1FIND(1) General Commands Manual FIND(1)
2
6 find - find files
7
9 find pathname-list expression
10 find pattern
11
13 In the first form above, find recursively descends the directory hier‐
14 archy for each pathname in the pathname-list (i.e., one or more path‐
15 names) seeking files that match a boolean expression written in the
16 primaries given below. In the descriptions, the argument n is used as
17 a decimal integer where +n means more than n, -n means less than n and
18 n means exactly n.
19 The second form rapidly searches a database for all pathnames which
21 match pattern. Usually the database is recomputed weekly and contains
22 the pathnames of all files which are publicly accessible. If escaped,
23 normal shell “globbing” characters (`*', `?', `[', and ']') may be used
24 in pattern, but the matching differs in that no characters (e.g. `/')
25 have to be matched explicitly. As a special case, a simple pattern
26 containing no globbing characters is matched as though it were *pat‐
27 tern*; if any globbing character appears there are no implicit globbing
28 characters.
29 -name filename
31 True if the filename argument matches the current file name.
32 Normal shell argument syntax may be used if escaped (watch
33 out for `[', `?' and `*').
34 -perm onum
36 True if the file permission flags exactly match the octal
37 number onum (see chmod(1)). If onum is prefixed by a minus
38 sign, more flag bits (017777, see stat(2)) become significant
39 and the flags are compared: (flags&onum)==onum.
40 -type c True if the type of the file is c, where c is b, c, d, f, l
42 or s for block special file, character special file, direc‐
43 tory, plain file, symbolic link, or socket.
44 -links n True if the file has n links.
46 -user uname
48 True if the file belongs to the user uname (login name or
49 numeric user ID).
50 -nouser True if the file belongs to a user not in the /etc/passwd
52 database.
53 -group gname
55 True if the file belongs to group gname (group name or
56 numeric group ID).
57 -nogroup True if the file belongs to a group not in the /etc/group
59 database.
60 -size n True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes per block).
62 -inum n True if the file has inode number n.
64 -atime n True if the file has been accessed in n days.
66 -mtime n True if the file has been modified in n days.
68 -exec command
70 True if the executed command returns a zero value as exit
71 status. The end of the command must be punctuated by an
72 escaped semicolon. A command argument `{}' is replaced by
73 the current pathname.
74 -ok command
76 Like -exec except that the generated command is written on
77 the standard output, then the standard input is read and the
78 command executed only upon response y.
79 -print Always true; causes the current pathname to be printed.
81 -ls Always true; causes current pathname to be printed together
83 with its associated statistics. These include (respectively)
84 inode number, size in kilobytes (1024 bytes), protection
85 mode, number of hard links, user, group, size in bytes, and
86 modification time. If the file is a special file the size
87 field will instead contain the major and minor device num‐
88 bers. If the file is a symbolic link the pathname of the
89 linked-to file is printed preceded by ``->''. The format is
90 identical to that of ``ls -gilds'' (note however that format‐
91 ting is done internally, without executing the ls program).
92 -newer file
94 True if the current file has been modified more recently than
95 the argument file.
96 -cpio file
98 Write the current file on the argument file in cpio format.
99 -xdev Always true; causes find not to traverse down into a file
101 system different from the one on which current argument path‐
102 name resides.
103 The primaries may be combined using the following operators (in order
105 of decreasing precedence):
106 1) A parenthesized group of primaries and operators (parentheses are
108 special to the Shell and must be escaped).
109 2) The negation of a primary (`!' is the unary not operator).
111 3) Concatenation of primaries (the and operation is implied by the
113 juxtaposition of two primaries).
114 4) Alternation of primaries (`-o' is the or operator).
116
118 To find all accessible files whose pathname contains `find':
119 find find
121 To typeset all variants of manual pages for `ls':
123 vtroff -man `find '*man*/ls.?'`
125 To remove all files named `a.out' or `*.o' that have not been accessed
127 for a week:
128 find / \( -name a.out -o -name '*.o' \) -atime +7 -exec rm {} \;
130
132 /etc/passwd
133 /etc/group
134 /var/db/find.codes coded pathnames database
135
137 sh(1), test(1), fs(5)
138 Relevant paper in February, 1983 issue of ;login:.
139
141 The first form's syntax is painful, and the second form's exact seman‐
142 tics is confusing and can vary from site to site.
143 More than one `-newer' option does not work properly.
1457th Edition October 11, 1996 FIND(1)