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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-16T19:48:08+00:00

So I understand that a line such as: find /var/log/ -mtime +60 -type f

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So I understand that a line such as: 

find /var/log/ -mtime +60 -type f -exec ls -l {} \;

Will list all files in /var/log which were modified 60 days or more ago.

After reading through the find man page though I noticed:

 Measure  times  (for  -amin,  -atime,  -cmin, -ctime, -mmin, and 
 -mtime) from the beginning of today rather than  from  24  hours
 ago.   This  option only affects tests which appear later on the
 command line.

Can someone explain the rest? (-amin, -atime, -cmin, -ctime, -mmin) The man page itself does not seem to really declare what each of these do?

Some example questions which might help me understand:

  • Find files modified an hour or more ago?
  • Find files modified between 60 minutes and 10 minutes ago?
  • Find files modified 2 weeks ago?
  • Find files created in the last 5 minutes?
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team
    • Find files modified an hour or more ago?
    -mmin +60
    • Find files modified between 60 minutes and 10 minutes ago?
    -mmin -60 -mmin +10
    • Find files modified 2 weeks ago?
    -mtime +7 -mtime -8
    • Find files created in the last 5 minutes?

    Can’t be done. POSIX has no specification for creation time.

    These options are explained in the TESTS subsection of the EXPRESSIONS section of the find(1) man page.

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