands may work as documented, any such usage is at your own risk.