1FIND(1P)                   POSIX Programmer's Manual                  FIND(1P)
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PROLOG

6       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
7       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the  corresponding
8       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9       not be implemented on Linux.
10
11

NAME

13       find — find files
14

SYNOPSIS

16       find [−H|−L] path... [operand_expression...]
17

DESCRIPTION

19       The find utility shall recursively descend the directory hierarchy from
20       each  file  specified by path, evaluating a Boolean expression composed
21       of the primaries described  in  the  OPERANDS  section  for  each  file
22       encountered.  Each  path operand shall be evaluated unaltered as it was
23       provided, including all trailing <slash> characters; all pathnames  for
24       other  files encountered in the hierarchy shall consist of the concate‐
25       nation of the current path operand, a <slash> if the current path oper‐
26       and  did not end in one, and the filename relative to the path operand.
27       The relative portion shall contain no dot  or  dot-dot  components,  no
28       trailing <slash> characters, and only single <slash> characters between
29       pathname components.
30
31       The find utility shall be able to descend to arbitrary depths in a file
32       hierarchy  and  shall not fail due to path length limitations (unless a
33       path operand specified by the application exceeds  {PATH_MAX}  require‐
34       ments).
35
36       The  find utility shall detect infinite loops; that is, entering a pre‐
37       viously visited directory that is an ancestor of the last file  encoun‐
38       tered.  When it detects an infinite loop, find shall write a diagnostic
39       message to standard error and shall either recover its position in  the
40       hierarchy or terminate.
41
42       If  a  file  is  removed from or added to the directory hierarchy being
43       searched it is unspecified whether or not find includes  that  file  in
44       its search.
45

OPTIONS

47       The  find  utility  shall  conform  to  the  Base Definitions volume of
48       POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
49
50       The following options shall be supported by the implementation:
51
52       −H        Cause the file information and file type evaluated  for  each
53                 symbolic  link  encountered  as a path operand on the command
54                 line to be those of the file referenced by the link, and  not
55                 the  link  itself. If the referenced file does not exist, the
56                 file information and type shall be for the link itself.  File
57                 information  and  type  for symbolic links encountered during
58                 the traversal of a file hierarchy shall be that of  the  link
59                 itself.
60
61       −L        Cause  the  file information and file type evaluated for each
62                 symbolic link encountered as a path operand  on  the  command
63                 line  or encountered during the traversal of a file hierarchy
64                 to be those of the file referenced by the link, and  not  the
65                 link  itself. If the referenced file does not exist, the file
66                 information and type shall be for the link itself.
67
68       Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options  −H  and  −L
69       shall  not  be  considered  an  error.  The last option specified shall
70       determine the behavior of the utility. If neither the  −H  nor  the  −L
71       option  is  specified,  then the file information and type for symbolic
72       links encountered as a path operand on the command line or  encountered
73       during  the  traversal  of  a  file hierarchy shall be that of the link
74       itself.
75

OPERANDS

77       The following operands shall be supported:
78
79       The first operand and subsequent operands up to but not  including  the
80       first  operand  that starts with a '−', or is a '!'  or a '(', shall be
81       interpreted as path operands. If the first operand starts with  a  '−',
82       or  is  a '!'  or a '(', the behavior is unspecified. Each path operand
83       is a pathname of a starting point in the file hierarchy.
84
85       The first operand that starts with a '−', or is a '!'  or  a  '(',  and
86       all  subsequent arguments shall be interpreted as an expression made up
87       of the following primaries and operators. In the descriptions, wherever
88       n  is  used as a primary argument, it shall be interpreted as a decimal
89       integer optionally preceded by a plus ('+') or minus-sign  ('−')  sign,
90       as follows:
91
92       +n        More than n.
93
94       n         Exactly n.
95
96n        Less than n.
97
98       The following primaries shall be supported:
99
100       −name pattern
101                 The  primary  shall  evaluate  as true if the basename of the
102                 current pathname matches pattern using the  pattern  matching
103                 notation  described  in  Section 2.13, Pattern Matching Nota‐
104                 tion.  The additional rules in Section 2.13.3, Patterns  Used
105                 for  Filename  Expansion  do  not apply as this is a matching
106                 operation, not an expansion.
107
108       −path pattern
109                 The primary shall evaluate as true if  the  current  pathname
110                 matches pattern using the pattern matching notation described
111                 in Section 2.13, Pattern Matching Notation.   The  additional
112                 rules in Section 2.13.3, Patterns Used for Filename Expansion
113                 do not apply as this is a matching operation, not  an  expan‐
114                 sion.
115
116       −nouser   The  primary  shall evaluate as true if the file belongs to a
117                 user ID for which the getpwuid() function defined in the Sys‐
118                 tem Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2008 (or equivalent) returns
119                 NULL.
120
121       −nogroup  The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs  to  a
122                 group  ID  for  which  the getgrgid() function defined in the
123                 System Interfaces  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008  (or  equivalent)
124                 returns NULL.
125
126       −xdev     The  primary  shall  always  evaluate as true; it shall cause
127                 find not to continue descending past directories that have  a
128                 different  device ID (st_dev, see the stat() function defined
129                 in the System Interfaces  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008).  If  any
130                 −xdev  primary  is  specified,  it  shall apply to the entire
131                 expression even if the −xdev primary would  not  normally  be
132                 evaluated.
133
134       −prune    The  primary  shall  always  evaluate as true; it shall cause
135                 find not to descend the current pathname if it  is  a  direc‐
136                 tory.  If the −depth primary is specified, the −prune primary
137                 shall have no effect.
138
139       −perm [−]mode
140                 The mode argument is used to represent  file  mode  bits.  It
141                 shall  be  identical  in  format to the symbolic_mode operand
142                 described in chmod, and shall be interpreted as  follows.  To
143                 start,  a  template  shall be assumed with all file mode bits
144                 cleared. An op symbol of '+' shall set the  appropriate  mode
145                 bits  in  the template; '−' shall clear the appropriate bits;
146                 '=' shall set the appropriate mode bits,  without  regard  to
147                 the  contents  of the file mode creation mask of the process.
148                 The op symbol of '−' cannot be the first character  of  mode;
149                 this  avoids  ambiguity  with  the optional leading <hyphen>.
150                 Since the initial mode is all bits off,  there  are  not  any
151                 symbolic modes that need to use '−' as the first character.
152
153                 If  the  <hyphen>  is  omitted, the primary shall evaluate as
154                 true when the file permission bits exactly match the value of
155                 the resulting template.
156
157                 Otherwise,  if  mode  is  prefixed by a <hyphen>, the primary
158                 shall evaluate as true if  at  least  all  the  bits  in  the
159                 resulting template are set in the file permission bits.
160
161       −perm [−]onum
162                 If  the  <hyphen>  is  omitted, the primary shall evaluate as
163                 true when the file mode bits exactly match the value  of  the
164                 octal  number  onum (see the description of the octal mode in
165                 chmod).  Otherwise, if onum is prefixed by  a  <hyphen>,  the
166                 primary  shall  evaluate  as true if at least all of the bits
167                 specified in onum are set. In both  cases,  the  behavior  is
168                 unspecified when onum exceeds 07777.
169
170       −type c   The primary shall evaluate as true if the type of the file is
171                 c, where c is 'b', 'c', 'd', 'l', 'p', 'f', or 's' for  block
172                 special  file,  character  special  file, directory, symbolic
173                 link, FIFO, regular file, or socket, respectively.
174
175       −links n  The primary shall evaluate as true if the file has n links.
176
177       −user uname
178                 The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs to the
179                 user uname.  If uname is a decimal integer and the getpwnam()
180                 (or equivalent) function does not return a valid  user  name,
181                 uname shall be interpreted as a user ID.
182
183       −group gname
184                 The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs to the
185                 group gname.  If gname is a decimal integer  and  the  getgr‐
186                 nam()  (or equivalent) function does not return a valid group
187                 name, gname shall be interpreted as a group ID.
188
189       −size n[c]
190                 The primary shall evaluate as true if the file size in bytes,
191                 divided  by 512 and rounded up to the next integer, is n.  If
192                 n is followed by the character 'c',  the  size  shall  be  in
193                 bytes.
194
195       −atime n  The  primary  shall  evaluate as true if the file access time
196                 subtracted from the initialization  time,  divided  by  86400
197                 (with any remainder discarded), is n.
198
199       −ctime n  The primary shall evaluate as true if the time of last change
200                 of file status information subtracted from the initialization
201                 time, divided by 86400 (with any remainder discarded), is n.
202
203       −mtime n  The  primary  shall evaluate as true if the file modification
204                 time subtracted from  the  initialization  time,  divided  by
205                 86400 (with any remainder discarded), is n.
206
207       −exec utility_name [argument ...] ;
208
209       −exec utility_name [argument ...]  {} +
210                 The  end  of  the primary expression shall be punctuated by a
211                 <semicolon> or by a <plus-sign>.   Only  a  <plus-sign>  that
212                 immediately follows an argument containing only the two char‐
213                 acters "{}" shall punctuate the end of  the  primary  expres‐
214                 sion.  Other  uses of the <plus-sign> shall not be treated as
215                 special.
216
217                 If the primary expression is punctuated by a <semicolon>, the
218                 utility  utility_name shall be invoked once for each pathname
219                 and the primary shall evaluate as true if the utility returns
220                 a  zero value as exit status. A utility_name or argument con‐
221                 taining only the two characters "{}" shall be replaced by the
222                 current  pathname.  If a utility_name or argument string con‐
223                 tains the two characters "{}", but not just the  two  charac‐
224                 ters "{}", it is implementation-defined whether find replaces
225                 those two characters or uses the string without change.
226
227                 If the primary expression is punctuated by a <plus-sign>, the
228                 primary  shall always evaluate as true, and the pathnames for
229                 which the primary is evaluated shall be aggregated into sets.
230                 The  utility  utility_name shall be invoked once for each set
231                 of aggregated pathnames. Each invocation  shall  begin  after
232                 the last pathname in the set is aggregated, and shall be com‐
233                 pleted before the find utility exits  and  before  the  first
234                 pathname in the next set (if any) is aggregated for this pri‐
235                 mary, but it is otherwise unspecified whether the  invocation
236                 occurs before, during, or after the evaluations of other pri‐
237                 maries. If any invocation returns a non-zero  value  as  exit
238                 status, the find utility shall return a non-zero exit status.
239                 An argument containing only the two characters "{}" shall  be
240                 replaced  by the set of aggregated pathnames, with each path‐
241                 name passed as a separate argument to the invoked utility  in
242                 the same order that it was aggregated. The size of any set of
243                 two or more pathnames shall be limited such that execution of
244                 the utility does not cause the system's {ARG_MAX} limit to be
245                 exceeded. If more than one argument containing the two  char‐
246                 acters "{}" is present, the behavior is unspecified.
247
248                 The  current  directory  for  the  invocation of utility_name
249                 shall be the same as the  current  directory  when  the  find
250                 utility  was  started.  If  the utility_name names any of the
251                 special built-in utilities (see Section 2.14, Special  Built-
252                 In Utilities), the results are undefined.
253
254       −ok utility_name [argument ...] ;
255                 The −ok primary shall be equivalent to −exec, except that the
256                 use of a <plus-sign> to punctuate  the  end  of  the  primary
257                 expression  need  not  be  supported,  and find shall request
258                 affirmation of the invocation of utility_name using the  cur‐
259                 rent  file  as  an  argument  by writing to standard error as
260                 described in the STDERR section. If the response on  standard
261                 input  is  affirmative,  the utility shall be invoked. Other‐
262                 wise, the command shall not be invoked and the value  of  the
263                 −ok operand shall be false.
264
265       −print    The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall cause the
266                 current pathname to be written to standard output.
267
268       −newer file
269                 The primary shall evaluate as true if the  modification  time
270                 of the current file is more recent than the modification time
271                 of the file named by the pathname file.
272
273       −depth    The primary shall always evaluate as  true;  it  shall  cause
274                 descent  of  the  directory  hierarchy to be done so that all
275                 entries in a directory are  acted  on  before  the  directory
276                 itself.  If a −depth primary is not specified, all entries in
277                 a directory shall be acted on after the directory itself.  If
278                 any −depth primary is specified, it shall apply to the entire
279                 expression even if the −depth primary would not  normally  be
280                 evaluated.
281
282       The  primaries  can be combined using the following operators (in order
283       of decreasing precedence):
284
285       ( expression )
286                 True if expression is true.
287
288       ! expression
289                 Negation of a primary; the unary NOT operator.
290
291       expression [−a] expression
292                 Conjunction of primaries; the AND operator is implied by  the
293                 juxtaposition  of  two  primaries  or  made  explicit  by the
294                 optional −a operator. The  second  expression  shall  not  be
295                 evaluated if the first expression is false.
296
297       expression −o expression
298                 Alternation of primaries; the OR operator. The second expres‐
299                 sion shall not be evaluated if the first expression is true.
300
301       If no expression is present, −print shall be used  as  the  expression.
302       Otherwise,  if  the  given  expression does not contain any of the pri‐
303       maries −exec, −ok, or −print, the given expression shall be effectively
304       replaced by:
305
306           ( given_expression ) −print
307
308       The  −user,  −group,  and  −newer  primaries  each shall evaluate their
309       respective arguments only once.
310
311       When the file type evaluated for the current file is a  symbolic  link,
312       the results of evaluating the −perm primary are implementation-defined.
313

STDIN

315       If  the  −ok primary is used, the response shall be read from the stan‐
316       dard input.  An entire line shall be read as the  response.  Otherwise,
317       the standard input shall not be used.
318

INPUT FILES

320       None.
321

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

323       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of find:
324
325       LANG      Provide  a  default  value for the internationalization vari‐
326                 ables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions  vol‐
327                 ume  of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
328                 ables for the precedence  of  internationalization  variables
329                 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
330
331       LC_ALL    If  set  to  a non-empty string value, override the values of
332                 all the other internationalization variables.
333
334       LC_COLLATE
335                 Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges,  equivalence
336                 classes,  and  multi-character collating elements used in the
337                 pattern matching notation  for  the  −n  option  and  in  the
338                 extended  regular  expression  defined for the yesexpr locale
339                 keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
340
341       LC_CTYPE  This variable determines the locale for the interpretation of
342                 sequences  of  bytes of text data as characters (for example,
343                 single-byte as opposed  to  multi-byte  characters  in  argu‐
344                 ments),  the behavior of character classes within the pattern
345                 matching notation used for the −n option, and the behavior of
346                 character  classes  within  regular  expressions  used in the
347                 extended regular expression defined for  the  yesexpr  locale
348                 keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
349
350       LC_MESSAGES
351                 Determine  the  locale used to process affirmative responses,
352                 and the locale used to affect  the  format  and  contents  of
353                 diagnostic messages and prompts written to standard error.
354
355       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
356                 of LC_MESSAGES.
357
358       PATH      Determine the location of the utility_name for the −exec  and
359                 −ok primaries, as described in the Base Definitions volume of
360                 POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables.
361

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

363       Default.
364

STDOUT

366       The −print primary shall cause the current pathnames to be  written  to
367       standard output. The format shall be:
368
369           "%s\n", <path>
370

STDERR

372       The  −ok  primary  shall write a prompt to standard error containing at
373       least the utility_name to be invoked and the current pathname.  In  the
374       POSIX  locale,  the  last  non-<blank> in the prompt shall be '?'.  The
375       exact format used is unspecified.
376
377       Otherwise, the standard error shall be used only  for  diagnostic  mes‐
378       sages.
379

OUTPUT FILES

381       None.
382

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

384       None.
385

EXIT STATUS

387       The following exit values shall be returned:
388
389        0    All path operands were traversed successfully.
390
391       >0    An error occurred.
392

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

394       Default.
395
396       The following sections are informative.
397

APPLICATION USAGE

399       When  used  in operands, pattern matching notation, <semicolon>, <left-
400       parenthesis>, and <right-parenthesis> characters  are  special  to  the
401       shell and must be quoted (see Section 2.2, Quoting).
402
403       The  bit  that is traditionally used for sticky (historically 01000) is
404       specified in the −perm primary using the octal  number  argument  form.
405       Since  this bit is not defined by this volume of POSIX.1‐2008, applica‐
406       tions must not assume that it actually refers to the traditional sticky
407       bit.
408

EXAMPLES

410        1. The following commands are equivalent:
411
412               find .
413               find . −print
414
415           They both write out the entire directory hierarchy from the current
416           directory.
417
418        2. The following command:
419
420               find / \( −name tmp −o −name '*.xx' \) −atime +7 −exec rm {} \;
421
422           removes all files named tmp or ending in .xx  that  have  not  been
423           accessed for seven or more 24-hour periods.
424
425        3. The following command:
426
427               find . −perm −o+w,+s
428
429           prints  (−print  is assumed) the names of all files in or below the
430           current directory, with all of the file  permission  bits  S_ISUID,
431           S_ISGID, and S_IWOTH set.
432
433        4. The following command:
434
435               find . −name SCCS −prune −o −print
436
437           recursively  prints pathnames of all files in the current directory
438           and below, but skips directories named SCCS and files in them.
439
440        5. The following command:
441
442               find . −print −name SCCS −prune
443
444           behaves as in the previous example, but prints  the  names  of  the
445           SCCS directories.
446
447        6. The following command is roughly equivalent to the −nt extension to
448           test:
449
450               if [ −n "$(find file1 −prune −newer file2)" ]; then
451                   printf %s\\n "file1 is newer than file2"
452               fi
453
454        7. The descriptions of −atime, −ctime, and −mtime use the  terminology
455           n  ``86400 second periods (days)''. For example, a file accessed at
456           23:59 is selected by:
457
458               find . −atime −1 −print
459
460           at 00:01 the next day (less than 24 hours later, not more than  one
461           day  ago);  the midnight boundary between days has no effect on the
462           24-hour calculation.
463
464        8. The following command:
465
466               find . ! −name . −prune −name '*.old' −exec \
467                   sh −c 'mv "$@" ../old/' sh {} +
468
469           performs the same task as:
470
471               mv ./*.old ./.old ./.*.old ../old/
472
473           while avoiding an ``Argument list too long'' error if there  are  a
474           large  number  of  files ending with .old and without running mv if
475           there are no such files (and avoiding ``No such file or directory''
476           errors  if  ./.old  does  not  exist  or  no files match ./*.old or
477           ./.*.old).
478
479           The alternative:
480
481               find . ! −name . −prune −name '*.old' −exec mv {} ../old/ \;
482
483           is less efficient if there are many files to move because  it  exe‐
484           cutes one mv command per file.
485
486        9. On systems configured to mount removable media on directories under
487           /media, the following command searches the file hierarchy for files
488           larger  than  100000  KB  without  searching  any mounted removable
489           media:
490
491               find / −path /media −prune −o −size +200000 −print
492
493       10. Except for the root directory, and "//"  on  implementations  where
494           "//"  does  not  refer  to  the root directory, no pattern given to
495           −name will match a <slash>, because trailing <slash> characters are
496           ignored  when  computing the basename of the file under evaluation.
497           Given two empty directories named foo and bar, the  following  com‐
498           mand:
499
500               find foo/// bar/// −name foo −o −name 'bar?*'
501
502           prints only the line "foo///".
503

RATIONALE

505       The  −a operator was retained as an optional operator for compatibility
506       with historical shell scripts, even though it is redundant with expres‐
507       sion concatenation.
508
509       The  descriptions of the '−' modifier on the mode and onum arguments to
510       the −perm primary agree with historical practice on BSD  and  System  V
511       implementations.  System  V  and  BSD documentation both describe it in
512       terms of checking additional bits; in fact, it uses the same bits,  but
513       checks for having at least all of the matching bits set instead of hav‐
514       ing exactly the matching bits set.
515
516       The exact format of the interactive prompts is  unspecified.  Only  the
517       general nature of the contents of prompts are specified because:
518
519        *  Implementations may desire more descriptive prompts than those used
520           on historical implementations.
521
522        *  Since the historical prompt strings do not terminate with <newline>
523           characters,  there is no portable way for another program to inter‐
524           act with the prompts of this utility via pipes.
525
526       Therefore, an application using this prompting  option  relies  on  the
527       system  to  provide  the  most  suitable dialog directly with the user,
528       based on the general guidelines specified.
529
530       The −name file operand was changed to use the  shell  pattern  matching
531       notation  so that find is consistent with other utilities using pattern
532       matching.
533
534       The −size operand refers to the size of a file, rather than the  number
535       of  blocks  it  may  occupy  in the file system. The intent is that the
536       st_size field defined in the System Interfaces volume  of  POSIX.1‐2008
537       should  be used, not the st_blocks found in historical implementations.
538       There are at least two reasons for this:
539
540        1. In both System V and BSD, find only uses st_size in  size  calcula‐
541           tions  for  the  operands specified by this volume of POSIX.1‐2008.
542           (BSD uses st_blocks only when processing the −ls primary.)
543
544        2. Users usually think of file size in terms of bytes, which  is  also
545           the  unit used by the ls utility for the output from the −l option.
546           (In both System V and BSD, ls uses st_size for the −l  option  size
547           field and uses st_blocks for the ls −s calculations. This volume of
548           POSIX.1‐2008 does not specify ls −s.)
549
550       The descriptions of −atime, −ctime, and −mtime were  changed  from  the
551       SVID  description  of  n  ``days'' to n being the result of the integer
552       division of the time difference in seconds by 86400. The description is
553       also  different  in terms of the exact timeframe for the n case (versus
554       the +n or −n), but it matches all known historical implementations.  It
555       refers  to  one  86400 second period in the past, not any time from the
556       beginning of that period to the current time. For example, −atime 2  is
557       true  if  the file was accessed any time in the period from 72 hours to
558       48 hours ago.
559
560       Historical implementations do not modify "{}" when it appears as a sub‐
561       string  of  an −exec or −ok utility_name or argument string. There have
562       been numerous user requests for  this  extension,  so  this  volume  of
563       POSIX.1‐2008 allows the desired behavior. At least one recent implemen‐
564       tation does support this feature, but encountered several  problems  in
565       managing  memory  allocation  and  dealing with multiple occurrences of
566       "{}" in a string while it  was  being  developed,  so  it  is  not  yet
567       required behavior.
568
569       Assuming  the presence of −print was added to correct a historical pit‐
570       fall that plagues novice users, it is entirely upwards-compatible  from
571       the historical System V find utility. In its simplest form (find direc‐
572       tory), it could be confused with the historical BSD fast find.  The BSD
573       developers  agreed  that  adding −print as a default expression was the
574       correct decision and have added the fast find  functionality  within  a
575       new utility called locate.
576
577       Historically,  the −L option was implemented using the primary −follow.
578       The −H and −L options were added for two reasons. First, they  offer  a
579       finer  granularity  of control and consistency with other programs that
580       walk file hierarchies. Second, the −follow primary always evaluated  to
581       true.  As  they  were  historically  really  global variables that took
582       effect before the traversal began, some  valid  expressions  had  unex‐
583       pected  results.  An  example  is  the  expression  −print  −o −follow.
584       Because −print always evaluates to true, the standard order of  evalua‐
585       tion  implies that −follow would never be evaluated. This was never the
586       case. Historical practice for the −follow primary, however, is not con‐
587       sistent.  Some implementations always follow symbolic links on the com‐
588       mand line whether −follow is specified or not. Others  follow  symbolic
589       links  on the command line only if −follow is specified. Both behaviors
590       are provided by the −H and −L options, but scripts  using  the  current
591       −follow  primary  would be broken if the −follow option is specified to
592       work either way.
593
594       Since the −L option resolves all symbolic links and the −type l primary
595       is  true  for symbolic links that still exist after symbolic links have
596       been resolved, the command:
597
598           find −L . −type l
599
600       prints a list of symbolic links reachable from  the  current  directory
601       that do not resolve to accessible files.
602
603       A  feature of SVR4's find utility was the −exec primary's + terminator.
604       This allowed filenames containing special characters (especially  <new‐
605       line>  characters)  to  be  grouped  together without the problems that
606       occur if such filenames are piped to xargs.  Other implementations have
607       added  other ways to get around this problem, notably a −print0 primary
608       that wrote filenames with a null byte terminator. This  was  considered
609       here,  but  not adopted. Using a null terminator meant that any utility
610       that was going to process find's −print0 output had to add a new option
611       to parse the null terminators it would now be reading.
612
613       The  "−exec...{}+" syntax adopted was a result of IEEE PASC Interpreta‐
614       tion 1003.2 #210. It should be  noted  that  this  is  an  incompatible
615       change  to  IEEE Std  1003.2‐1992.  For  example, the following command
616       printed all files with a '−' after  their  name  if  they  are  regular
617       files, and a '+' otherwise:
618
619           find / −type f −exec echo {} − ';' −o −exec echo {} + ';'
620
621       The  change invalidates usage like this. Even though the previous stan‐
622       dard stated that this usage would work, in practice many did  not  sup‐
623       port  it  and  the standard developers felt it better to now state that
624       this was not allowable.
625

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

627       None.
628

SEE ALSO

630       Section 2.2, Quoting, Section 2.13, Pattern Matching Notation,  Section
631       2.14, Special Built-In Utilities, chmod, mv, pax, sh, test
632
633       The  Base  Definitions  volume  of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment
634       Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
635
636       The System Interfaces volume of  POSIX.1‐2008,  fstatat(),  getgrgid(),
637       getpwuid()
638
640       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
641       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
642       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
643       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
644       cal  and  Electronics  Engineers,  Inc  and  The  Open Group.  (This is
645       POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the
646       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
647       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
648       is  the  referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
649       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
650
651       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
652       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
653       files to man page format. To report such errors,  see  https://www.ker
654       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
655
656
657
658IEEE/The Open Group                  2013                             FIND(1P)
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