1find(1) User Commands find(1)
2
6 find - find files
7
9 /usr/bin/find [-H | -L] path... expression
10 /usr/xpg4/bin/find [-H | -L] path... expression
13
16 The find utility recursively descends the directory hierarchy for each
17 path seeking files that match a Boolean expression written in the pri‐
18 maries specified below.
19 find is able to descend to arbitrary depths in a file hierarchy and
22 does not fail due to path length limitations (unless a path operand
23 specified by the application exceeds PATH_MAX requirements).
24 find detects infinite loops; that is, entering a previously visited
27 directory that is an ancestor of the last file encountered.
28
30 The following options are supported:
31 -H Causes the file information and file type evaluated for each sym‐
33 bolic link encountered on the command line to be those of the
34 file referenced by the link, and not the link itself. If the ref‐
35 erenced file does not exist, the file information and type is for
36 the link itself. File information for all symbolic links not on
37 the command line is that of the link itself.
38 -L Causes the file information and file type evaluated for each sym‐
41 bolic link to be those of the file referenced by the link, and
42 not the link itself. See NOTES.
43 Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options -H and -Lis
47 not considered an error. The last option specified determines the
48 behavior of the utility.
49
51 The following operands are supported:
52 path A pathname of a starting point in the directory hierar‐
54 chy.
55 expression The first argument that starts with a −, or is a ! or a
58 (, and all subsequent arguments are interpreted as an
59 expression made up of the following primaries and opera‐
60 tors. In the descriptions, wherever n is used as a pri‐
61 mary argument, it is interpreted as a decimal integer
62 optionally preceded by a plus (+) or minus (−) sign, as
63 follows:
64 +n more than n
66 n exactly n
69 -n less than n
72 Expressions
76 Valid expressions are:
77 -acl True if the file have additional ACLs defined.
79 -amin n File was last accessed n minutes ago.
82 -atime n True if the file was accessed n days ago. The access
85 time of directories in path is changed by find itself.
86 -cmin n File's status was last changed n minutes ago.
89 -cpio device Always true. Writes the current file on device in cpio
92 format (5120-byte records).
93 -ctime n True if the file's status was changed n days ago.
96 -depth Always true. Causes descent of the directory hierarchy
99 to be done so that all entries in a directory are
100 acted on before the directory itself. This can be use‐
101 ful when find is used with cpio(1) to transfer files
102 that are contained in directories without write per‐
103 mission.
104 -exec command True if the executed command returns a zero value as
107 exit status. The end of command must be punctuated by
108 an escaped semicolon (;). A command argument {} is
109 replaced by the current pathname. If the last argument
110 to -exec is {} and you specify + rather than the semi‐
111 colon (;), the command is invoked fewer times, with {}
112 replaced by groups of pathnames. If any invocation of
113 the command returns a non-zero value as exit status,
114 find returns a non-zero exit status.
115 -follow Always true and always evaluated no matter where it
118 appears in expression. The behavior is unspecified if
119 -follow is used when the find command is invoked with
120 either the -H or the -L option. Causes symbolic links
121 to be followed. When following symbolic links, find
122 keeps track of the directories visited so that it can
123 detect infinite loops. For example, such a loop would
124 occur if a symbolic link pointed to an ancestor. This
125 expression should not be used with the find-type l
126 expression. See NOTES.
127 -fstype type True if the filesystem to which the file belongs is of
130 type type.
131 -group gname True if the file belongs to the group gname. If gname
134 is numeric and does not appear in the /etc/group file,
135 or in the NIS/NIS+ tables, it is taken as a group ID.
136 -inum n True if the file has inode number n.
139 -links n True if the file has n links.
142 -local True if the file system type is not a remote file sys‐
145 tem type as defined in the /etc/dfs/fstypes file. nfs
146 is used as the default remote filesystem type if the
147 /etc/dfs/fstypes file is not present. The -local
148 option descends the hierarchy of non-local directo‐
149 ries. See EXAMPLES for an example of how to search for
150 local files without descending.
151 -ls Always true. Prints current pathname together with its
154 associated statistics. These include (respectively):
155 o inode number
157 o size in kilobytes (1024 bytes)
159 o protection mode
161 o number of hard links
163 o user
165 o group
167 o size in bytes
169 o modification time.
171 If the file is a special file, the size field instead
172 contains the major and minor device numbers.
173 If the file is a symbolic link, the pathname of the
175 linked-to file is printed preceded by `→'. The format
176 is identical to that of ls -gilds (see ls(1B)).
177 Formatting is done internally, without executing the
179 ls program.
180 -mmin n File's data was last modified n minutes ago.
183 -mount Always true. Restricts the search to the file system
186 containing the directory specified. Does not list
187 mount points to other file systems.
188 -mtime n True if the file's data was modified n days ago.
191 -name pattern True if pattern matches the basename of the current
194 file name. Normal shell file name generation charac‐
195 ters (see sh(1)) can be used. A backslash (\) is used
196 as an escape character within the pattern. The pattern
197 should be escaped or quoted when find is invoked from
198 the shell.
199 Unless the character '.' is explicitly specified in
201 the beginning of pattern, a current file name begin‐
202 ning with '.' does not match pattern when using
203 /usr/bin/find. /usr/xpg4/bin/find does not make this
204 distinction; wildcard file name generation characters
205 can match file names beginning with '.'.
206 -ncpio device Always true. Writes the current file on device in cpio
209 -c format (5120 byte records).
210 -newer file True if the current file has been modified more
213 recently than the argument file.
214 -nogroup True if the file belongs to a group not in the
217 /etc/group file, or in the NIS/NIS+ tables.
218 -nouser True if the file belongs to a user not in the
221 /etc/passwd file, or in the NIS/NIS+ tables.
222 -ok command Like -exec, except that the generated command line is
225 printed with a question mark first, and is executed
226 only if the response is affirmative.
227 -perm [-]mode The mode argument is used to represent file mode bits.
230 It is identical in format to the symbolic mode oper‐
231 and, symbolic_mode_list, described in chmod(1), and is
232 interpreted as follows. To start, a template is
233 assumed with all file mode bits cleared. An op symbol
234 of:
235 + Set the appropriate mode bits in the template
237 − Clear the appropriate bits
240 = Set the appropriate mode bits, without regard
243 to the contents of the file mode creation mask
244 of the process
245 The op symbol of − cannot be the first character of
247 mode, to avoid ambiguity with the optional leading
248 hyphen. Since the initial mode is all bits off, there
249 are no symbolic modes that need to use − as the first
250 character.
251 If the hyphen is omitted, the primary evaluates as
253 true when the file permission bits exactly match the
254 value of the resulting template.
255 Otherwise, if mode is prefixed by a hyphen, the pri‐
257 mary evaluates as true if at least all the bits in the
258 resulting template are set in the file permission
259 bits.
260 -perm [-]onum True if the file permission flags exactly match the
263 octal number onum (see chmod(1)). If onum is prefixed
264 by a minus sign (−), only the bits that are set in
265 onum are compared with the file permission flags, and
266 the expression evaluates true if they match.
267 -print Always true. Causes the current pathname to be
270 printed.
271 -prune Always yields true. Does not examine any directories
274 or files in the directory structure below the pattern
275 just matched. (See EXAMPLES). If -depth is specified,
276 -prune has no effect.
277 -size n[c] True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes per
280 block). If n is followed by a c, the size is in bytes.
281 -type c True if the type of the file is c, where c is b, c, d,
284 D, f, l, p, or s for block special file, character
285 special file, directory, door, plain file, symbolic
286 link, fifo (named pipe), or socket, respectively.
287 -user uname True if the file belongs to the user uname. If uname
290 is numeric and does not appear as a login name in the
291 /etc/passwd file, or in the NIS/NIS+ tables, it is
292 taken as a user ID.
293 -xdev Same as the -mount primary.
296 -xattr True if the file has extended attributes.
299 Complex Expressions
302 The primaries can be combined using the following operators (in order
303 of decreasing precedence):
304 1)(expression)
306 True if the parenthesized expression is true (parentheses are spe‐
308 cial to the shell and must be escaped).
309 2)!expression
312 The negation of a primary (! is the unary not operator).
314 3) expression[-a] expression
317 Concatenation of primaries (the and operation is implied by the
319 juxtaposition of two primaries).
320 4) expression-oexpression
323 Alternation of primaries (-o is the or operator).
325 When you use find in conjunction with cpio, if you use the -L option
329 with cpio, you must use the -L option or the -follow primitive with
330 find and vice versa. Otherwise the results are unspecified.
331 If no expression is present, -print is used as the expression. Other‐
334 wise, if the specified expression does not contain any of the primaries
335 -exec, -ok, -ls, or -print, the specified expression is effectively
336 replaced by:
337 (specified) -print
340 The -user, -group, and -newer primaries each evaluate their respective
343 arguments only once. Invocation of command specified by -exec or -ok
344 does not affect subsequent primaries on the same file.
345
347 See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of find when
348 encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes).
349
351 Example 1 Writing Out the Hierarchy Directory
352 The following commands are equivalent:
355 example% find .
358 example% find . -print
359 They both write out the entire directory hierarchy from the current
364 directory.
365 Example 2 Removing Files
368 The following comand removes all files in your home directory named
371 a.out or *.o that have not been accessed for a week:
372 example% find $HOME \( -name a.out -o -name '*.o' \) \
375 -atime +7 -exec rm {} \;
376 Example 3 Printing All File Names But Skipping SCCS Directories
380 The following command recursively print all file names in the current
383 directory and below, but skipping SCCS directories:
384 example% find . -name SCCS -prune -o -print
387 Example 4 Printing all file names and the SCCS directory name
391 Recursively print all file names in the current directory and below,
394 skipping the contents of SCCS directories, but printing out the SCCS
395 directory name:
396 example% find . -print -name SCCS -prune
399 Example 5 Testing for the Newer File
403 The following command is basically equivalent to the -nt extension to
406 test(1):
407 example$ if [ -n "$(find
410 file1 -prune -newer file2)" ]; then
411 printf %s\\n "file1 is newer than file2"
413 Example 6 Selecting a File Using 24-hour Mode
417 The descriptions of -atime, -ctime, and -mtime use the terminology n
420 ``24-hour periods''. For example, a file accessed at 23:59 is selected
421 by:
422 example% find . -atime -1 -print
425 at 00:01 the next day (less than 24 hours later, not more than one day
430 ago). The midnight boundary between days has no effect on the 24-hour
431 calculation.
432 Example 7 Printing Files Matching a User's Permission Mode
435 The following command recursively print all file names whose permission
438 mode exactly matches read, write, and execute access for user, and read
439 and execute access for group and other:
440 example% find . -perm u=rwx,g=rx,o=rx
443 The above could alternatively be specified as follows:
448 example% find . -perm a=rwx,g-w,o-w
451 Example 8 Printing Files with Write Access for other
455 The following command recursively print all file names whose permission
458 includes, but is not limited to, write access for other:
459 example% find . -perm -o+w
462 Example 9 Printing Local Files without Descending Non-local Directories
466 example% find . ! -local -prune -o -print
468 Example 10 Printing the Files in the Name Space Possessing Extended
472 Attributes
473 example% find . -xattr
475
479 See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
480 that affect the execution of find: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE,
481 LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
482 PATH Determine the location of the utility_name for the -exec and
484 -ok primaries.
485 Affirmative responses are processed using the extended regular expres‐
489 sion defined for the yesexpr keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category of the
490 user's locale. The locale specified in the LC_COLLATE category defines
491 the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-character col‐
492 lating elements used in the expression defined for yesexpr. The locale
493 specified in LC_CTYPE determines the locale for interpretation of
494 sequences of bytes of text data a characters, the behavior of character
495 classes used in the expression defined for the yesexpr. See locale(5).
496
498 The following exit values are returned:
499 0 All path operands were traversed successfully.
501 >0 An error occurred.
504
507 /etc/passwd Password file
508 /etc/group Group file
511 /etc/dfs/fstypes File that registers distributed file system pack‐
514 ages
515
518 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
519 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
524 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
525 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
526 │Availability │SUNWcsu │
527 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
528 │CSI │Enabled │
529 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
530 │Interface Stability │Committed │
531 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
532 │Standard │See standards(5). │
533 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
534
536 chmod(1), cpio(1), sh(1), test(1), ls(1B), acl(2), stat(2), umask(2),
537 attributes(5), environ(5), fsattr(5), largefile(5), locale(5), stan‐
538 dards(5)
539
541 The following options are obsolete and will not be supported in future
542 releases:
543 -cpio device Always true. Writes the current file on device in cpio
545 format (5120-byte records).
546 -ncpio device Always true. Writes the current file on device in cpio
549 -c format (5120-byte records).
550
553 When using find to determine files modified within a range of time, use
554 the -mtime argument before the -print argument. Otherwise, find gives
555 all files.
556 Some files that might be under the Solaris root file system are actu‐
559 ally mount points for virtual file systems, such as mntfs or namefs.
560 When comparing against a ufs file system, such files are not selected
561 if -mount or -xdev is specified in the find expression.
562 Using the -L or -follow option is not recommended when descending a
565 file-system hierarchy that is under the control of other users. In par‐
566 ticular, when using -exec, symbolic links can lead the find command out
567 of the hierarchy in which it started. Using -type is not sufficient to
568 restrict the type of files on which the -exec command operates, because
569 there is an inherent race condition between the type-check performed by
570 the find command and the time the executed command operates on the file
571 argument.
572SunOS 5.11 15 Aug 2008 find(1)