Finding recently changed files with Terminal

find command

To list files that were changed in the last day, sorted by size, using Apple’s Terminal, or any Unix / Linux bash shell:

❯ sudo find / -type f -mtime -1 -print0 k \
  | xargs -0 du -sk | sort -nr

(thanks mynamewasgone!)

Command breakdown

sudo

run in superuser mode - allows you to reach hidden system folders (if that's what you need). You'll be asked for your password

find /

use the powerful find command, starting from the root of the computer - in other words, search everywhere (which may not be a good idea if you are connected to a network or have a massive hard disk connected to your machine)

-type f

only look for files...

-mtime -1

...modified less than a day ago

-print0

when files are found, spit them out in a list with a NULL at the end instead of a new line - this helps with the next step

|

pass the list generated by find to the next command...

xargs -0

...which is xargs, used to take a list of results and pass them on. The -0 is telling xargs to use NULL as the separator

du -sk

use du to show how much space the files take, in kilobytes

|

pass the list generated by find to the next command...

sort -nr

...which sorts the list in reverse numerical order using sort

Find -exec is slow

Originally I did everything within find, using the -exec flag.

❯ sudo find / -type f -mtime -1 -exec du -sk {} \; | sort -nr

But as mynamewasgone pointed out, find -exec is slow