FIND(1) — User’s Manual — Commands
NAME
find − find files
SYNOPSIS
find pathname-list expression
DESCRIPTION
Find recursively descends the directory hierarchy for each pathname in the pathname-list (that is, one or more pathnames) 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.
−name filename
True if the filename argument 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, more flag bits (017777, see stat(2)) become significant and the flags are compared: (flags&onum)==onum.
−type c True if the type of the file is c, where c is b, c, d, f or l for block special file, character special file, directory, plain file, or symbolic link.
−links n True if the file has n links.
−user uname
True if the file belongs to the user uname (login name or numeric user ID).
−group gname
True if the file belongs to group gname (group name or numeric group ID).
−size n True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes per block).
−inum n True if the file has inode number n.
−atime n True if the file has been accessed in n days.
−mtime n
True if the file has been modified in n days.
−exec command
True if the executed command returns a zero value as exit status. The end of the command must be punctuated by an escaped semicolon. A command argument ‘{}’ is replaced by the current pathname.
−ok command
Like −exec except that the generated command is written on the standard output, then the standard input is read and the command executed only upon response y.
−print Always true; the current pathname is printed.
−newer file
True if the current file has been modified more recently than the argument file.
The primaries may be combined using the following operators (in order of decreasing precedence):
1) A parenthesized group of primaries and operators (parentheses are special to the Shell and must be escaped).
2) The negation of a primary (‘!’ is the unary not operator).
3) Concatenation of primaries (the and operation is implied by the juxtaposition of two primaries).
4) 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
BUGS
The syntax is painful.
Sun System Release 0.3 — 3 April 1983