HTB Academy - Fundamentals - Find Files and Directories

🎯 Tasks

1. Find the config file created after 2020-03-03 whose size is >25 KiB and <28 KiB.
2. Count how many files on the system have the *.bak extension.

✅ Recommended Commands

1) Locate the matching “.conf” file

Use GNU find with clear size units, date filtering, and a tidy printout:

# Fast & tidy (stays on current filesystem only; drop -xdev if you want to traverse all mounts)
sudo find / -xdev -type f -name "*.conf"   -size +25k -size -28k   -newermt "2020-03-03"   -printf "%p	%k KiB	%TY-%Tm-%Td %TH:%TM
" 2>/dev/null | sort

Notes

• -type f → files only.
• -size +25k -size -28k → strictly greater than 25 KiB and strictly less than 28 KiB.
• -newermt "2020-03-03" → modified after this date (mtime).
  • If your lab means “on 2020‑03‑04 only”, add an upper bound:
  bash Copy

  ... -newermt "2020-03-03" ! -newermt "2020-03-04" ...

• -printf shows: path, size (KiB), and timestamp so you can confirm quickly.
• 2>/dev/null hides permission errors; keep it outside find options (as you did).

Answer 1 (fill from output): _______________________________

2) Count files ending with “.bak” (case‑insensitive)

sudo find / -xdev -type f -iname "*.bak" 2>/dev/null | wc -l

Faster variant (avoids spawning wc on long lines):

sudo find / -xdev -type f -iname "*.bak" -printf "." 2>/dev/null | wc -c

Answer 2 (number): _______

💡 Extra Tips

• Creation vs modification time: Linux generally tracks modification (mtime), access (atime), and status change (ctime). “Created after” in labs usually means filtering by mtime (-newermt). If you truly need ctime (status changes), GNU find supports:
  bash Copy

  -newerct "2020-03-03"

• Traverse all mounts: remove -xdev if you need to search across /proc, /sys, /run, extra disks, etc. Expect it to be slower.
• Skip noisy trees without -xdev:
  bash Copy

  sudo find /     -path /proc -prune -o -path /sys -prune -o -path /run -prune -o     -type f -iname "*.bak" -print 2>/dev/null | wc -l

• Preview with ls: if you want a long listing for each hit:
  bash Copy

  sudo find / -type f -name "*.conf" -size +25k -size -28k -newermt "2020-03-03"     -exec ls -al {} + 2>/dev/null

🧪 Your one‑liners (from the lab)

• Sized range sample:
  bash Copy

  find . -type f -size +30k -size -40k -exec ls -l {} +

• Your tailored filter (good!):
  bash Copy

  find / -iname "*.conf" -size +25k -size -28k -newermt 2020-03-03 2>/dev/null

  Add -type f and consider -printf for clean answers as shown above.

Good luck! Once you paste the outputs, I can sanity‑check them and format the final answers for you.