find - walk a file hierarchy
find [-dHhLWXx] [-f file] file [...] [expression]
find recursively descends the directory tree for each file
listed, evaluating
an expression (composed of the ``primaries'' and
``operands'' listed
below) in terms of each file in the tree. In the absence
of an expression,
-print is assumed.
The options are as follows:
-d Causes find to perform a depth-first traversal,
i.e., directories
are visited in post-order and all entries in a directory will be
acted on before the directory itself. By default,
find visits
directories in pre-order, i.e., before their contents. Note, the
default is not a breadth-first traversal.
-f file
Specifies a file hierarchy for find to traverse.
File hierarchies
may also be specified as the operands immediately following
the options.
-H Causes the file information and file type (see
stat(2)) returned
for each symbolic link encountered on the command
line to be
those of the file referenced by the link, not the
link itself.
If the referenced file does not exist, the file information and
type will be for the link itself. File information
of all symbolic
links not on the command line is that of the
link itself.
-h An alias for the -L option. This option exists for
backwards
compatibility.
-L Causes the file information and file type (see
stat(2)) returned
for each symbolic link to be those of the file referenced by the
link, not the link itself. If the referenced file
does not exist,
the file information and type will be for the
link itself.
-W Let find take whiteouts into account when scanning
directories.
-X Permit find to be safely used in conjunction with
xargs(1). If a
file name contains any of the delimiting characters
used by
xargs, a diagnostic message is displayed on standard
error, and
the file is skipped. The delimiting characters include single
(`'') and double (`"') quotes, backslash (`'),
space, tab, and
newline (`0) characters. Alternatively, the -print0
primary
may be used in conjunction with the -0 option to
xargs(1), allowing
all file names to be processed safely.
-x Prevents find from descending into directories that
have a device
number different than that of the file from which
the descent began.
-amin n
True if the difference between the file last access
time and the
time find was started, rounded up to the next full
minute, is n
minutes.
-anewer file
True if the current file has a more recent last access time than
file.
-atime n
True if the difference between the file last access
time and the
time find was started, rounded up to the next full
24-hour period,
is n 24-hour periods.
-cmin n
True if the difference between the time of last
change of file
status information and the time find was started,
rounded up to
the next full minute, is n minutes.
-cnewer file
True if the current file has a more recent last
change time than
file.
-ctime n
True if the difference between the time of last
change of file
status information and the time find was started,
rounded up to
the next full 24-hour period, is n 24-hour periods.
-empty True if the current file or directory is empty.
-exec utility [argument ...];
True if the program named utility returns a zero
value as its exit
status. Optional arguments may be passed to the
utility. The
expression must be terminated by a semicolon (`;').
If the
string "{}" appears anywhere in the utility name or
the arguments
it is replaced by the pathname of the current file.
utility will
be executed from the directory from which find was
executed.
-execdir utility [argument ...];
Identical to the -exec primary with the exception
that utility
will be executed from the directory that holds the
current file.
The filename substituted for the string "{}" is not
qualified.
-flags [-]flags
The flags are comma-separated symbolic file flags
(see chflags(1)
for a list of valid flag names). If the flags are
preceded by a
dash (`-'), this primary evaluates to true if the
file in question
has at least one of the file flags specified by
flags. If
the flags are not preceded by a dash, this primary
evaluates to
true if the flags specified exactly match those of
the file.
-follow
Follow symbolic links.
-fstype type
True if the file is contained in a file system of
type type. Two
special file system types are recognized: ``local''
and
``rdonly''. These do not describe actual file system types; the
former matches any file system physically mounted on
the system
where find is being executed whereas the latter
matches any file
system which is mounted read-only.
-group gname
True if the file belongs to the group gname. If
gname is numeric
and there is no such group name, then gname is
treated as a group
ID.
-iname pattern
True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
pattern. Case insensitive.
-inum n
True if the file has inode number n.
-links n
True if the file has n links.
-ls This primary always evaluates to true. The following information
for the current file is written to standard output:
its inode
number, size in 512-byte blocks, file permissions,
number of hard
links, owner, group, size in bytes, last modification time, and
pathname. If the file is a block or character special file, the
major and minor numbers will be displayed instead of
the size in
bytes. If the file is a symbolic link, the pathname
of the
linked-to file will be displayed preceded by ``->''.
The format
is identical to that produced by ``ls -dgils''.
-maxdepth n
True if the current search depth is less than or
equal to what is
specified in n.
-mindepth n
True if the current search depth is at least what is
specified in
n.
-mmin n
True if the difference between the file last modification time
and the time find was started, rounded up to the
next full
minute, is n minutes.
-mtime n
True if the difference between the file last modification time
and the time find was started, rounded up to the
next full
24-hour period, is n 24-hour periods.
-name pattern
True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
pattern. Special shell pattern matching characters
(`[', `]',
`*', and `?') may be used as part of pattern. These
characters
may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a
backslash
(`').
-newer file
True if the current file has a more recent last modification time
than file.
-nouser
True if the file belongs to an unknown user.
-nogroup
True if the file belongs to an unknown group.
-ok utility [argument ...];
Identical to the -exec primary with the exception
that find requests
user affirmation for the execution of utility
by printing
a message to the terminal and reading a response.
If the response
is other than `y' the command is not executed
and the value
of the ok expression is false.
-path pattern
True if the pathname being examined matches pattern.
Special
shell pattern matching characters (`[', `]', `*',
and `?') may be
used as part of pattern. These characters may be
matched explicitly
by escaping them with a backslash (`'). Slashes (`/') are
treated as normal characters and do not have to be
matched explicitly.
-perm [-]mode
The mode may be either symbolic (see chmod(1)) or an
octal number.
If the mode is symbolic, a starting value of
zero is assumed
and the mode sets or clears permissions without regard to
the process's file mode creation mask. If the mode
is octal, only
bits 07777 (S_ISUID | S_ISGID | S_ISTXT | S_IRWXU
| S_IRWXG |
S_IRWXO) of the file's mode bits participate in the
comparison.
If the mode is preceded by a dash (`-'), this primary evaluates
to true if at least all of the bits in the mode are
set in the
file's mode bits. If the mode is not preceded by a
dash, this
primary evaluates to true if the bits in the mode
exactly match
the file's mode bits. Note, the first character of
a symbolic
mode may not be a dash.
-print This primary always evaluates to true. It prints
the pathname of
the current file to standard output, followed by a
newline (`0)
character. If neither -exec, -ls, -ok, nor -print0
is specified,
the given expression shall be effectively replaced
by (given
expression) -print.
-print0
This primary always evaluates to true. It prints
the pathname of
the current file to standard output, followed by a
null character.
-prune This primary always evaluates to true. It causes
find to not descend
into the current file. Note, the -prune primary has no effect
if the -d option was specified.
-size n[c]
True if the file's size, rounded up, in 512-byte
blocks is n. If
n is followed by a `c', then the primary is true if
the file's
size is n bytes.
-type t
True if the file is of the specified type. Possible
file types
are as follows:
W whiteout (currently, these won't even be
visible
without also specifying -W)
b block special
c character special
d directory
f regular file
l symbolic link
p FIFO
s socket
-user uname
True if the file belongs to the user uname. If
uname is numeric
and there is no such user name, then uname is treated as a user
ID.
All primaries which take a numeric argument allow the number
to be preceded
by a plus sign (`+') or a minus sign (`-'). A preceding plus sign
means ``more than n'', a preceding minus sign means ``less
than n'', and
neither means ``exactly n''.
The primaries may be combined using the following operators.
The operators
are listed in order of decreasing precedence.
(expression) This evaluates to true if the parenthesized
expression
evaluates to true.
!expression This is the unary NOT operator. It evaluates
to true if
the expression is false.
expression -and expression
expression expression
The -and operator is the logical AND operator.
As it is
implied by the juxtaposition of two expressions it does not
have to be specified. The expression evaluates to true if
both expressions are true. The second expression is not
evaluated if the first expression is false.
expression -or expression
The -or operator is the logical OR operator.
The expression
evaluates to true if either the first or
the second
expression is true. The second expression is
not evaluated
if the first expression is true.
All operands and primaries must be separate arguments to
find. Primaries
which themselves take arguments expect each argument to be a
separate argument
to find.
The following examples are shown as given to the shell:
$ find / -name '*.c' -print
Print out a list of all the files whose names do not
end in
``.c''.
$ find / -newer ttt -user wnj -print
Print out a list of all the files owned by user
``wnj'' that are
newer than the file ``ttt''.
$ find / -newer ttt -user wnj -print
Print out a list of all the files which are not both
newer than
``ttt'' and owned by ``wnj''.
$ find / -newer ttt -or -user wnj -print
Print out a list of all the files that are either
owned by ``wnj''
or that are newer than ``ttt''.
$ find / -fstype local -prune -or -name '*.core' -print
Print out a list of all core files on local file systems.
chflags(1), chmod(1), locate(1), whereis(1), which(1),
xargs(1), stat(2),
fts(3), getgrent(3), getpwent(3), strmode(3), symlink(7)
The find utility syntax is a superset of the syntax specified by the IEEE
Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') standard.
The options and primaries -amin, -cmin, -empty, -follow,
-fstype, -iname,
-inum, -links, -ls, -mmin, -maxdepth, -mindepth, -execdir,
and -print0
are extensions to IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2''). The -iname
option was
inspired by GNU find.
Historically, the -d, -H, and -x options were implemented
using the primaries
-depth, -follow, and -xdev. These primaries always
evaluated to
true. As they were really global variables that took effect
before the
traversal began, some legal expressions could have unexpected results.
An example is the expression ``-print -o -depth''. As
-print always
evaluates to true, the standard order of evaluation implies
that -depth
would never be evaluated. This is not the case.
The operator -or was implemented as -o, and the operator
-and was implemented
as -a.
Historic implementations of the -exec and -ok primaries did
not replace
the string "{}" in the utility name or the utility arguments
if it had
preceding or following non-whitespace characters. This version replaces
it no matter where in the utility name or arguments it appears.
A find command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.
The special characters used by find are also special characters to many
shell programs. In particular, the characters `*', `[',
`]', `?', `(',
`)', `!', `', and `;' may have to be escaped from the shell.
As there is no delimiter separating options and file names
or file names
and the expression, it is difficult to specify files named
``-xdev'' or
``!''. These problems are handled by the -f option and the
getopt(3)
``--'' construct.
The -W option is probably not the most elegant way to handle
whiteouts.
It may be replaced by a more sophisticated algorithm eventually.
OpenBSD 3.6 December 4, 1999
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