Stop Guessing in Linux: locate, find, grep, awk & sed Explained

Описание: In this CS221 lesson on Linux file searching, we walk step-by-step through the most important command-line tools every Linux user, developer, and system administrator must know.

You’re on a Linux system… you know a file exists… but you don’t know where it is — or even what’s inside it.

How do you actually find it?

In this video we break down the five essential search and text-processing tools:

• locate – lightning-fast filename search
• find – accurate, permission-aware filesystem search
• grep – search inside files for meaningful text
• awk – extract structured data from columns
• sed – automate text transformation

We also explore:
Why locate is fast (and its limitation with updatedb)
How find interacts with Linux permissions
Recursive searches with grep
The power of the pipe (|) and command chaining
Field-based processing with awk
Safe vs dangerous use of sed -i
When to escalate from simple tools to more advanced ones

By the end of this video, you’ll understand not just how to run these commands — but when to use each one.

Progression to remember:
Do I know the filename? → locate
Need accuracy? → find
Searching content? → grep
Need structure? → awk
Need to automate changes? → sed

If you made it this far… leave a comment:
“Enough Sed!” 😄

Next up: Editing files in Linux with vim and nano.

If this helped you, be sure to like and subscribe — it really helps the channel grow.

Blessings,
Mike
CWM – Coding With Mike