FIND(1) INTERACTIVE UNIX System FIND(1)
NAME
find - find files
SYNOPSIS
find path-name-list expression
DESCRIPTION
The find command recursively descends the directory hierar-
chy for each path name in the path-name-list (that is, one
or more path names), seeking files that match a Boolean
expression written in the primaries given below. In the
descriptions, the argument n is used as a decimal integer
where +n means more than n, -n means less than n, and n
means exactly n. Valid expressions are:
-name file True if file matches the current file name.
Normal shell argument syntax may be used if
escaped (watch out for [, ? and *).
[-perm] -onum True if the file permission flags exactly
match the octal number onum [see chmod(1)].
If onum is prefixed by a minus sign, only
the bits that are set in onum are compared
with the file permission flags, and the
expression evaluates true if they match.
-type c True if the type of the file is c, where c
is b, c, d, p, or f for block special file,
character special file, directory, fifo
(a.k.a named pipe), or plain file, respec-
tively.
-links n True if the file has n links.
-user uname True if the file belongs to the user uname.
If uname is numeric and does not appear as a
login name in the /etc/passwd file, it is
taken as a user ID.
-group gname True if the file belongs to the group gname.
If gname is numeric and does not appear in
the /etc/group file, it is taken as a group
ID.
-size n[c] True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes
per block). If n is followed by a c, the
size is in characters.
-atime n True if the file has been accessed in n
days. The access time of directories in
path-name-list is changed by find itself.
-mtime n True if the file has been modified in n
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days.
-ctime n True if the file has been changed in n days.
-exec cmd True if the executed cmd returns a zero
value as exit status. The end of cmd must
be punctuated by an escaped semicolon. A
command argument {} is replaced by the
current path name.
-ok cmd Like -exec except that the generated command
line is printed with a question mark first
and is executed only if the user responds by
typing y.
-print Always true; causes the current path name to
be printed.
-cpio device Always true; write the current file on dev-
ice in cpio(1) format (5120-byte records).
-newer file True if the current file has been modified
more recently than the argument file.
-depth Always true; causes descent of the directory
hierarchy to be done so that all entries in
a directory are acted on before the direc-
tory itself. This can be useful when find
is used with cpio(1) to transfer files that
are contained in directories without write
permission.
-mount Always true; restricts the search to the
file system containing the directory speci-
fied, or if no directory was specified, the
current directory.
-local True if the file physically resides on the
local system.
( expression ) True if the parenthesized expression is true
(parentheses are special to the shell and
must be escaped).
The primaries may be combined using the following operators
(in order of decreasing precedence):
(1) The negation of a primary (! is the unary not opera-
tor).
(2) Concatenation of primaries (the and operation is implied
by the juxtaposition of two primaries).
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(3) Alternation of primaries (-o is the or operator).
EXAMPLE
To remove all files named a.out or *.o that have not been
accessed for a week:
find / \( -name a.out -o -name '*.o' \) -atime +7 -exec rm
{} \;
FILES
/etc/passwd, /etc/group
SEE ALSO
chmod(1), cpio(1), sh(1), test(1).
stat(2), umask(2), fs(4) in the INTERACTIVE SDS Guide and
Programmer's Reference Manual.
BUGS
find / -depth always fails with the message: ``find: stat
failed: : No such file or directory''.
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