.\" Copyright (c) 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\" @(#)find.1 6.8 (Berkeley) %G%
find \- walk a file hierarchy
recursively descends the directory tree for each
listed, evaluating an ``expression'' composed of the ``primaries''
listed below (each of which is a separate argument to
in terms of each file in the tree.
All primaries which take a numeric argument allow the number to be
preceded by a plus sign (``+'') or a minus sign (``\-'').
A preceding plus sign means ``more than
a preceding minus sign means ``less than
and neither means ``exactly
True if the difference between the file last access time and the time
was started, rounded up to the next full 24\-hour period, is
True if the difference between the time of last change of file status
was started, rounded up to the next full 24\-hour period, is
This primary always evaluates to true.
It 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.
visits directories in pre\-order, i.e. before their contents.
Note, the default is not a breadth-first traversal.
.B \-exec utility [argument ...] ;
True if the program named
returns a zero value as its exit 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 arguments
it is replaced by the pathname of the current file.
Utility will be executed in the directory from which
and terminating semicolon must each be a separate argument to
This primary always evaluates to true.
It causes the file information and file type (see
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
True if the file is contained in a file system of type
Currently supported types are ``mfs'', ``nfs'', ``pc'' and ``ufs''.
True if the file belongs to the group
is numeric and there is no such group name, then
is treated as a group id.
True if the file has inode number
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''.
True if the difference between the file last modification time and the time
was started, rounded up to the next full 24\-hour period, is
.B \-ok utility [argument ...] ;
primary is identical to the
primary with the exception that
requests user affirmation for the execution of the utility by printing
a message to the terminal and reading a response.
If the response is other than ``y'' the command is not executed and the
True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
Special shell pattern matching characters (``['', ``]'', ``*'', and ``?'')
These characters may be escaped with a backslash (``\e'').
True if the current file has a more recent last modification time than
True if the file belongs to an unknown user.
True if the file belongs to an unknown group.
may be either symbolic (see
If the mode is symbolic, a starting value of zero is assumed and the
mode sets or clears permissions without regard to the process' file mode
If the mode is octal, only bits 07777 of the file's mode bits participate
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 (``\-'').
This primary always evaluates to true.
It prints the pathname of the current file to standard output.
The expression is appended to the user specified expression if neither
This primary always evaluates to true.
to not descend into the current file.
True if the file's size, rounded up, in 512\-byte blocks is
is followed by a ``c'', then the primary is true if the
True if the file is of the specified type.
Possible file types are as follows:
True if the file belongs to the user
is numeric and there is no such user name, then
This primary always evaluates to true.
to not descend into directories that have a different device number
than the file the descent began from.
The primaries may be combined using the following operators.
The operators are listed in order of decreasing precedence.
This evaluates to true if the parenthesized expression evaluates to
This is the unary NOT operator.
It evaluates to true if the expression is false.
.B "expression \-a expression"
.B "expression expression"
operator is the logical AND operator.
As it is implied by the juxtaposition of two expressions it does not
The expression evaluates to true if both expressions are true.
The second expression is not evaluated if the first expression is false.
.B "expression \-o expression"
operator is the logical OR operator.
The expression evaluates to true if either the first or the second expression
The second expression is not evaluated if the first expression is true.
The following examples are shown as given to the shell:
find / \e! \-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
find / \e! \e( \-newer ttt \-user wnj \e) \-print
Print out a list of all the files which are not both newer than ``ttt''
find / \e( \-newer ttt \-o \-user wnj \e) \-print
Print out a list of all the files that are either owned by ``wnj'' or
that are newer than ``ttt''.
chmod(1), sh(1), test(1), stat(2), umask(2), getpwent(3), getgrent(3)
utility is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compatible.
are really global variables that take effect before the traversal begins,
possibly leading to unexpected results.
An example would be the expression ``\-print \-o \-depth''.
As \-print always evaluates to true, the standard order of evaluation
would imply that \-depth would never be evaluated.
These primaries actually behave as multi-letter options which are
evaluated and replaced with the moral equivalent of \-true when
Any command line argument beginning with a dash (``\-''), exclamation point
(``!'') or left parenthesis (``('') is assumed to be part of an expression.
The first such argument is used to delimit the end of the file names and
the beginning of the expression.
Traversing file trees with names beginning with one of these characters
Several special characters used by
are also special characters to the shell programs.
In particular, the characters ``*'', ``['', ``]'', ``?'', ``('', ``)'',
``!'', ``\e'' and ``;'' may have to be escaped from the shell.
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