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find
find - search a folder hierarchy for files that meet a desired
criteria
SYNTAX
find [path...] [expression]
DESCRIPTION
find searches the directory tree rooted at each given file name
by evaluating the given expression from left to right,
according to the rules of precedence (see section OPERA
TORS), until the outcome is known (the left hand side is
false for and operations, true for or), at which point
find moves on to the next file name.
The first argument that begins with
- ( ) , or !
is taken to be the beginning of the expression; any
arguments before it are paths to search, and any arguments
after it are the rest of the expression. If no paths are
given, the current directory is used. If no expression is
given, the expression `-print' is used.
find exits with status 0 if all files are processed suc
cessfully, greater than 0 if errors occur.
EXPRESSIONS
The expression is made up of options (which affect overall
operation rather than the processing of a specific file,
and always return true), tests (which return a true or
false value), and actions (which have side effects and
return a true or false value), all separated by operators.
-and is assumed where the operator is omitted. If the
expression contains no actions other than -prune, -print
is performed on all files for which the expression is
true.
OPTIONS
All options always return true. They always take effect,
rather than being processed only when their place in the
expression is reached. Therefore, for clarity, it is best
to place them at the beginning of the expression.
-daystart
Measure times (for -amin, -atime, -cmin, -ctime,-mmin,
and -mtime) from the beginning of today
rather than from 24 hours ago.
-depth
Process each directory's contents before the directory itself.
-follow
Dereference symbolic links. Implies -noleaf.
-help, --help
Print a summary of the command-line usage of find
and exit.
-maxdepth levels
Descend at most levels (a non-negative integer)
levels of directories below the command line argu
ments. `-maxdepth 0' means only apply the tests
and actions to the command line arguments.
mindepth levels
Do not apply any tests or actions at levels less
than levels (a non-negative integer). `-mindepth
1' means process all files except the command line
arguments.
mount Don't descend directories on other filesystems. An
alternate name for -xdev, for compatibility with
some other versions of find.
noleaf
Do not optimize by assuming that directories con
tain 2 fewer subdirectories than their hard link
count. This option is needed when searching
filesystems that do not follow the Unix directory-
link convention, such as CD-ROM or MS-DOS filesys
tems or AFS volume mount points. Each directory on
a normal Unix filesystem has at least 2 hard links:
its name and its `.' entry. Additionally, its
subdirectories (if any) each have a `..' entry
linked to that directory. When find is examining a
directory, after it has statted 2 fewer subdirecto
ries than the directory's link count, it knows that
the rest of the entries in the directory are non-
directories (`leaf' files in the directory tree).
If only the files' names need to be examined, there
is no need to stat them; this gives a significant
increase in search speed.
-version, --version
Print the find version number and exit.
-xdev Don't descend directories on other filesystems.
TESTS
Numeric arguments can be specified as
+n for greater than n,
-n for less than n,
n for exactly n.
-amin n
File was last accessed n minutes ago.
-anewer file
File was last accessed more recently than file was
modified. -anewer is affected by -follow only if
-follow comes before -anewer on the command line.
-atime n
File was last accessed n*24 hours ago.
-cmin n
File's status was last changed n minutes ago.
-cnewer file
File's status was last changed more recently than
file was modified. -cnewer is affected by -follow
only if -follow comes before -cnewer on the command
line.
-ctime n
File's status was last changed n*24 hours ago.
-empty File is empty and is either a regular file or a
directory.
-false Always false.
-fstype type
File is on a filesystem of type type. The valid
filesystem types vary among different versions of
Unix; an incomplete list of filesystem types that
are accepted on some version of Unix or another is:
ufs, 4.2, 4.3, nfs, tmp, mfs, S51K, S52K. You can
use -printf with the %F directive to see the types
of your filesystems.
-gid n File's numeric group ID is n.
-group gname
File belongs to group gname (numeric group ID
allowed).
-ilname pattern
Like -lname, but the match is case insensitive.
-iname pattern
Like -name, but the match is case insensitive. For
example, the patterns `fo*' and `F??' match the
file names `Foo', `FOO', `foo', `fOo', etc.
-inum n
File has inode number n.
-ipath pattern
Like -path, but the match is case insensitive.
-iregex pattern
Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.
-links n
File has n links.
-lname pattern
File is a symbolic link whose contents match shell
pattern pattern. The metacharacters do not treat
`/' or `.' specially.
-mmin n
File's data was last modified n minutes ago.
-mtime n
File's data was last modified n*24 hours ago.
-name pattern
Base of file name (the path with the leading direc
tories removed) matches shell pattern pattern. The
metacharacters (`*', `?', and `[]') do not match a
`.' at the start of the base name. To ignore a
directory and the files under it, use -prune; see
an example in the description of -path.
-newer file
File was modified more recently than file. -newer
is affected by -follow only if -follow comes before
-newer on the command line.
-nouser
No user corresponds to file's numeric user ID.
-nogroup
No group corresponds to file's numeric group ID.
-path pattern
"Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman
I don't like and just give her a house." - Rod
Stewart
Related commands:
grep - Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern
egrep - Search file(s) for lines that match an extended
expression
fgrep - Search file(s) for lines that match a fixed
string
gawk - Find and Replace text within file(s)
tr - Translate, squeeze, and/or delete characters
Equivalent Windows NT commands:
FIND - Search for a text string in a file
FINDSTR - Search for strings in files
MUNGE - Find and Replace text within file(s)
