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.  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, l, p, or f for block special file, character special file, directory, symbolic link, 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. 

−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 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

SEE ALSO

chmod(1), cpio(1), sh(1), test(1), stat(2), umask(2), fs(4). 

BUGS

find / −depth always fails with the message:

“find:  stat failed:  : No such file or directory”. 

find does not follow symbolic links to directories. 

September 02, 1992