Linux: find files created/modified after, before and between a timestamp

in Linux modification timestamp is the creation timestamp if file has not been modified since creation, Linux find command allows us to perform search using file modification timestamp, to search using modification time we use the -newermt option.

Example: Find all files in a directory without caring about timestampsfind /csv/ -name 'out*' | sort -n
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_13_54.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_14_03.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_14_07.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_15_02.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_16_02.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_17_02.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_18_02.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_19_02.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_20_02.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_21_03.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_22_04.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_21_23_07.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_00_08.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_01_09.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_02_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_03_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_04_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_05_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_06_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_07_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_08_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_09_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_10_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_11_10.csv

Example: Find all files in a directory created since start of current date

In this example the value passed to the -newermt option is replaced by the output of the date command, a way to automate tasks such as search only for current daydate +"%Y-%m-%d"
2022-04-22

We can notice that it returned far less files because it returned only files of current datefind /csv/ -name 'out*' -newermt "$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")" | sort -n
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_00_08.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_01_09.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_02_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_03_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_04_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_05_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_06_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_07_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_08_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_09_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_10_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_11_10.csv

Find all files in a directory created since start of current day but not newer than 9 am of current day

In this example we used the -newermt option twice, the second -newermt option has the ! in-front, this means negate the option from “newer than” to “no newer than”find /csv/ -name 'out*' -newermt "$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")" ! -newermt "$(date +"%Y-%m-%d 09")" | sort -n
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_00_08.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_01_09.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_02_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_03_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_04_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_05_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_06_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_07_10.csv
/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_08_10.csv

Example: How to see a file timestamps

We can use the stat command to see the timestamps of a file

• access: when accessed last time (read/write).
• modify: when content changed.
• changed: when content or rights changed.stat /csv/out_2022_Apr_22_08_10.csv
   File: '/csv/out_2022_Apr_22_08_10.csv'
   Size: 151849          Blocks: 304        IO Block: 4096   regular file
  Device: fd00h/64768d    Inode: 2101150     Links: 1
  Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1014/kpatronas)   Gid: ( 1014/kpatronas)
  Context: unconfined_u:object_r:user_home_t:s0
  Access: 2022-04-22 10:34:15.162655553 +0300
  Modify: 2022-04-22 08:10:22.079922129 +0300
  Change: 2022-04-22 08:10:22.079922129 +0300
  Birth: -

I hope you found this article useful! :)