Finding specific things

Finding what changed recently

Updated 2026-07-31 · 3 min read

Half of all file searches are really 'what was I just working on'. Date beats name every time for that question.

The last hour

find ~ -type f -mmin -60 2>/dev/null | grep -v Library

Filtering out ~/Library matters here, or you drown in cache writes.

The last day, excluding noise

find ~ -type f -mtime -1 -not -path "*/Library/*" -not -path "*/.git/*" 2>/dev/null

In Finder

⌘F → + → Last modified date → within last → 1 day. Save it as a Smart Folder and it becomes a permanent "recent work" view.

Seeing what an app wrote

Install something, then:

find / -newermt "10 minutes ago" -not -path "*/Library/Caches/*" 2>/dev/null | head -50

-newermt accepts natural dates and is the clearest way to answer "what did that installer touch". Expect a lot of system noise; the useful lines are usually in /Applications, /Library and ~/Library.

Sorting by recency in a search tool

Any search that can sort by modification date turns this into a normal query rather than a Terminal exercise. The combination that gets used most in practice is a rough name plus a recency bound — report dm:<7d — because you usually remember something about both.

Common questions

Why does find return so many Library files?

Apps write caches and preferences constantly. Exclude */Library/* unless that is what you are investigating.

What is the difference between -mtime and -mmin?

-mtime counts days, -mmin counts minutes. Both measure modification time.