1 FIND(1) User Commands FIND(1)
2
3
4
5 NAME
6 find - find files
7
8 SYNOPSIS
9 /usr/bin/find [-E] [-H | -L] path... expression
10
11
12 /usr/xpg4/bin/find [-H | -L] path... expression
13
14
15 DESCRIPTION
16 The find utility recursively descends the directory hierarchy for each
17 path seeking files that match a Boolean expression written in the
18 primaries specified below.
19
20
21 find is able to descend to arbitrary depths in a file hierarchy and
22 does not fail due to path length limitations (unless a path operand
23 specified by the application exceeds PATH_MAX requirements).
24
25
26 find detects infinite loops; that is, entering a previously visited
27 directory that is an ancestor of the last file encountered.
28
29 OPTIONS
30 The following options are supported:
31
32 -E
33 Interpret regular expressions followed by -regex and -iregex
34 primaries as extended regular expressions.
35
36
37 -H
38 Causes the file information and file type evaluated for each
39 symbolic link encountered on the command line to be those of the
40 file referenced by the link, and not the link itself. If the
41 referenced file does not exist, the file information and type is
42 for the link itself. File information for all symbolic links not
43 on the command line is that of the link itself.
44
45
46 -L
47 Causes the file information and file type evaluated for each
48 symbolic link to be those of the file referenced by the link, and
49 not the link itself. See NOTES.
50
51
52
53 Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options -H and -L is
54 not considered an error. The last option specified determines the
55 behavior of the utility.
56
57 OPERANDS
58 The following operands are supported:
59
60 path
61 A pathname of a starting point in the directory
62 hierarchy.
63
64
65 expression
66 The first argument that starts with a -, or is a ! or a
67 (, and all subsequent arguments are interpreted as an
68 expression made up of the following primaries and
69 operators. In the descriptions, wherever n is used as a
70 primary argument, it is interpreted as a decimal integer
71 optionally preceded by a plus (+) or minus (-) sign, as
72 follows:
73
74 +n
75 more than n
76
77
78 n
79 exactly n
80
81
82 -n
83 less than n
84
85
86
87 Expressions
88 Valid expressions are:
89
90 -acl
91 True if the file have additional ACLs defined.
92
93
94 -amin n
95 File was last accessed n minutes ago.
96
97
98 -atime n
99 True if the file was accessed n days ago. The access
100 time of directories in path is changed by find itself.
101
102
103 -cmin n
104 File's status was last changed n minutes ago.
105
106
107 -cpio device
108 Always true. Writes the current file on device in cpio
109 format (5120-byte records).
110
111
112 -ctime n
113 True if the file's status was changed n days ago.
114
115
116 -depth
117 Always true. Causes descent of the directory hierarchy
118 to be done so that all entries in a directory are
119 acted on before the directory itself. This can be
120 useful when find is used with cpio(1) to transfer
121 files that are contained in directories without write
122 permission.
123
124
125 -exec command
126 True if the executed command returns a zero value as
127 exit status. The end of command must be punctuated by
128 an escaped semicolon (;). A command argument {} is
129 replaced by the current pathname. If the last argument
130 to -exec is {} and you specify + rather than the
131 semicolon (;), the command is invoked fewer times,
132 with {} replaced by groups of pathnames. If any
133 invocation of the command returns a non-zero value as
134 exit status, find returns a non-zero exit status.
135
136
137 -follow
138 Always true and always evaluated no matter where it
139 appears in expression. The behavior is unspecified if
140 -follow is used when the find command is invoked with
141 either the -H or the -L option. Causes symbolic links
142 to be followed. When following symbolic links, find
143 keeps track of the directories visited so that it can
144 detect infinite loops. For example, such a loop would
145 occur if a symbolic link pointed to an ancestor. This
146 expression should not be used with the find-type l
147 expression. See NOTES.
148
149
150 -fstype type
151 True if the filesystem to which the file belongs is of
152 type type.
153
154
155 -group gname
156 True if the file belongs to the group gname. If gname
157 is numeric and there's no such group name, it is taken
158 as a group ID.
159
160
161 -groupacl gname
162 True if the file's ACL contains an entry for the group
163 gname. If gname is numeric and there's no such group
164 name, it is taken as a group ID.
165
166
167 -iname pattern
168 Like -name, but the match is case insensitive.
169
170
171 -inum n
172 True if the file has inode number n.
173
174
175 -ipath pattern
176 Like -path, but the match is case insensitive.
177
178
179 -iregex pattern
180 Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.
181
182
183 -links n
184 True if the file has n links.
185
186
187 -local
188 True if the file system type is not a remote file
189 system type as defined in the /etc/dfs/fstypes file.
190 nfs is used as the default remote filesystem type if
191 the /etc/dfs/fstypes file is not present. The -local
192 option descends the hierarchy of non-local
193 directories. See EXAMPLES for an example of how to
194 search for local files without descending.
195
196
197 -ls
198 Always true. Prints current pathname together with its
199 associated statistics. These include (respectively):
200
201 o inode number
202
203 o size in kilobytes (1024 bytes)
204
205 o protection mode
206
207 o number of hard links
208
209 o user
210
211 o group
212
213 o size in bytes
214
215 o modification time.
216 If the file is a special file, the size field instead
217 contains the major and minor device numbers.
218
219 If the file is a symbolic link, the pathname of the
220 linked-to file is printed preceded by `->'. The format
221 is identical to that of ls -gilds (see ls(1B)).
222
223 Formatting is done internally, without executing the
224 ls program.
225
226
227 -maxdepth n
228 Always true; descend at most n directory levels below
229 the command line arguments. If any -maxdepth primary
230 is specified, it applies to the entire expression even
231 if it would not normally be evaluated. -maxdepth 0
232 limits the whole search to the command line arguments.
233
234
235 -mindepth n
236 Always true; do not apply any tests or actions at
237 levels less than n. If any -mindepth primary is
238 specified, it applies to the entire expression even if
239 it would not normally be evaluated. -mindepth 1
240 processes all but the command line arguments.
241
242
243 -mmin n
244 File's data was last modified n minutes ago.
245
246
247 -mount
248 Always true. Restricts the search to the file system
249 containing the directory specified. Does not list
250 mount points to other file systems.
251
252
253 -mtime n
254 True if the file's data was modified n days ago.
255
256
257 -name pattern
258 True if pattern matches the basename of the current
259 file name. Normal shell file name generation
260 characters (see sh(1)) can be used. A backslash (\) is
261 used as an escape character within the pattern. The
262 pattern should be escaped or quoted when find is
263 invoked from the shell.
264
265 Unless the character '.' is explicitly specified in
266 the beginning of pattern, a current file name
267 beginning with '.' does not match pattern when using
268 /usr/bin/find. /usr/xpg4/bin/find does not make this
269 distinction; wildcard file name generation characters
270 can match file names beginning with '.'.
271
272
273 -ncpio device
274 Always true. Writes the current file on device in cpio
275 -c format (5120 byte records).
276
277
278 -newer file
279 True if the current file has been modified more
280 recently than the argument file.
281
282
283 -nogroup
284 True if the file belongs to non-existing group.
285
286
287 -nouser
288 True if the file belongs to non-existing user.
289
290
291 -ok command
292 Like -exec, except that the generated command line is
293 printed with a question mark first, and is executed
294 only if the response is affirmative.
295
296
297 -path
298 Like -name, but matches the entire file path and not
299 just basename.
300
301
302 -perm [-]mode
303 The mode argument is used to represent file mode bits.
304 It is identical in format to the symbolic mode
305 operand, symbolic_mode_list, described in chmod(1),
306 and is interpreted as follows. To start, a template is
307 assumed with all file mode bits cleared. An op symbol
308 of:
309
310 +
311 Set the appropriate mode bits in the template
312
313
314 -
315 Clear the appropriate bits
316
317
318 =
319 Set the appropriate mode bits, without regard
320 to the contents of the file mode creation mask
321 of the process
322
323 The op symbol of - cannot be the first character of
324 mode, to avoid ambiguity with the optional leading
325 hyphen. Since the initial mode is all bits off, there
326 are no symbolic modes that need to use - as the first
327 character.
328
329 If the hyphen is omitted, the primary evaluates as
330 true when the file permission bits exactly match the
331 value of the resulting template.
332
333 Otherwise, if mode is prefixed by a hyphen, the
334 primary evaluates as true if at least all the bits in
335 the resulting template are set in the file permission
336 bits.
337
338
339 -perm [-]onum
340 True if the file permission flags exactly match the
341 octal number onum (see chmod(1)). If onum is prefixed
342 by a minus sign (-), only the bits that are set in
343 onum are compared with the file permission flags, and
344 the expression evaluates true if they match.
345
346
347 -print
348 Always true. Causes the current pathname to be
349 printed.
350
351
352 -print0
353 Always true. Causes the current pathname to be
354 printed, terminated by an ASCII NUL character
355 (character code 0) instead of a newline.
356
357
358 -prune
359 Always yields true. Does not examine any directories
360 or files in the directory structure below the pattern
361 just matched. (See EXAMPLES). If -depth is specified,
362 -prune has no effect.
363
364
365 -regex pattern
366 True if the full path of the file matches pattern
367 using regular expressions.
368
369
370 -size n[c]
371 True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes per
372 block). If n is followed by a c, the size is in bytes.
373
374
375 -type c
376 True if the type of the file is c, where c is b, c, d,
377 D, f, l, p, or s for block special file, character
378 special file, directory, door, plain file, symbolic
379 link, fifo (named pipe), or socket, respectively.
380
381
382 -user uname
383 True if the file belongs to the user uname. If uname
384 is numeric and there's no such user name, it is taken
385 as a user ID.
386
387
388 -useracl uname
389 True if the file's ACL contains an entry for the user
390 uname. If uname is numeric and there's no such user
391 name, it is taken as a user ID.
392
393
394 -xdev
395 Same as the -mount primary.
396
397
398 -xattr
399 True if the file has extended attributes.
400
401
402 Complex Expressions
403 The primaries can be combined using the following operators (in order
404 of decreasing precedence):
405
406 1)(expression)
407
408 True if the parenthesized expression is true (parentheses are
409 special to the shell and must be escaped).
410
411
412 2)!expression
413
414 The negation of a primary (! is the unary not operator).
415
416
417 3) expression[-a] expression
418
419 Concatenation of primaries (the and operation is implied by the
420 juxtaposition of two primaries).
421
422
423 4) expression-oexpression
424
425 Alternation of primaries (-o is the or operator).
426
427
428
429 When you use find in conjunction with cpio, if you use the -L option
430 with cpio, you must use the -L option or the -follow primitive with
431 find and vice versa. Otherwise the results are unspecified.
432
433
434 If no expression is present, -print is used as the expression.
435 Otherwise, if the specified expression does not contain any of the
436 primaries -exec, -ok, -ls, or -print, the specified expression is
437 effectively replaced by:
438
439
440 (specified) -print
441
442
443 The -user, -group, and -newer primaries each evaluate their respective
444 arguments only once. Invocation of command specified by -exec or -ok
445 does not affect subsequent primaries on the same file.
446
447 USAGE
448 See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of find when
449 encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes).
450
451 EXAMPLES
452 Example 1 Writing Out the Hierarchy Directory
453
454
455 The following commands are equivalent:
456
457
458 example% find .
459 example% find . -print
460
461
462
463
464 They both write out the entire directory hierarchy from the current
465 directory.
466
467
468 Example 2 Removing Files
469
470
471 The following command removes all files in your home directory named
472 a.out or *.o that have not been accessed for a week:
473
474
475 example% find $HOME \( -name a.out -o -name '*.o' \) \
476 -atime +7 -exec rm {} \;
477
478
479
480 Example 3 Printing All File Names But Skipping SCCS Directories
481
482
483 The following command recursively print all file names in the current
484 directory and below, but skipping SCCS directories:
485
486
487 example% find . -name SCCS -prune -o -print
488
489
490
491 Example 4 Printing all file names and the SCCS directory name
492
493
494 Recursively print all file names in the current directory and below,
495 skipping the contents of SCCS directories, but printing out the SCCS
496 directory name:
497
498
499 example% find . -print -name SCCS -prune
500
501
502
503 Example 5 Testing for the Newer File
504
505
506 The following command is basically equivalent to the -nt extension to
507 test(1):
508
509
510 example$ if [ -n "$(find
511 file1 -prune -newer file2)" ]; then
512
513 printf %s\\n "file1 is newer than file2"
514
515
516
517 Example 6 Selecting a File Using 24-hour Mode
518
519
520 The descriptions of -atime, -ctime, and -mtime use the terminology n
521 ``24-hour periods''. For example, a file accessed at 23:59 is selected
522 by:
523
524
525 example% find . -atime -1 -print
526
527
528
529
530 at 00:01 the next day (less than 24 hours later, not more than one day
531 ago). The midnight boundary between days has no effect on the 24-hour
532 calculation.
533
534
535 Example 7 Printing Files Matching a User's Permission Mode
536
537
538 The following command recursively print all file names whose permission
539 mode exactly matches read, write, and execute access for user, and read
540 and execute access for group and other:
541
542
543 example% find . -perm u=rwx,g=rx,o=rx
544
545
546
547
548 The above could alternatively be specified as follows:
549
550
551 example% find . -perm a=rwx,g-w,o-w
552
553
554
555 Example 8 Printing Files with Write Access for other
556
557
558 The following command recursively print all file names whose permission
559 includes, but is not limited to, write access for other:
560
561
562 example% find . -perm -o+w
563
564
565
566 Example 9 Printing Local Files without Descending Non-local Directories
567
568 example% find . ! -local -prune -o -print
569
570
571
572 Example 10 Printing the Files in the Name Space Possessing Extended
573 Attributes
574
575 example% find . -xattr
576
577
578
579 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
580 See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
581 that affect the execution of find: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE,
582 LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.
583
584 PATH
585 Determine the location of the utility_name for the -exec and
586 -ok primaries.
587
588
589
590 Affirmative responses are processed using the extended regular
591 expression defined for the yesexpr keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category
592 of the user's locale. The locale specified in the LC_COLLATE category
593 defines the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-
594 character collating elements used in the expression defined for
595 yesexpr. The locale specified in LC_CTYPE determines the locale for
596 interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data a characters, the
597 behavior of character classes used in the expression defined for the
598 yesexpr. See locale(5).
599
600 EXIT STATUS
601 The following exit values are returned:
602
603 0
604 All path operands were traversed successfully.
605
606
607 >0
608 An error occurred.
609
610
611 FILES
612 /etc/passwd
613 Password file
614
615
616 /etc/group
617 Group file
618
619
620 /etc/dfs/fstypes
621 File that registers distributed file system
622 packages
623
624
625 ATTRIBUTES
626 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
627
628
629
630
631 +--------------------+-------------------+
632 | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
633 +--------------------+-------------------+
634 |CSI | Enabled |
635 +--------------------+-------------------+
636 |Interface Stability | Committed |
637 +--------------------+-------------------+
638 |Standard | See standards(5). |
639 +--------------------+-------------------+
640
641 SEE ALSO
642 chmod(1), cpio(1), sh(1), test(1), ls(1B), acl(5), regex(5), stat(2),
643 umask(2), attributes(5), environ(5), fsattr(5), largefile(5),
644 locale(5), standards(5)
645
646 WARNINGS
647 The following options are obsolete and will not be supported in future
648 releases:
649
650 -cpio device
651 Always true. Writes the current file on device in cpio
652 format (5120-byte records).
653
654
655 -ncpio device
656 Always true. Writes the current file on device in cpio
657 -c format (5120-byte records).
658
659
660 NOTES
661 When using find to determine files modified within a range of time, use
662 the -mtime argument before the -print argument. Otherwise, find gives
663 all files.
664
665
666 Some files that might be under the Solaris root file system are
667 actually mount points for virtual file systems, such as mntfs or
668 namefs. When comparing against a ufs file system, such files are not
669 selected if -mount or -xdev is specified in the find expression.
670
671
672 Using the -L or -follow option is not recommended when descending a
673 file-system hierarchy that is under the control of other users. In
674 particular, when using -exec, symbolic links can lead the find command
675 out of the hierarchy in which it started. Using -type is not sufficient
676 to restrict the type of files on which the -exec command operates,
677 because there is an inherent race condition between the type-check
678 performed by the find command and the time the executed command
679 operates on the file argument.
680
681
682
683 September 5, 2011 FIND(1)