1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
|
.\" 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. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. 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.
.\"
.\" @(#)find.1 8.7 (Berkeley) 5/9/95
.\" $Id: find.1,v 1.16 1998/11/29 00:54:21 wosch Exp $
.\"
.Dd May 9, 1995
.Dt FIND 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm find
.Nd walk a file hierarchy
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm find
.Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
.Op Fl Xdsx
.Op Fl f Ar file
.Op Ar file ...
.Ar expression
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Find
recursively descends the directory tree for each
.Ar file
listed, evaluating an
.Ar expression
(composed of the ``primaries'' and ``operands'' listed below) in terms
of each file in the tree.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl H
The
.Fl H
option causes the file information and file type (see
.Xr stat 2)
returned for each symbolic link specified 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 L
The
.Fl L
option 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 P
The
.Fl P
option causes the file information and file type (see
.Xr stat 2)
returned for each symbolic link to be those of the link itself.
This is the default.
.It Fl X
The
.Fl X
option is a modification to 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 (`` ' '') and double (`` " '')
quotes, backslash (``\e''), space, tab and newline characters.
.It Fl d
The
.Fl d
option causes
.Nm 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,
.Nm find
visits directories in pre\-order, i.e. before their contents.
Note, the default is
.Ar not
a breadth\-first traversal.
.It Fl f
The
.Fl f
option specifies a file hierarchy for
.Nm find
to traverse.
File hierarchies may also be specified as the operands immediately
following the options.
.It Fl s
The
.Fl s
option causes
.Nm find
to traverse the file hierarchies in lexicographical order,
i.e., alphabetical order within each directory.
Note:
.Sq find -s
and
.So
find | sort
.Sc
may give different results.
.It Fl x
The
.Fl x
option prevents
.Nm find
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 find
was started, rounded up to the next full minutes period, is
.Ar n
minutes periods.
.It Ic -atime Ar n
True if the difference between the file last access time and the time
.Nm find
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 find
was started, rounded up to the next full minutes period, is
.Ar n
minutes periods.
.It Ic -ctime Ar n
True if the difference between the time of last change of file status
information and the time
.Nm find
was started, rounded up to the next full 24\-hour period, is
.Ar n
24\-hour periods.
.It Ic -delete
Delete found files and/or directories.
Always returns true.
This executes
from the current working directory as
.Nm
recurses down the tree.
It will not attempt to delete a filename with a ``/''
character in its pathname relative to "." for security reasons.
Depth\-first traversal processing is implied by this option.
.It Ic -exec Ar utility Op argument ... ;
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 (``;'').
If the string ``{}'' 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 find
was executed.
.It Ic -execdir Ar utility Op argument ... ;
The
.Ic \&-execdir
primary is 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 ``{}'' is not qualified.
.It Ic -fstype Ar type
True if the file is contained in a file system of type
.Ar type .
The
.Xr sysctl 8
command can be used to find out the types of filesystems
that are available on the system:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sysctl vfs
.Ed
In addition, there are two pseudo-types, ``local'' and ``rdonly''.
The former matches any file system physically mounted on the system where
the
.Nm find
is being executed and 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 -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 ``\->''.
The format is identical to that produced by ``ls \-dgils''.
.It Ic -mmin Ar n
True if the difference between the file last modification time and the time
.Nm find
was started, rounded up to the next full minutes period, is
.Ar n
minutes periods.
.It Ic -mtime Ar n
True if the difference between the file last modification time and the time
.Nm find
was started, rounded up to the next full 24\-hour period, is
.Ar n
24\-hour periods.
.It Ic \&-ok Ar utility Op argument ... ;
The
.Ic \&-ok
primary is identical to the
.Ic -exec
primary with the exception that
.Nm 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
value of the
.Ar \&ok
expression is false.
.It Ic -name Ar pattern
True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
.Ar pattern .
Special shell pattern matching characters (``['', ``]'', ``*'', and ``?'')
may be used as part of
.Ar pattern .
These characters may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a
backslash (``\e'').
.It Ic -newer Ar file
True if the current file has a more recent last modification time than
.Ar file .
.It Ic -nouser
True if the file belongs to an unknown user.
.It Ic -nogroup
True if the file belongs to an unknown group.
.It Ic -path Ar pattern
True if the pathname being examined matches
.Ar pattern .
Special shell pattern matching characters (``['', ``]'', ``*'', and ``?'')
may be used as part of
.Ar pattern .
These characters may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a
backslash (``\e'').
Slashes (``/'') are treated as normal characters and do not have to be
matched explicitly.
.It Ic -perm Op Fl Ns Ar mode
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' file mode
creation mask.
If the mode is octal, only bits 07777
.Pf ( Dv S_ISUID
|
.Dv S_ISGID
|
.Dv S_ISTXT
|
.Dv S_IRWXU
|
.Dv S_IRWXG
|
.Dv 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 (``\-'').
.It Ic -print
This primary always evaluates to true.
It prints the pathname of the current file to standard output.
If none of
.Ic -exec ,
.Ic -ls ,
.Ic -print0 ,
or
.Ic \&-ok
is specified, the given expression shall be effectively replaced by
.Cm \&( Ns Ar given\& expression Ns Cm \&)
.Ic -print .
.It Ic -print0
This primary always evaluates to true.
It prints the pathname of the current file to standard output, followed by an
.Tn ASCII
.Tn NUL
character (character code 0).
.It Ic -prune
This primary always evaluates to true.
It causes
.Nm find
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 ``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.
.El
.Pp
All primaries which take a numeric argument allow the number to be
preceded 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 neither means ``exactly n'' .
.Sh OPERATORS
The primaries may be combined using the following operators.
The operators are listed in order of decreasing precedence.
.Bl -tag -width (expression)
.It Cm \&( Ns Ar expression Ns Cm \&)
This evaluates to true if the parenthesized expression evaluates to
true.
.Pp
.It Cm \&! Ns 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
All operands and primaries must be separate arguments to
.Nm find .
Primaries which themselves take arguments expect each argument
to be a separate argument to
.Nm find .
.Sh EXAMPLES
.Pp
The following examples are shown as given to the shell:
.Bl -tag -width findx
.It Li "find / \e! -name \*q*.c\*q -print"
Print out a list of all the files whose names do not end in ``.c''.
.It Li "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''.
.It Li "find / \e! \e( -newer ttt -user wnj \e) -print"
Print out a list of all the files which are not both newer than ``ttt''
and owned by ``wnj''.
.It Li "find / \e( -newer ttt -or -user wnj \e) -print"
Print out a list of all the files that are either owned by ``wnj'' or
that are newer than ``ttt''.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chmod 1 ,
.Xr locate 1 ,
.Xr whereis 1 ,
.Xr which 1 ,
.Xr stat 2 ,
.Xr fts 3 ,
.Xr getgrent 3 ,
.Xr getpwent 3 ,
.Xr strmode 3 ,
.Xr symlink 7
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm find
utility syntax is a superset of the syntax specified by the
.St -p1003.2
standard.
.Pp
All the single character options as well as the
.Ic -inum ,
.Ic -print0 ,
.Ic -delete ,
and
.Ic -ls
primaries are extensions to
.St -p1003.2 .
.Pp
Historically, the
.Fl d ,
.Fl h
and
.Fl x
options were implemented using the primaries ``\-depth'', ``\-follow'',
and ``\-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 ``\-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.
.Pp
The operator ``-or'' was implemented as ``\-o'', and the operator ``-and''
was implemented as ``\-a''.
.Pp
Historic implementations of the
.Ic exec
and
.Ic 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.
.Sh BUGS
The special characters used by
.Nm find
are also special characters to many shell programs.
In particular, the characters ``*'', ``['', ``]'', ``?'', ``('', ``)'',
``!'', ``\e'' and ``;'' 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 ``-xdev'' or ``!''.
These problems are handled by the
.Fl f
option and the
.Xr getopt 3
``--'' construct.
.Pp
The
.Ic -delete
primary do not interact well with other options that cause the filesystem
tree traversal options to be changed.
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command appeared in
.At v1 .
|