FIND(1) SysV FIND(1)
NAME
find - find files
SYNOPSIS
find pathname-list expression
DESCRIPTION
find recursively descends the directory hierarchy for each pathname in
the path-name-list, seeking files that match a Boolean expression written
in the primaries given below. The SysV implementation of find does not
follow symbolic links.
EXPRESSIONS
(In the descriptions below, 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 file
True if file matches the current filename. Normal shell argument
syntax may be used if escaped, but watch out for [, ? and *.
-perm onum
True if the file permission flags exactly match the octal number
onum. 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. Information about
file permissions is found in chmod(1).
-type c True if the type of the file is c, where c is b (block special
file), c (character special file), d (directory), p (FIFO, or
named pipe), f (plain file), or l (softlink).
-typeuid typename
True if the file type matches the type specified by the typename
string (ie. coff, cmpexe, unstruct, uasc, obj).
-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 log-in 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 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 pathname.
-ok cmd Like -exec, except this prints the generated command line with a
question mark first, and executes only if you respond by typing
y.
-print Always true; print the current pathname.
-cpio device
Always true; write the current file on device in cpio(4) format
(5120-byte records).
-newer file
True if the current file has been modified more recently than the
argument file.
-depth Always true; descend the directory hierarchy so that all entries
in a directory are acted on before the directory itself. Can be
useful when find is used with cpio(1) to transfer files 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. Note:
This expression has no effect on Apollo systems, since we do not
distinguish between a file that is local to the node running the
process versus a file that is on a node in the network. On
Apollo systems, -local returns true if the file is found anywhere
on the network.
( expression )
True if a parenthetical expression is true (parentheses are
special to the shell and must be escaped).
OPERATORS
The primaries listed above 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
/usr/lib/find
NOTE
You may be working in shared space if you change anything in
/usr/lib/find since it may be a link to something else.
SEE ALSO
chmod (1), cpio (1), sh (1), test (1), stat (2), umask (2), cpio (4).