How do I find all the files owned by a particular user or group?

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: December 14, 2007]

Q. How do I list or find all the files owned by a particular system user or group under Linux or UNIX operating system?

A. Only find command (search for files in a directory hierarchy) got options that allow you to search files owned by a specific user or groups.

Find file owned by group

Use following syntax:
find directory-location -group {group-name} -name {file-name}
Where,

directory-location : Try to find files in this directory path
-group { group-name} : Find file belongs to group-name.
-name {file-name} : Actual name of file to search

For example, locate or find all file belongs to group "ftpusers" in /home directory, enter:
# find /home -group ftpusers
Find all *.c file belongs to group "ftpusers" in /data/project directory:
# find /data/project -group ftpusers -iname "*.c"

Find file owned by user

Use following syntax:
find directory-location -user {username} -name {file-name}
Where,

directory-location : Try to find files in this directory path
-user { group-name } : Find file belongs to username.
-name {file-name} : Actual name of file to search

For example, locate or find all file belongs to user vivek in /var directory:
# find /var -user vivek
Find all *.pl files file belongs to user vivek in /var/www directory
# find /var/www -user vivek -name "*.pl"