.\" $OpenBSD: find.1,v 1.69 2007/05/31 19:20:10 jmc Exp $ .\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" from: @(#)find.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: May 31 2007 $ .Dt FIND 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm find .Nd walk a file hierarchy .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm find .Op Fl dHhLXx .Op Fl f Ar path .Ar path ...\& .Op Ar expression .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm recursively descends the directory tree for each .Ar path listed, evaluating an .Ar expression (composed of the .Dq primaries and .Dq operators listed below) in terms of each file in the tree. In the absence of an expression, .Ic -print is assumed. If an expression is given, but none of the primaries .Ic -exec , .Ic -ls , .Ic -ok , .Ic -print , or .Ic -print0 are specified, the given expression is effectively replaced by .Cm \&( Ar given expression Cm \&) .Ic -print . .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl d Causes .Nm to visit directories in post-order i.e. all entries in a directory will be acted on before the directory itself. By default, .Nm visits directories in pre-order i.e. before their contents. .It Fl f Ar path Specifies a file hierarchy for .Nm to traverse. File hierarchies may be specified without the .Fl f option if they are given immediately after any other options. .It Fl H Causes the file information and file type (see .Xr 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 symbolic links not on the command line is that of the link itself. .It Fl h An alias for the .Fl L option. This option exists for backwards compatibility. .It Fl L Causes the file information and file type (see .Xr 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. .It Fl X Permit .Nm to be safely used in conjunction with .Xr xargs 1 . If a file name contains any of the delimiting characters used by .Xr xargs , a diagnostic message is displayed on standard error, and the file is skipped. The delimiting characters include single .Pq Ql ' and double .Pq Ql \&" quotes, backslash .Pq Ql \e , space, tab, and newline .Pq Sq \en characters. Alternatively, the .Fl print0 primary may be used in conjunction with the .Fl 0 option to .Xr xargs 1 , allowing all file names to be processed safely. .It Fl x Prevents .Nm from descending into directories that have a device number different than that of the file from which the descent began. .El .Sh PRIMARIES .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Ic -amin Ar n True if the difference between the file last access time and the time .Nm was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is .Ar n minutes. .It Ic -anewer Ar file True if the current file has a more recent last access time than .Ar file . .It Ic -atime Ar n True if the difference between the file last access time and the time .Nm was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is .Ar n 24-hour periods. .It Ic -cmin Ar n True if the difference between the time of last change of file status information and the time .Nm was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is .Ar n minutes. .It Ic -cnewer Ar file True if the current file has a more recent last change time than .Ar file . .It Ic -ctime Ar n True if the difference between the time of last change of file status information and the time .Nm was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is .Ar n 24-hour periods. .It Ic -depth This primary always evaluates to true. The same as specifying the .Fl d option. .It Ic -empty True if the current file or directory is empty. .It Xo .Ic -exec Ar utility .Op argument ... .No ; .Xc True if the program named .Ar 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 .Pq Ql \&; . If the string .Qq {} appears anywhere in the utility name or the arguments it is replaced by the pathname of the current file. .Ar utility will be executed from the directory from which .Nm was executed. .Pp Since .Ar utility is executed every time a match is made, it is often more efficient to pipe the output of .Nm to .Xr xargs 1 . .It Xo .Ic -execdir Ar utility .Op argument ... .No ; .Xc Identical to the .Ic -exec primary with the exception that .Ar utility will be executed from the directory that holds the current file. The filename substituted for the string .Qq {} is not qualified. .It Xo .Ic -flags .Oo - Oc Ns Ar flags .Xc The .Ar flags are comma-separated symbolic file flags (see .Xr chflags 1 for a list of valid flag names). If the flags are preceded by a dash .Pq Sq - , this primary evaluates to true if at least all specified .Ar flags are set in the file's flags. If the flags are not preceded by a dash, this primary evaluates to true if the flags specified exactly match those of the file. .It Ic -follow This primary always evaluates to true. The same as specifying the .Fl H option. .It Ic -fstype Ar type True if the file is contained in a file system of type .Ar type . Two special file system types are recognized: .Dq local and .Dq rdonly . These do not describe actual file system types; the former matches any file system physically mounted on the system where .Nm is being executed whereas the latter matches any file system which is mounted read-only. .It Ic -group Ar gname True if the file belongs to the group .Ar gname . If .Ar gname is numeric and there is no such group name, then .Ar gname is treated as a group ID. .It Ic -iname Ar pattern True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches .Ar pattern . Case insensitive. .It Ic -inum Ar n True if the file has inode number .Ar n . .It Ic -links Ar n True if the file has .Ar n links. .It Ic -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 .Dq -\*(Gt . The format is identical to that produced by .Dq ls -dgils . .It Ic -maxdepth Ar n True if the current search depth is less than or equal to what is specified in .Ar n . .It Ic -mindepth Ar n True if the current search depth is at least what is specified in .Ar n . .It Ic -mmin Ar n True if the difference between the file last modification time and the time .Nm was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is .Ar n minutes. .It Ic -mtime Ar n True if the difference between the file last modification time and the time .Nm was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is .Ar n 24-hour periods. .It Ic -name Ar pattern True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches .Ar pattern . Special shell pattern matching characters .Pf ( Ql [ , .Ql \&] , .Ql * , and .Ql \&? ) may be used as part of .Ar pattern . These characters may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a backslash .Pq Ql \e . .It Ic -newer Ar file True if the current file has a more recent last modification time than .Ar file . .It Ic -nogroup True if the file belongs to an unknown group. .It Ic -nouser True if the file belongs to an unknown user. .It Xo .Ic -ok Ar utility .Op argument ... .No ; .Xc Identical to the .Ic -exec primary with the exception that .Nm requests user affirmation for the execution of .Ar utility by printing a message to the terminal and reading a response. If the response is other than .Sq y the command is not executed and the value of the .Ic ok expression is false. .It Ic -path Ar pattern True if the pathname being examined matches .Ar pattern . Special shell pattern matching characters .Pf ( Ql [ , .Ql \&] , .Ql * , and .Ql \&? ) may be used as part of .Ar pattern . These characters may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a backslash .Pq Ql \e . Slashes .Pq Ql / are treated as normal characters and do not have to be matched explicitly. .It Xo .Ic -perm .Oo - Oc Ns Ar mode .Xc The .Ar mode may be either symbolic (see .Xr chmod 1 ) or an octal number. 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 .Po .Dv S_ISUID \*(Ba S_ISGID \*(Ba S_ISTXT .Dv S_IRWXU \*(Ba S_IRWXG \*(Ba S_IRWXO .Pc of the file's mode bits participate in the comparison. If the mode is preceded by a dash .Pq Sq - , 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. .It Ic -print This primary always evaluates to true. It prints the pathname of the current file to standard output, followed by a newline .Pq Ql \en character. .It Ic -print0 This primary always evaluates to true. It prints the pathname of the current file to standard output, followed by a null character. .It Ic -prune This primary always evaluates to true. It causes .Nm to not descend into the current file. Note, the .Ic -prune primary has no effect if the .Fl d option was specified. .It Ic -size Ar n Ns Op Cm c True if the file's size, rounded up, in 512-byte blocks is .Ar n . If .Ar n is followed by a .Sq c , then the primary is true if the file's size is .Ar n bytes. .It Ic -type Ar t True if the file is of the specified type. Possible file types are as follows: .Pp .Bl -tag -width flag -offset indent -compact .It Cm b block special .It Cm c character special .It Cm d directory .It Cm f regular file .It Cm l symbolic link .It Cm p FIFO .It Cm s socket .El .Pp .It Ic -user Ar uname True if the file belongs to the user .Ar uname . If .Ar uname is numeric and there is no such user name, then .Ar uname is treated as a user ID. .It Ic -xdev This primary always evaluates to true. The same as specifying the .Fl x option. .El .Pp All primaries which take a numeric argument allow the number to be preceded by a plus sign .Pq Ql + or a minus sign .Pq Ql - . A preceding plus sign means .Dq more than n , a preceding minus sign means .Dq less than n , and neither means .Dq exactly n . .Sh OPERATORS The primaries may be combined using the following operators. The operators are listed in order of decreasing precedence. .Pp .Bl -tag -width "(expression)" -compact .It Cm \&( Ar expression Cm \&) This evaluates to true if the parenthesized expression evaluates to true. .Pp .It Cm \&! Ar expression This is the unary .Tn NOT operator. It evaluates to true if the expression is false. .Pp .It Ar expression Cm -and Ar expression .It Ar expression expression The .Cm -and operator is the logical .Tn 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. .Pp .It Ar expression Cm -or Ar expression The .Cm -or operator is the logical .Tn OR operator. The expression 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. .El .Pp Operators, primaries, and arguments to primaries must be separate arguments to .Nm find , i.e. they should be separated by whitespace. .Sh EXAMPLES Print out a list of all the files whose names end in .Dq \&.c : .Pp .Dl "$ find / -name '*.c'" .Pp Print out a list of all the files which are not both newer than .Dq ttt and owned by .Dq wnj : .Pp .Dl "$ find / \e! \e( -newer ttt -user wnj \e)" .Pp Print out a list of all core files on local file systems: .Pp .Dl "$ find / \e! -fstype local -prune -or -name '*.core'" .Pp Find all files in .Pa /usr/src ending in a dot and single digit, but skip directory .Pa /usr/src/gnu : .Pp .Dl "$ find /usr/src -path /usr/src/gnu -prune -or -name \e*.[0-9]" .Pp Find and remove all *.jpg files in the current working directory: .Pp .Dl "$ find . -name \e*.jpg -exec rm {} \e;" or .Dl "$ find . -name \e*.jpg | xargs rm" .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr chflags 1 , .Xr chmod 1 , .Xr locate 1 , .Xr whereis 1 , .Xr which 1 , .Xr xargs 1 , .Xr stat 2 , .Xr fts 3 , .Xr getgrent 3 , .Xr getpwent 3 , .Xr strmode 3 , .Xr symlink 7 .Sh STANDARDS The .Nm utility is compliant with the .St -p1003.1-2004 specification. .Pp The options .Op Fl dfhXx and primaries .Ic -amin , .Ic -anewer , .Ic -cmin , .Ic -cnewer , .Ic -empty , .Ic -execdir , .Ic -flags , .Ic -follow , .Ic -fstype , .Ic -iname , .Ic -inum , .Ic -ls , .Ic -maxdepth , .Ic -mindepth , .Ic -mmin , .Ic -path , and .Ic -print0 are extensions to that specification. The .Ic -iname primary was inspired by GNU find. .Pp Historically, the .Fl d , .Fl H , and .Fl x options were implemented using the primaries .Ic -depth , .Ic -follow , and .Ic -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 .Dq -print -o -depth . As .Cm -print always evaluates to true, the standard order of evaluation implies that .Cm -depth would never be evaluated. This is not the case. .Pp The operator .Cm -or was implemented as .Cm -o , and the operator .Cm -and was implemented as .Cm -a . .Pp Historic implementations of the .Ic -exec and .Ic -ok primaries did not replace the string .Qq {} 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. .Sh HISTORY A .Nm command appeared in .At v1 . .Sh CAVEATS The special characters used by .Nm are also special characters to many shell programs. In particular, the characters .Ql * , .Ql [ , .Ql \&] , .Ql \&? , .Ql ( , .Ql \&) , .Ql \&! , .Ql \e , and .Ql \&; may have to be escaped from the shell. .Pp As there is no delimiter separating options and file names or file names and the .Ar expression , it is difficult to specify files named .Dq -xdev or .Sq \&! . These problems are handled by the .Fl f option and the .Xr getopt 3 .Sq -- construct.