Emacs: fastest way to open a file whose location is not known

Question

What is the easiest way to open a txt file whose path has to be found using the shell find command?

For example, let say I want to open a file that I know is (uniquely) named example.txt and which I know is "somewhere I can find it using the shell find command".

What I do currently is this:

I do C-u (universal-argument) then M-! (shell command)

I then enter the find, for example:

find . -iname "example.txt"

Then the full path (which I didn't know previously) appears in the buffer, I cut it, then I hit C-x C-f, I delete what written by default and then paste what I cut before.

This seems a bit long and requires quite a few keystrokes, cut'n'pasting etc.

Is there an easiest way to do the same (without writing a new custom Emacs command)?

Answer 1

Using only built-in functionality, I would:

• Go to a shell buffer: M-x shell
• Run my find command.
• Move the cursor up so that it's on top of the file path that was found.
• Run the find-file-at-point command: M-x ffap.

I use find-file-at-point often enough that I have it bound to a dedicated key, s-\ (super-backslash).

Answer 2

M-x find-name-dired

Enter the dir (defaults to current) and filename (shell globs work too) and you'll get a virtual dired buffer with the results. Go the file you want and hit 'a'