FIND(1) FIND(1)
NAME
find - find files
SYNOPSIS
find pathname ... expression
DESCRIPTION
Find recursively descends the directory hierarchy for each
pathname, seeking files that match a boolean expression,
which consists of one or more arguments. It does not follow
symbolic links. In the following descriptions of primary
expressions, n is a decimal integer; +n may be written to
specify more than n and -n to specify less.
-name filename
True if the filename argument matches the current
file name. Normal shell filename metacharacters
may be used if quoted.
-perm onum
True if the file permission flags exactly match
the octal number onum (see chmod(1)). If onum is
prefixed by a minus sign, more mode bits (017777,
see stat(2)) become significant and the modes are
compared: (mode&onum)==onum.
-type c True if the type of the file is c, where c is b,
c, d, f, or L for block special file, character
special file, directory, plain file or symbolic
link.
-links n True if the file has n links.
-user uname
True if the file belongs to the user uname (login
name or numeric userid).
-group gname
True if the file belongs to group gname (group
name or numeric groupid).
-size n True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes per
block).
-inum n True if the file has inode number n.
-atime n True if the file has been accessed in n days.
-mtime n True if the file has been modified in n days.
FIND(1) FIND(1)
-ctime n True if the inode has been changed in n days.
-exec command
True if the executed command returns a zero value
as exit status. The end of the 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; causes the current pathname to be
printed.
-newer file
True if the file has been modified more recently
than the argument file.
-status n True if lstat (see stat(2)) applied to the file
yields error number n; see intro(2). Testing `-
status' turns off diagnostics that errors normally
produce. On ordinary systems a nonzero error num-
ber occurs when a file disappears underfoot or a
file system is in trouble.
The following operators, listed in order of decreasing
precedence, may be used to combine primary expressions.
( expression )
Group with parentheses.
! expression
Negation. True if and only if expression is not true.
expression expression
Conjunction. True if both expressions are true.
expression -o expression
Disjunction. True if either expression is true.
EXAMPLES
find / \( -name a.out -o -name '*.o' \) -atime +7 -exec rm
'{}' \;
Remove all files named `a.out' or `*.o' that have not
been accessed for a week.
FILES
SEE ALSO
sh(1), test(1), filsys(5)