FIND(1) BSD Reference Manual FIND(1)NAMEfind - walk a file hierarchy
SYNOPSISfind [-H | -L | -P] [-Xdx] [-f file] file ... expression
DESCRIPTION
Find recursively descends the directory tree for each file listed, evalu-
ating an expression (composed of the ``primaries'' and ``operands'' list-
ed below) in terms of each file in the tree.
The options are as follows:
-H The -H option causes the file information and file type (see
stat(2)) returned for each symbolic link specified 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 informa-
tion 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.
-L The -L option 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.
-P The -P option causes the file information and file type (see
stat(2)) returned for each symbolic link to be those of the link
itself.
-X The -X option is a modification to 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 delim-
iting characters include single (`` ' '') and double (`` " '')
quotes, backslash (``\''), space, tab and newline characters.
-d The -d option 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 de-
fault, find visits directories in pre-order, i.e. before their
contents. Note, the default is not a breadth-first traversal.
-f The -f option specifies a file hierarchy for find to traverse.
File hierarchies may also be specified as the operands immediate-
ly following the options.
-x The -x option prevents find from descending into directories that
have a device number different than that of the file from which
the descent began.
PRIMARIES-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 peri-
od, is n 24-hour periods.
-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.
-depth This primary always evaluates to true, and is identical to the -d
option. If any -depth primary is specified, it applies to the
entire command even if the rules of expression evaluation would
indicate that it would not normally be evaluated. See the STAN-
DARDS section for additional information.
-exec utility [argument ...];
True if the program named utility returns a zero value as its ex-
it 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 argu-
ments it is replaced by the pathname of the current file.
Utility will be executed from the directory from which find was
executed.
-follow
This primary always evaluates to true, and is identical to the -L
option. If any -follow primary is specified, it applies to the
entire command even if the rules of expression evaluation would
indicate that it would not normally be evaluated. See the STAN-
DARDS section for additional information.
-fstype type
True if the file is contained in a file system of type type. The
sysctl(8) command can be used to find out the types of filesys-
tems that are available on the system. The command:
sysctl -A vfs
will display all of the filesystems compiled into the running
kernel.
In addition, there are two pseudo-types, ``local'' and
``rdonly''. The former matches any file system physically mounted
on the system where the find is being executed and 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.
-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''.
-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.
-ok utility [argument ...];
The -ok primary is identical to the -exec primary with the excep-
tion that find requests user affirmation for the execution of the
utility by printing a message to the terminal and reading a re-
sponse. If the response is other than ``y'' the command is not
executed and the value of the ok expression is false.
-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 charac-
ters 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.
-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 num-
ber. If the mode is symbolic, a starting value of zero is as-
sumed and the mode sets or clears permissions without regard to
the process' 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. If none of -exec, -ls, or
-ok is specified, the given expression shall be effectively re-
placed by (given expression) -print.
-prune This primary always evaluates to true. It causes find to not de-
scend into the current file. Note, the -prune primary has no ef-
fect 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:
b block special
c character special
d directory
f regular file
l symbolic link
p FIFO
s socket
w whiteout
There is no information other than file type available for files
of type ``whiteout'', and combining it with primaries that re-
quire additional information, e.g., atime, will almost certainly
not yield the desired results. (See mount_union(8) for further
information on whiteout files.)
-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.
-xdev This primary always evaluates to true, and is identical to the -x
option. If any -xdev primary is specified, it applies to the en-
tire command even if the rules of expression evaluation would in-
dicate that it would not normally be evaluated. See the STAN-
DARDS section for additional information.
All primaries which take a numeric argument allow the number to be pre-
ceded 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'' .
OPERATORS
The primaries may be combined using the following operators. The opera-
tors 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 -a expression
expression expression
The -a operator is the logical AND operator. As it is im-
plied 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 -o expression
The -o operator is the logical OR operator. The expression
evaluates to true if either the first or the second expres-
sion 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 ar-
gument to find.
EXAMPLES
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 / \( -newer ttt -o-user wnj \) -print
Print out a list of all the files that are either owned by ``wnj''
or that are newer than ``ttt''.
SEE ALSOchmod(1), locate(1), stat(2), fts(3), getgrent(3), getpwent(3),
strmode(3), symlink(7)STANDARDS
The find utility syntax is a superset of the syntax specified by the IEEE
Std1003.2 (``POSIX'') standard -- specifically, all of the command line
options and the -inum and -ls primaries are extensions to that standard.
Future versions of the standard are expected to adopt some of the command
line options.
This implementation provides the -H, -d and -x options as alternatives to
the historic primaries -depth, -follow and -xdev. Since these primaries
are treated as global variables that take effect before the traversal be-
gins, some legal expressions can 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 eval-
uated. This is not the case. The -H, -d and -x options avoid this con-
fusion, although they are not yet part of the IEEE Std1003.2 (``POSIX'')
standard.
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. This is
permitted by IEEE Std1003.2 (``POSIX'').
BUGS
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.
BSDI BSD/OS May 9, 1995 5
