FIND(1) BSD General Commands Manual FIND(1)NAMEfind — walk a file hierarchy
SYNOPSISfind [-H | -L | -P] [-dEhsXx] file [file ...] [expression]
find [-H | -L | -P] [-dEhsXx] -f file [file ...] [expression]
DESCRIPTIONfind recursively descends the directory tree for each file listed, evalu‐
ating an expression (composed of the “primaries” and “operands” listed
below) in terms of each file in the tree.
The options are as follows:
-H The -H option causes the file information and file type (see
stat(2)), returned for each symbolic link encountered on the com‐
mand 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 informa‐
tion of all symbolic links not on the command line is that of the
link itself.
-L The -L option 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.
-P The -P option causes the file information and file type (see
stat(2)) returned for each symbolic link to be those of the link
itself.
-d The -d option causes find to perform a depth-first traversal,
i.e., directories are visited in post-order and 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. Note, the default is not a breadth-first traversal.
-E The -E option causes regexp arguments to primaries to be inter‐
preted as extended regular expressions (see re_format(7)).
-f The -f option specifies a file hierarchy for find to traverse.
File hierarchies may also be specified as the operands immedi‐
ately following the options.
-h The -h option 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.
-s The -s option causes the entries of each directory to be sorted
in lexicographical order. Note that the sorting is done only
inside of each directory; files in different directories are not
sorted. Therefore, ‘a/b’ appears before ‘a.b’, which is differ‐
ent from “find ... | sort” order.
-X The -X option is a modification to 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 dis‐
played on standard error, and the file is skipped. The delimit‐
ing characters include single (“'”) and double (“"”) quotes,
backslash (“\”), space, tab and newline characters. Alterna‐
tively, the -print0 or -printx primaries can be used to format
the output in a way that xargs can accept.
-x The -x option restricts the search to the file system containing
the directory specified. Does not list mount points to other
file systems.
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.
-delete
Delete found files and/or directories. Always returns True.
This executes from the current working directory as find recurses
down the tree. It will not attempt to delete a filename with a
“” character in its pathname relative to “”. for security rea‐
sons. Depth-first traversal processing is implied by this
option. This can also be invoked as -rm.
-empty True if the current file or directory is empty.
-exec utility [argument ...] ;
-exec utility [argument ...] {} +
Execute the specified utility with the specified arguments. The
list of arguments is terminated by “;” or “+”. utility will be
executed from the directory from which find was executed.
If terminated by a semicolon (“;”), the utility is invoked once
per path. If the string “{}” appears anywhere in the utility
name or the arguments, it is replaced by the pathname of the cur‐
rent file.
If terminated by a plus sign (“+”), the pathnames for which the
primary is evaluated are aggregated into sets, and utility will
be invoked once per set, similar to xargs(1). If any invocation
exits with non-zero exit status, then find will eventually do so
as well, but this does not cause find to exit early. The string
“{}” must appear, and must appear last. Each set is limitted to
no more than 5,000 pathnames, and is also limitted such that the
invokation of utility does not exceed ARG_MAX.
-execdir utility [argument ...] ;
The -execdir primary is similar to the semicolon-terminated (“;”)
variant of 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.
Set aggregation (“+” termination) is not supported.
-exit [n]
This primary causes find to stop traversing the filesystem and
exit immediately if a previous condition was met. If no value is
specified, the exit value will be 0, else n. Note that other
primaries will be evaluated and acted upon before exiting.
-false This primary always evaluates to false. This can be used follow‐
ing a primary that caused the expression to be true to make the
expression to be false. This can be useful after using a -fprint
primary so it can continue to the next expression (using an -or
operator, for example).
-flags [-]flags
If flags are preceded by a dash (“-”), this primary evaluates to
true if at least all of the bits in flags are set in the file's
flags bits. If flags are not preceded by a dash, this primary
evaluates to true if the bits in flags exactly match the file's
flags bits. If flags is “none”, files with no flags bits set are
matched. (See chflags(1) for more information about file flags.)
-follow
Follow symbolic links.
-fprint filename
This primary always evaluates to true. This creates filename or
overwrites the file if it already exists. The file is created at
startup. It writes the pathname of the current file to this
file, followed by a newline character. The file will be empty if
no files are matched.
-fstype type
True if the file is contained in a file system of type type. The
sysctl(8) command can be used to find out the types of filesys‐
tems that are available on the system:
sysctl vfs.generic.fstypes
In addition, there are two pseudo-types, “local” and “rdonly”.
The former matches any file system physically mounted on the sys‐
tem where the find is being executed, and the latter 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.
-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.
-iregex regexp
True if the path name of the current file matches the case-insen‐
sitive basic regular expression (see re_format(7)) regexp. This
is a match on the whole path, not a search for the regular
expression within the path.
-links n
True if the file has n links.
-rm This is an alias for -delete.
-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.
-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.
-ok utility [argument ...] ;
The -ok primary is similar to the semicolon-terminated (“;”)
variant of the -exec primary, with the exception that find
requests user affirmation for the execution of the utility by
printing a message to the terminal and reading a response. If
the response is other than “y”, the command is not executed and
the -ok primary evaluates to false. Set aggregation (“+”
termination) is not supported.
-name pattern
True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
pattern. Special shell pattern matching characters (“[”, “]”,
“*”, “?”) 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.
-nouser
True if the file belongs to an unknown user.
-nogroup
True if the file belongs to an unknown group.
-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' 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 char‐
acter. If none of -exec, -exit, -fprint, -ls, -ok, -print0, nor
-printx 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.
-printx
This primary always evaluates to true. It prints the pathname of
the current file to standard output, with each space, tab, new‐
line, backslash, dollar sign, and single, double, or back quota‐
tion mark prefixed by a backslash, so the output of find can
safely be used as input to xargs.
-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.
-regex regexp
True if the path name of the current file matches the case-sensi‐
tive basic regular expression (see re_format(7)) regexp. This is
a match on the whole path, not a search for the regular expres‐
sion within the path.
-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:
b block special
c character special
d directory
f regular file
l symbolic link
p FIFO
s socket
W whiteout
w whiteout
-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 (and considered a numeric argument).
-xdev This primary always evaluates to true. It causes find not to
descend past directories that have a different device ID (st_dev,
see stat(2) S5.6.2 [POSIX.1]).
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 nei‐
ther 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.
EXIT STATUS
The find utility normally exits 0 on success, and exits with 1 under cer‐
tain internal error conditions. If any invokations of “-exec ... +” pri‐
maries return non-zero exit-status, then find will do so as well.
EXAMPLES
The following examples are shown as given to the shell:
find / \! -name "*.c" -print
Print out a list of all the files whose names do not end in “.c”.
find / -newer ttt -user wnj -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 / \( -newer ttt -or-user wnj \) -print
Print out a list of all the files that are either owned by “wnj”
or that are newer than “ttt”.
find / \( -newer ttt -or-user wnj \) -exit 1
Return immediately with a value of 1 if any files are found that
are either owned by “wnj” or that are newer than “ttt”, but do not
print them.
find / \( -newer ttt -or-user wnj \) -ls -exit 1
Same as above, but list the first file matching the criteria
before exiting with a value of 1.
SEE ALSOchflags(1), chmod(1), locate(1), xargs(1), stat(2), fts(3), getgrent(3),
getpwent(3), strmode(3), symlink(7), sysctl(8)STANDARDS
The find utility syntax is a superset of the syntax specified by the IEEE
Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) standard.
The options and the -amin, -anewer, -cmin, -cnewer, -delete, -empty,
-execdir, -follow, -fstype, -iname, -inum, -iregex, -links, -ls,
-maxdepth, -mindepth, -mmin, -path, -print0, -printx, -regex, and -rm
primaries are extensions to IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”).
Historically, the -d, -h, and -x options were implemented using the pri‐
maries “-depth”, “-follow”, and “-xdev”. These primaries always evalu‐
ated 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
implemented 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.
Support for “-exec ... +” is consistent with IEEE PASC Interpretation
1003.2 #210, though the feature originated in SVR4.
The -delete primary does not interact well with other options that cause
the filesystem tree traversal options to be changed.
HISTORY
A much simpler find command appeared in First Edition AT&T Unix. The
syntax had become similar to the present version by the time of the Fifth
Edition.
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.
BSD July 19, 2007 BSD
