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| Interix / SUA | find.1 | Interix / SUA |
FIND(1) System General Commands Manual FIND(1)
NAME
find - walk a file hierarchy
SYNOPSIS
find [-dDHhLPXx] [-f path] path ... [expression]
DESCRIPTION
find recursively descends the directory tree for each path listed, evalu-
ating an expression (composed of the ``primaries'' and ``operands''
listed below) in terms of each file in the tree. In the absence of an
expression, -print is assumed.
The options are as follows:
-d Causes find to visit directories in post-order i.e. all entries
in a directory will be acted on before the directory itself. By
default, find visits directories in pre-order i.e. before their
contents.
-f path
Specifies a file hierarchy for find to traverse. File hierar-
chies may also be specified as the operands immediately following
the options.
-D Display the domainname with the username when it is different
from the environment variable USERDOMAIN. See pdomain(1) for
information.
-H Causes the file information and file type (see stat(2)) returned
for each symbolic link encountered 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 information and
type will be for the link itself. File information of all sym-
bolic links not on the command line is that of the link itself.
-h An alias for the -L option. This option exists for backwards
compatibility.
-i Forces the primaries -name and -path to act as the primaries
-iname and -ipath instead. Useful when walking a file system that
is case insensitive (as many Windows file systems are) or the
case is unknown.
-L 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.
The last option of -L or will win.
-P This option returns file information and file type for the physi-
cal file or if the file is a symbolic link then for the link
itself. The last option of -L or will win.
-X 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 delimiting characters include single
(`'') and double (`"') quotes, backslash (`\'), space, tab, and
newline (`\n') characters. Alternatively, the -print0 primary
may be used in conjunction with the -0 option to xargs(1), allow-
ing all file names to be processed safely.
-x Prevents find from descending into directories that have a device
number different than that of the file from which the descent
began.
PRIMARIES
-amin n
True if the difference between the file last access time and the
time find was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is n
minutes.
-anewer file
True if the current file has a more recent last access time than
file.
-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
period, is n 24-hour periods.
-cmin 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 minute, is n minutes.
-cnewer file
True if the current file has a more recent last change time than
file.
-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 Same as the -d option.
-empty True if the current file or directory is empty.
-exec utility [argument ...];
True if the program named utility 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 from the directory from which find was executed.
-execdir utility [argument ...];
Identical to the -exec primary with the exception that utility
will be executed from the directory that holds the current file.
The filename substituted for the string "{}" is not qualified.
-follow
Follow symbolic links.
-fstype type
True if the file is contained in a file system of type type. The
special file system types recognized are: ``ntfs'' ``ofs''
``cdfs'' ``fat'' ``hpfs'' ``samba'' ``nfs'' and ``rdonly''. The
majority match file system types while the very last one 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.
-icase Always true. Similar to the '-i' option. Forces case insensitive
evaluation of name and path primaries thereafter.
-iname pattern
True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
pattern. Case insensitive.
-inum n
True if the file has inode number n.
-ipath pattern
True if the pathname being examined matches pattern. Case insen-
sitive.
-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''.
-maxdepth n
True if the current search depth is less than or equal to what is
specified in n.
-mindepth n
True if the current search depth is at least what is specified in
n.
-mmin n
True if the difference between the file last modification time
and the time find was started, rounded up to the next full
minute, is n minutes.
-mount Similar to the option. Do not decend into directories where the
device number is different from the device number of the direc-
tory from which the decent began.
-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.
-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 characters
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.
-nogroup
True if the file belongs to an unknown group.
-nouser
True if the file belongs to an unknown user.
-ok utility [argument ...];
Identical to the -exec primary with the exception that find
requests user affirmation for the execution of utility by print-
ing a message to the terminal and reading a response. If the
response is other than `y' the command is not executed and the
value of the ok expression is false.
-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 explic-
itly 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
assumed and the mode sets or clears permissions without regard to
the process's 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, followed by a newline (`\n')
character. If neither -exec, -ls, -ok, nor -print0 is specified,
the given expression shall be effectively replaced by (given
expression) -print.
-print0
This primary always evaluates to true. It prints the pathname of
the current file to standard output, followed by a null charac-
ter.
-prune This primary always evaluates to true. It causes find to not
descend into the current file. Note, the -prune primary has no
effect 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:
A additional ACE's present
b block special
c character special
d directory
f regular file
l symbolic link
p FIFO
s socket
-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 Same as the primary -mount.
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 -and expression
expression expression
The -and operator is the logical AND operator. As it is
implied 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 -or expression
The -or operator is the logical OR operator. The expres-
sion evaluates to true if either the first or the second
expression 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
argument to find.
DIAGNOSTICS
The find utility exits with a value of 0 when successful and a value >0
otherwise.
EXAMPLES
Print out a list of all the files whose names do not end in ``.c'':
$ find / \! -name '*.c' -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 / \! \( -newer ttt -user wnj \) -print
Print out a list of all the files that are either owned by ``wnj'' or
that are newer than ``ttt'':
$ find / \( -newer ttt -or -user wnj \) -print
Print out a list of all core files on local file systems:
$ find / \! -fstype local -prune -or -name '*.core' -print
Find all files in /usr/src ending in a dot and single digit, but skip
directory /usr/src/gnu:
$ find /usr/src -path /usr/src/gnu -prune -or -name \*\.[0-9]
SEE ALSO
chmod(1), locate(1), pdomain(1,) whereis(1), which(1), xargs(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
Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') standard.
The options and primaries -amin, -cmin, -empty, -follow, -fstype, -iname,
-inum, -ipath, -links, -ls, -mmin, -maxdepth, -mindepth, -execdir, and
-print0 are extensions to IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2''). The -iname
option was inspired by GNU find and is functionally the same as the '-i'
option with earlier Interix version of find. The -ipath was inspired by
Interix's '-i' option.
Historically, the -d, -H, and -x options were implemented using the pri-
maries -depth, -follow, and -xdev. These primaries always evaluated to
true. As they were really global variables that took effect before the
traversal began, some legal expressions could 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 evaluated. This is not the case.
The operator -or was implemented as -o, and the operator -and was imple-
mented as -a.
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.
HISTORY
A find command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.
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.
Interix June 22, 2007 Interix