FIND(1) (Directory and File Management Utilities) FIND(1)
NAME
find - find files
SYNOPSIS
find path-name-list expression
DESCRIPTION
find recursively descends the directory hierarchy 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. find does NOT follow
symbolic links to the resulting file or directory. Instead,
it applies the selection criteria to the symbolic link
itself. 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 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, l, p, or f for symbolic-link,
block special-file, character special-file,
directory, fifo (a.k.a. named pipe), or
plain file respectively.
-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.
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FIND(1) (Directory and File Management Utilities) FIND(1)
-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
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
device 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
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FIND(1) (Directory and File Management Utilities) FIND(1)
hierarchy to be done so that all entries in
a directory are acted on before the
directory 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
specified, 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
operator).
2) Concatenation of primaries (the and operation is implied
by the juxtaposition of two primaries).
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
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FIND(1) (Directory and File Management Utilities) FIND(1)
SEE ALSO
chmod(1), cpio(1), sh(1), test(1).
stat(2), umask(2), fs(4) in the Programmer's Reference
Manual.
BUGS
find / -depth always fails with the message:
find: stat failed: : No such file or directory
Page 4 May 1989