Earlier today someone asked for the source code for my TypeAhead predictive-text, type-ahead, auto-complete JNLP Swing application. While trying to remember where I put it I realized I was going to have to do some case-insensitive file searching. I was very happy to learn that both of my favorite Unix/Linux file-finding utilities support case-insensitive file searching. Both the find command and the locate command have command-line options that provide this support.

Case-insensitive file searching with locate

It's easy to perform a case-insensitive file search with the locate command: just add the -i flag. To search my entire filesystem for files and directories that contain the string typeahead, just use this command:

locate -i typeahead

Case-insensitive file searching with find

If for some reason you can't find your files with the locate command, or your system doesn't have the locate command installed, you can also try searching with the Unix/Linux/GNU find command. Here's how I did a case-insensitive search trying to find the same typeahead files with the find command:

find . -type f -iname "*typeahead*"

(FWIW, I add the -type f option to tell find to just look for files, and not directories.)

Note that on some systems you may also have to use the -print option at the end of that command, like this:

find . -type f -iname "*typeahead*" -print

The key to that case-insensitive search is the use of the -iname option, which is only one character different from the -name option. The -iname option is what makes the search case-insensitive.

More find command options

The find command has several more case-insensitive operators, including these, which I'm taking directly from the man page:

-ilname pattern
    Like -lname, but the match is case insensitive.
    If the -L option or the -follow option is in effect,
    this test returns false unless the symbolic link is broken.

-iregex pattern
    Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.

-iwholename pattern
    Like -wholename, but the match is case insensitive.