How do I find the folder/directory that a file is in (without using find)?

Question

With the advent of the dash I can easily open a file which I do not know the location of. How can I find out where the file resides in the directory structure without using "find" or "locate" or another command line utility?

As far as I can tell, the search utility in nautilus will let me open the file but not open the folder where the file resides. This question is related to the following questions: View the folder of a selected file in the dash and Using locate to find a directory

Edited in the 1st link in your question how to open the dir. of a file from the Dash. May not be exactly as you want though works well & is quite flexible — doug, Dec 03 '11 at 00:22
@doug: it doesn't work but that would do what i want if it did. — krumpelstiltskin, Dec 04 '11 at 00:54
OP are you still looking for an answer? If so, you may need to repost your question as this is flagged for closeure. =) — Ringtail, Mar 01 '12 at 22:35
@BlueXrider: how would i repost my question? you mean, start a-new? — krumpelstiltskin, Mar 02 '12 at 23:27
Retitle the question/edit the body. If you look at it, it is impossible to answer. — Ringtail, Mar 03 '12 at 00:28

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 08 '12 at 14:00

You can use the command locate in Terminal or if you need to search for a file on the computer, there is an easy and built-in way to do it.

Launch the Search for Files program from the Places menu. By default, this will only search your files (your home directory), but you can tell it to search in other folders with the Look in folder dropdown. This will only search on file names. If you want to search inside file, see the Beagle application.

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

1

From the way you've written your question, it sounds like you just want to know the name of the folder containing a file.

If that's the case, then you can use search in nautilus and then right click a file to select it's properties. The properties window will contain the path to the file.

If you're talking about opening the containing folder from within nautilus, that's currently not possible, as discussed in this question.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

1

answered Dec 02 '11 at 21:27

Kris Harper

13,477

in the properties dialogue, the path to the file is truncated making it impossible to see the middle of the path! – krumpelstiltskin Dec 04 '11 at 00:56

How do I find the folder/directory that a file is in (without using find)?

2 Answers2