How to Display Files Modified Today

There are many ways to search Linux files and directories using grep, find, or locate. All of them find files that match certain search parameters, usually words or characters. On a Linux server, you can also find any files that were modified within the current day. This is useful for finding security exploits and generally tracking website usage.

Using the find command, you can look for all files modified in a specific directory within the current day. To do so, enter the following string:

find -maxdepth 1 -type f -mtime -1

The output will look something like this:

./syslog
./lastlog
./user.log
./auth.log
./daemon.log
./mail.info
./syslog.1

To find only the directories created on the current day, simply change the “f” to a “d”:

find -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime -1

Using this information can help you track down possible problems. Certain files like ones listed above are supposed to be modified daily, but if you find files that should not be modified, that can be a clue to help you fix whatever ails your server.

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