Table of Contents
find - find files by name, or by other characteristics
find pathname-list expression
find component
find recursively descends the directory hierarchy for each
pathname in the pathname-list, seeking files that match a
logical expression written using the operators listed below.
find does not follow symbolic links to other files or directories;
it applies the selection criteria to the symbolic
links themselves, as if they were ordinary files (see ln(1V)
for a description of symbolic links).
If the fast-find feature is enabled, find displays pathnames
in which a filename component occurs.
Operators
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.
- -fstype type
- True if the filesystem to which the file
belongs is of type type, where type is typically
4.2 or nfs.
- -name filename True if the
- filename argument matches the
current file name. Shell argument syntax can
be used if escaped (watch out for [, ? and
*).
- -perm onum
- True if the file permission flags exactly
match the octal number onum (see chmod(1V)).
If onum is prefixed by a minus sign, more
flag bits (017777, see chmod(1V)) become significant
and the flags are compared:
(flags&onum)==onum.
- -prune
- Always yields true. Has the side effect of
pruning the search tree at the file. That
is, if the current path name is a directory,
find will not descend into that directory.
- -type c
- True if the type of the file is c, where c is
one of:
- b
- for block special file c
- c
- for character special file
- d
- for directory
- f
- for plain file
- p
- for named pipe (FIFO)
- l
- for symbolic link
- s
- for socket
- -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 database, it is
taken as a user ID.
- -nouser
- True if the file belongs to a user not in the
/etc/passwd database.
- -group gname
- True if the file belongs to group gname. If
gname is numeric and does not appear as a
login name in the /etc/group database, it is
taken as a group ID.
- -nogroup
- True if the file belongs to a group not in
the /etc/group database.
- -size n
- True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes
per block). If n is followed by a c, the
size is in characters.
- -inum n
- True if the file has inode number n.
- -atime n
- True if the file has been accessed in n days.
Note: 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.
"Changed" means either that the file has been
modified or some attribute of the file (its
owner, its group, the number of links to it,
etc.) has been changed.
- -exec command
- True if the executed command returns a zero
value as exit status. The end of command
must be punctuated by an escaped semicolon.
A command argument {} is replaced by the
current pathname.
- -ok command
- Like -exec except that the generated command
is written on the standard output, then the
standard input is read and the command executed
only upon response y.
- -print
- Always true; the current pathname is printed.
- -ls
- Always true; prints current pathname together
with its associated statistics. These
include (respectively) inode number, size in
kilobytes (1024 bytes), protection mode,
number of hard links, user, group, size in
bytes, and modification time. If the file is
a special file the size field will instead
contain the major and minor device numbers.
If the file is a symbolic link the pathname
of the linked-to file is printed preceded by
`->'. The format is identical to that of ls
-gilds (see ls(1V)).
Note: formatting is done internally, without
executing the ls program.
- -cpio device
- Always true; write the current file on device
in cpio(5) format (5120-byte records).
- -ncpio device
- Always true; write the current file on device
in cpio -c format (5120-byte records).
- -newer file
- True if the current file has been modified
more recently than the argument filename.
- -xdev
- Always true; find does not traverse down into
a file system different from the one on which
current argument pathname resides.
- -depth
- Always true; find descends the directory
hierarchy, acting on the entries in a directory
before acting on 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.
- (expression)
- True if the parenthesized expression is true.
Note: Parentheses are special to the shell
and must be escaped.
- !primary
- True if the primary is false (! is the unary
not operator).
primary1 [ -a ] primary2
True if both primary1 and primary2 are true.
The -a is not required. It is implied by the
juxtaposition of two primaries.
primary1 -o primary2
True if either primary1 or primary2 is true
(-o is the or operator).
Fast-Find
The fast-find feature is enabled by the presence of the
find.codes database in /usr/lib/find. You must be root to
build or update this database by running the updatedb script
in that same directory. You may wish to modify the updatedb
script to suit your needs.
An alternate database can be specified by setting the FCODES
environment variable.
In our local development system, we keep a file called
TIMESTAMP in all the manual page directories. Here is how
to find all entries that have been updated since TIMESTAMP
was created:
example% find /usr/share/man/man2 -newer /usr/share/man/man2/TIMESTAMP -print
/usr/share/man/man2
/usr/share/man/man2/socket.2
/usr/share/man/man2/mmap.2
example%
To find all the files called intro.ms starting from the
current directory:
example% find . -name intro.ms -print
./manuals/assembler/intro.ms
./manuals/sun.core/intro.ms
./manuals/driver.tut/intro.ms
./manuals/sys.manager/uucp.impl/intro.ms
./supplements/general.works/unix.introduction/intro.ms
./supplements/programming.tools/sccs/intro.ms
example%
To recursively print all files names in the current directory
and below, but skipping SCCS directories:
example% find . -name SCCS -prune -o -print
example%
To recursively print all files names in the current directory
and below, skipping the contents of SCCS directories,
but printing out the SCCS directory name:
example% find . -print -name SCCS -prune
example%
To remove files beneath your home directory named a.out or
*.o that have not been accessed for a week and that are not
mounted using NFS:
example% cd
example% find . \( -name a.out -o -name `*.o' \) -atime +7 -exec rm {} \; -o -fstype nfs -prune
/usr/lib/find/find.codes
database for fast find
/usr/lib/find/updatedb
script to update fast-find database
/usr/lib/find/code fast-find database utilities
/usr/lib/find/bigram
- FCODES
- alternate database for fast find
chmod(1V), cpio(1), ln(1V), ls(1V), sh(1), test(1V),
cpio(5), fs(5)
Table of Contents