1FIND(1P)                   POSIX Programmer's Manual                  FIND(1P)
2
3
4

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

NAME

12       find — find files
13

SYNOPSIS

15       find [-H|-L] path... [operand_expression...]
16

DESCRIPTION

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

OPTIONS

46       The  find  utility  shall  conform  to  the  Base Definitions volume of
47       POSIX.1‐2017, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
48
49       The following options shall be supported by the implementation:
50
51       -H        Cause the file information and file type evaluated  for  each
52                 symbolic  link  encountered  as a path operand on the command
53                 line to be those of the file referenced by the link, and  not
54                 the  link  itself. If the referenced file does not exist, the
55                 file information and type shall be for the link itself.  File
56                 information  and  type  for symbolic links encountered during
57                 the traversal of a file hierarchy shall be that of  the  link
58                 itself.
59
60       -L        Cause  the  file information and file type evaluated for each
61                 symbolic link encountered as a path operand  on  the  command
62                 line  or encountered during the traversal of a file hierarchy
63                 to be those of the file referenced by the link, and  not  the
64                 link  itself. If the referenced file does not exist, the file
65                 information and type shall be for the link itself.
66
67       Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options  -H  and  -L
68       shall  not  be  considered  an  error.  The last option specified shall
69       determine the behavior of the utility. If neither the  -H  nor  the  -L
70       option  is  specified,  then the file information and type for symbolic
71       links encountered as a path operand on the command line or  encountered
72       during  the  traversal  of  a  file hierarchy shall be that of the link
73       itself.
74

OPERANDS

76       The following operands shall be supported:
77
78       The first operand and subsequent operands up to but not  including  the
79       first  operand  that starts with a '-', or is a '!'  or a '(', shall be
80       interpreted as path operands. If the first operand starts with  a  '-',
81       or  is  a '!'  or a '(', the behavior is unspecified. Each path operand
82       is a pathname of a starting point in the file hierarchy.
83
84       The first operand that starts with a '-', or is a '!'  or  a  '(',  and
85       all  subsequent arguments shall be interpreted as an expression made up
86       of the following primaries and operators. In the descriptions, wherever
87       n  is  used as a primary argument, it shall be interpreted as a decimal
88       integer optionally preceded by a <plus-sign>  ('+')  or  <hyphen-minus>
89       ('-'), as follows:
90
91       +n        More than n.
92
93       n         Exactly n.
94
95       -n        Less than n.
96
97       The following primaries shall be supported:
98
99       -name pattern
100                 The  primary  shall  evaluate  as true if the basename of the
101                 current pathname matches pattern using the  pattern  matching
102                 notation  described  in  Section 2.13, Pattern Matching Nota‐
103                 tion.  The additional rules in Section 2.13.3, Patterns  Used
104                 for  Filename  Expansion  do  not apply as this is a matching
105                 operation, not an expansion.
106
107       -path pattern
108                 The primary shall evaluate as true if  the  current  pathname
109                 matches pattern using the pattern matching notation described
110                 in Section 2.13, Pattern Matching Notation.   The  additional
111                 rules in Section 2.13.3, Patterns Used for Filename Expansion
112                 do not apply as this is a matching operation, not  an  expan‐
113                 sion.
114
115       -nouser   The  primary  shall evaluate as true if the file belongs to a
116                 user ID for which the getpwuid() function defined in the Sys‐
117                 tem Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017 (or equivalent) returns
118                 NULL.
119
120       -nogroup  The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs  to  a
121                 group  ID  for  which  the getgrgid() function defined in the
122                 System Interfaces  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2017  (or  equivalent)
123                 returns NULL.
124
125       -xdev     The  primary  shall  always  evaluate as true; it shall cause
126                 find not to continue descending past directories that have  a
127                 different  device ID (st_dev, see the stat() function defined
128                 in the System Interfaces  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2017).  If  any
129                 -xdev  primary  is  specified,  it  shall apply to the entire
130                 expression even if the -xdev primary would  not  normally  be
131                 evaluated.
132
133       -prune    The  primary  shall  always  evaluate as true; it shall cause
134                 find not to descend the current pathname if it  is  a  direc‐
135                 tory.  If the -depth primary is specified, the -prune primary
136                 shall have no effect.
137
138       -perm [-]mode
139                 The mode argument is used to represent  file  mode  bits.  It
140                 shall  be  identical  in  format to the symbolic_mode operand
141                 described in chmod, and shall be interpreted as  follows.  To
142                 start,  a  template  shall be assumed with all file mode bits
143                 cleared. An op symbol of '+' shall set the  appropriate  mode
144                 bits  in  the template; '-' shall clear the appropriate bits;
145                 '=' shall set the appropriate mode bits,  without  regard  to
146                 the  contents  of the file mode creation mask of the process.
147                 The op symbol of '-' cannot be the first character  of  mode;
148                 this  avoids  ambiguity  with  the  optional leading <hyphen-
149                 minus>.  Since the initial mode is all bits  off,  there  are
150                 not  any  symbolic  modes  that  need to use '-' as the first
151                 character.
152
153                 If the <hyphen-minus> is omitted, the primary shall  evaluate
154                 as true when the file permission bits exactly match the value
155                 of the resulting template.
156
157                 Otherwise, if mode is prefixed by a <hyphen-minus>, the  pri‐
158                 mary  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-minus> is omitted, the primary shall  evaluate
163                 as  true  when  the file mode bits exactly match the value of
164                 the octal number onum (see the description of the octal  mode
165                 in  chmod).   Otherwise,  if  onum  is prefixed by a <hyphen-
166                 minus>, the primary shall evaluate as true if at least all of
167                 the bits specified in onum are set. In both cases, the behav‐
168                 ior is 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
307           ( given_expression ) -print
308
309       The -user, -group, and  -newer  primaries  each  shall  evaluate  their
310       respective arguments only once.
311
312       When  the  file type evaluated for the current file is a symbolic link,
313       the results of evaluating the -perm primary are implementation-defined.
314

STDIN

316       If the -ok primary is used, the response shall be read from  the  stan‐
317       dard  input.   An entire line shall be read as the response. Otherwise,
318       the standard input shall not be used.
319

INPUT FILES

321       None.
322

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

324       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of find:
325
326       LANG      Provide a default value for  the  internationalization  vari‐
327                 ables  that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
328                 ume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization  Vari‐
329                 ables  for  the  precedence of internationalization variables
330                 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
331
332       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string value, override  the  values  of
333                 all the other internationalization variables.
334
335       LC_COLLATE
336                 Determine  the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence
337                 classes, and multi-character collating elements used  in  the
338                 pattern  matching  notation  for  the  -n  option  and in the
339                 extended regular expression defined for  the  yesexpr  locale
340                 keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
341
342       LC_CTYPE  This variable determines the locale for the interpretation of
343                 sequences of bytes of text data as characters  (for  example,
344                 single-byte  as  opposed  to  multi-byte  characters in argu‐
345                 ments), the behavior of character classes within the  pattern
346                 matching notation used for the -n option, and the behavior of
347                 character classes within  regular  expressions  used  in  the
348                 extended  regular  expression  defined for the yesexpr locale
349                 keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
350
351       LC_MESSAGES
352                 Determine the locale used to process  affirmative  responses,
353                 and  the  locale  used  to  affect the format and contents of
354                 diagnostic messages and prompts written to standard error.
355
356       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
357                 of LC_MESSAGES.
358
359       PATH      Determine  the location of the utility_name for the -exec and
360                 -ok primaries, as described in the Base Definitions volume of
361                 POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables.
362

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

364       Default.
365

STDOUT

367       The  -print  primary shall cause the current pathnames to be written to
368       standard output. The format shall be:
369
370
371           "%s\n", <path>
372

STDERR

374       The -ok primary shall write a prompt to standard  error  containing  at
375       least  the  utility_name to be invoked and the current pathname. In the
376       POSIX locale, the last non-<blank> in the prompt  shall  be  '?'.   The
377       exact format used is unspecified.
378
379       Otherwise,  the  standard  error shall be used only for diagnostic mes‐
380       sages.
381

OUTPUT FILES

383       None.
384

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

386       None.
387

EXIT STATUS

389       The following exit values shall be returned:
390
391        0    All path operands were traversed successfully.
392
393       >0    An error occurred.
394

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

396       Default.
397
398       The following sections are informative.
399

APPLICATION USAGE

401       When used in operands, pattern matching notation,  <semicolon>,  <left-
402       parenthesis>,  and  <right-parenthesis>  characters  are special to the
403       shell and must be quoted (see Section 2.2, Quoting).
404
405       The bit that is traditionally used for sticky (historically  01000)  is
406       specified  in  the  -perm primary using the octal number argument form.
407       Since this bit is not defined by this volume of POSIX.1‐2017,  applica‐
408       tions must not assume that it actually refers to the traditional sticky
409       bit.
410

EXAMPLES

412        1. The following commands are equivalent:
413
414
415               find .
416               find . -print
417
418           They both write out the entire directory hierarchy from the current
419           directory.
420
421        2. The following command:
422
423
424               find / \( -name tmp -o -name '*.xx' \) -atime +7 -exec rm {} \;
425
426           removes  all  files  named  tmp or ending in .xx that have not been
427           accessed for seven or more 24-hour periods.
428
429        3. The following command:
430
431
432               find . -perm -o+w,+s
433
434           prints (-print is assumed) the names of all files in or  below  the
435           current  directory,  with  all of the file permission bits S_ISUID,
436           S_ISGID, and S_IWOTH set.
437
438        4. The following command:
439
440
441               find . -name SCCS -prune -o -print
442
443           recursively prints pathnames of all files in the current  directory
444           and below, but skips directories named SCCS and files in them.
445
446        5. The following command:
447
448
449               find . -print -name SCCS -prune
450
451           behaves  as  in  the  previous example, but prints the names of the
452           SCCS directories.
453
454        6. The following command is roughly equivalent to the -nt extension to
455           test:
456
457
458               if [ -n "$(find file1 -prune -newer file2)" ]; then
459                   printf %s\\n "file1 is newer than file2"
460               fi
461
462        7. The  descriptions of -atime, -ctime, and -mtime use the terminology
463           n ``86400 second periods (days)''. For example, a file accessed  at
464           23:59 is selected by:
465
466
467               find . -atime -1 -print
468
469           at  00:01 the next day (less than 24 hours later, not more than one
470           day ago); the midnight boundary between days has no effect  on  the
471           24-hour calculation.
472
473        8. The following command:
474
475
476               find . ! -name . -prune -name '*.old' -exec \
477                   sh -c 'mv "$@" ../old/' sh {} +
478
479           performs the same task as:
480
481
482               mv ./*.old ./.old ./.*.old ../old/
483
484           while  avoiding  an ``Argument list too long'' error if there are a
485           large number of files ending with .old and without  running  mv  if
486           there are no such files (and avoiding ``No such file or directory''
487           errors if ./.old does not  exist  or  no  files  match  ./*.old  or
488           ./.*.old).
489
490           The alternative:
491
492
493               find . ! -name . -prune -name '*.old' -exec mv {} ../old/ \;
494
495           is  less  efficient if there are many files to move because it exe‐
496           cutes one mv command per file.
497
498        9. On systems configured to mount removable media on directories under
499           /media, the following command searches the file hierarchy for files
500           larger than 100000  KB  without  searching  any  mounted  removable
501           media:
502
503
504               find / -path /media -prune -o -size +200000 -print
505
506       10. Except  for  the  root directory, and "//" on implementations where
507           "//" does not refer to the root  directory,  no  pattern  given  to
508           -name will match a <slash>, because trailing <slash> characters are
509           ignored when computing the basename of the file  under  evaluation.
510           Given  two  empty directories named foo and bar, the following com‐
511           mand:
512
513
514               find foo/// bar/// -name foo -o -name 'bar?*'
515
516           prints only the line "foo///".
517

RATIONALE

519       The -a operator was retained as an optional operator for  compatibility
520       with historical shell scripts, even though it is redundant with expres‐
521       sion concatenation.
522
523       The descriptions of the '-' modifier on the mode and onum arguments  to
524       the  -perm  primary  agree with historical practice on BSD and System V
525       implementations. System V and BSD documentation  both  describe  it  in
526       terms  of checking additional bits; in fact, it uses the same bits, but
527       checks for having at least all of the matching bits set instead of hav‐
528       ing exactly the matching bits set.
529
530       The  exact  format  of the interactive prompts is unspecified. Only the
531       general nature of the contents of prompts are specified because:
532
533        *  Implementations may desire more descriptive prompts than those used
534           on historical implementations.
535
536        *  Since the historical prompt strings do not terminate with <newline>
537           characters, there is no portable way for another program to  inter‐
538           act with the prompts of this utility via pipes.
539
540       Therefore,  an  application  using  this prompting option relies on the
541       system to provide the most suitable  dialog  directly  with  the  user,
542       based on the general guidelines specified.
543
544       The  -name  file  operand was changed to use the shell pattern matching
545       notation so that find is consistent with other utilities using  pattern
546       matching.
547
548       The  -size operand refers to the size of a file, rather than the number
549       of blocks it may occupy in the file system.  The  intent  is  that  the
550       st_size  field  defined in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017
551       should be used, not the st_blocks found in historical  implementations.
552       There are at least two reasons for this:
553
554        1. In  both  System V and BSD, find only uses st_size in size calcula‐
555           tions for the operands specified by this  volume  of  POSIX.1‐2017.
556           (BSD uses st_blocks only when processing the -ls primary.)
557
558        2. Users  usually  think of file size in terms of bytes, which is also
559           the unit used by the ls utility for the output from the -l  option.
560           (In  both  System V and BSD, ls uses st_size for the -l option size
561           field and uses st_blocks for the ls -s calculations. This volume of
562           POSIX.1‐2017 does not specify ls -s.)
563
564       The  descriptions  of  -atime, -ctime, and -mtime were changed from the
565       SVID description of n ``days'' to n being the  result  of  the  integer
566       division of the time difference in seconds by 86400. The description is
567       also different in terms of the exact timeframe for the n  case  (versus
568       the  +n or -n), but it matches all known historical implementations. It
569       refers to one 86400 second period in the past, not any  time  from  the
570       beginning  of that period to the current time. For example, -atime 2 is
571       true if the file was accessed any time in the period from 72  hours  to
572       48 hours ago.
573
574       Historical implementations do not modify "{}" when it appears as a sub‐
575       string of an -exec or -ok utility_name or argument string.  There  have
576       been  numerous  user  requests  for  this  extension, so this volume of
577       POSIX.1‐2017 allows the desired behavior. At least one recent implemen‐
578       tation  does  support this feature, but encountered several problems in
579       managing memory allocation and dealing  with  multiple  occurrences  of
580       "{}"  in  a  string  while  it  was  being  developed, so it is not yet
581       required behavior.
582
583       Assuming the presence of -print was added to correct a historical  pit‐
584       fall  that plagues novice users, it is entirely upwards-compatible from
585       the historical System V find utility. In its simplest form (find direc‐
586       tory), it could be confused with the historical BSD fast find.  The BSD
587       developers agreed that adding -print as a default  expression  was  the
588       correct  decision  and  have added the fast find functionality within a
589       new utility called locate.
590
591       Historically, the -L option was implemented using the primary  -follow.
592       The  -H  and -L options were added for two reasons. First, they offer a
593       finer granularity of control and consistency with other  programs  that
594       walk  file hierarchies. Second, the -follow primary always evaluated to
595       true. As they were  historically  really  global  variables  that  took
596       effect  before  the  traversal  began, some valid expressions had unex‐
597       pected results.  An  example  is  the  expression  -print  -o  -follow.
598       Because  -print always evaluates to true, the standard order of evalua‐
599       tion implies that -follow would never be evaluated. This was never  the
600       case. Historical practice for the -follow primary, however, is not con‐
601       sistent. Some implementations always follow symbolic links on the  com‐
602       mand  line  whether -follow is specified or not. Others follow symbolic
603       links on the command line only if -follow is specified. Both  behaviors
604       are  provided  by  the -H and -L options, but scripts using the current
605       -follow primary would be broken if the -follow option is  specified  to
606       work either way.
607
608       Since the -L option resolves all symbolic links and the -type l primary
609       is true for symbolic links that still exist after symbolic  links  have
610       been resolved, the command:
611
612
613           find -L . -type l
614
615       prints  a  list  of symbolic links reachable from the current directory
616       that do not resolve to accessible files.
617
618       A feature of SVR4's find utility was the -exec primary's +  terminator.
619       This  allowed filenames containing special characters (especially <new‐
620       line> characters) to be grouped  together  without  the  problems  that
621       occur if such filenames are piped to xargs.  Other implementations have
622       added other ways to get around this problem, notably a -print0  primary
623       that  wrote  filenames with a null byte terminator. This was considered
624       here, but not adopted. Using a null terminator meant that  any  utility
625       that was going to process find's -print0 output had to add a new option
626       to parse the null terminators it would now be reading.
627
628       The "-exec...{}+" syntax adopted was a result of IEEE PASC  Interpreta‐
629       tion  1003.2  #210.  It  should  be  noted that this is an incompatible
630       change to IEEE Std 1003.2‐1992.  For  example,  the  following  command
631       printed  all  files  with  a  '-'  after their name if they are regular
632       files, and a '+' otherwise:
633
634
635           find / -type f -exec echo {} - ';' -o -exec echo {} + ';'
636
637       The change invalidates usage like this. Even though the previous  stan‐
638       dard  stated  that this usage would work, in practice many did not sup‐
639       port it and the standard developers felt it better to  now  state  that
640       this was not allowable.
641

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

643       None.
644

SEE ALSO

646       Section  2.2, Quoting, Section 2.13, Pattern Matching Notation, Section
647       2.14, Special Built-In Utilities, chmod, mv, pax, sh, test
648
649       The Base Definitions volume of  POSIX.1‐2017,  Chapter  8,  Environment
650       Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
651
652       The  System  Interfaces  volume of POSIX.1‐2017, fstatat(), getgrgid(),
653       getpwuid()
654
656       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
657       from  IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Por‐
658       table Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base  Specifi‐
659       cations  Issue  7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
660       Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.   In  the
661       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
662       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
663       is  the  referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
664       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
665
666       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
667       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
668       files to man page format. To report such errors,  see  https://www.ker
669       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
670
671
672
673IEEE/The Open Group                  2017                             FIND(1P)
Impressum