User Commands FIND(1)
NAME
find - search for files in a directory hierarchy
SYNOPSIS
find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path...] [expression]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of find. GNU
find searches the directory tree rooted at each given file
name by evaluating the given expression from left to right,
according to the rules of precedence (see section OPERA-
TORS), until the outcome is known (the left hand side is
false for and operations, true for or), at which point find
moves on to the next file name.
If you are using find in an environment where security is
important (for example if you are using it to seach direc-
tories that are writable by other users), you should read
the "Security Considerations" chapter of the findutils docu-
mentation, which is called Finding Files and comes with fin-
dutils. That document also includes a lot more detail and
discussion than this manual page, so you may find it a more
useful source of information.
OPTIONS
The `-H', `-L' and `-P' options control the treatment of
symbolic links. Command-line arguments following these are
taken to be names of files or directories to be examined, up
to the first argument that begins with `-', `(', `)', `,',
or `!'. That argument and any following arguments are taken
to be the expression describing what is to be searched for.
If no paths are given, the current directory is used. If no
expression is given, the expression `-print' is used (but
you should probably consider using `-print0' instead, any-
way).
This manual page talks about `options' within the expression
list. These options control the behaviour of find but are
specified immediately after the last path name. The three
`real' options `-H', `-L' and `-P' must appear before the
first path name, if at all.
-P Never follow symbolic links. This is the default
behaviour. When find examines or prints information a
file, and the file is a symbolic link, the information
used shall be taken from the properties of the symbolic
link itself.
-L Follow symbolic links. When find examines or prints
information about files, the information used shall be
taken from the properties of the file to which the link
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points, not from the link itself (unless it is a broken
symbolic link or find is unable to examine the file to
which the link points). Use of this option implies
-noleaf. If you later use the -P option, -noleaf will
still be in effect. If -L is in effect and find dis-
covers a symbolic link to a subdirectory during its
search, the subdirectory pointed to by the symbolic
link will be searched.
When the -L option is in effect, the -type predicate
will always match against the type of the file that a
symbolic link points to rather than the link itself
(unless the symbolic link is broken). Using -L causes
the -lname and -ilname predicates always to return
false.
-H Do not follow symbolic links, except while processing
the command line arguments. When find examines or
prints information about files, the information used
shall be taken from the properties of the symbolic link
itself. The only exception to this behaviour is when
a file specified on the command line is a symbolic
link, and the link can be resolved. For that situa-
tion, the information used is taken from whatever the
link points to (that is, the link is followed). The
information about the link itself is used as a fallback
if the file pointed to by the symbolic link cannot be
examined. If -H is in effect and one of the paths
specified on the command line is a symbolic link to a
directory, the contents of that directory will be exam-
ined (though of course -maxdepth 0 would prevent this).
If more than one of -H, -L and -P is specified, each over-
rides the others; the last one appearing on the command line
takes effect. Since it is the default, the -P option should
be considered to be in effect unless either -H or -L is
specified.
GNU find frequently stats files during the processing of the
command line itself, before any searching has begun. These
options also affect how those arguments are processed.
Specifically, there are a number of tests that compare files
listed on the command line against a file we are currently
considering. In each case, the file specified on the com-
mand line will have been examined and some of its properties
will have been saved. If the named file is in fact a sym-
bolic link, and the -P option is in effect (or if neither -H
nor -L were specified), the information used for the com-
parison will be taken from the properties of the symbolic
link. Otherwise, it will be taken from the properties of
the file the link points to. If find cannot follow the link
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(for example because it has insufficient privileges or the
link points to a nonexistent file) the properties of the
link itself will be used.
When the -H or -L options are in effect, any symbolic links
listed as the argument of -newer will be dereferenced, and
the timestamp will be taken from the file to which the sym-
bolic link points. The same consideration applies to
-anewer and -cnewer.
The -follow option has a similar effect to -L, though it
takes effect at the point where it appears (that is, if -L
is not used but -follow is, any symbolic links appearing
after -follow on the command line will be dereferenced, and
those before it will not).
EXPRESIONS
The expression is made up of options (which affect overall
operation rather than the processing of a specific file, and
always return true), tests (which return a true or false
value), and actions (which have side effects and return a
true or false value), all separated by operators. -and is
assumed where the operator is omitted.
If the expression contains no actions other than -prune,
-print is performed on all files for which the expression is
true.
OPTIONS
All options always return true. Except for -follow and
-daystart, the options affect all tests, including tests
specified before the option. This is because the options
are processed when the command line is parsed, while the
tests don't do anything until files are examined. The -fol-
low and -daystart options are different in this respect, and
have an effect only on tests which appear later in the com-
mand line. Therefore, for clarity, it is best to place them
at the beginning of the expression. A warning is issued if
you don't do this.
-daystart
Measure times (for -amin, -atime, -cmin, -ctime, -mmin,
and -mtime) from the beginning of today rather than
from 24 hours ago. This option only affects tests
which appear later on the command line.
-depth
Process each directory's contents before the directory
itself.
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-d A synonym for -depth, for compatibility with FreeBSD,
NetBSD, MacOS X and OpenBSD.
-follow
Deprecated; use the -L option instead. Dereference
symbolic links. Implies -noleaf. The -follow option
affects only those tests which appear after it on the
command line. Unless the -H or -L option has been
specified, the position of the -follow option changes
the behaviour of the -newer predicate; any files listed
as the argument of -newer will be dereferenced if they
are symbolic links. The same consideration applies to
-anewer and -cnewer. Similarly, the -type predicate
will always match against the type of the file that a
symbolic link points to rather than the link itself.
Using -follow causes the -lname and -ilname predicates
always to return false.
-help, --help
Print a summary of the command-line usage of find and
exit.
-ignorereaddirrace
Normally, find will emit an error message when it fails
to stat a file. If you give this option and a file is
deleted between the time find reads the name of the
file from the directory and the time it tries to stat
the file, no error message will be issued. This also
applies to files or directories whose names are given
on the command line. This option takes effect at the
time the command line is read, which means that you
cannot search one part of the filesystem with this
option on and part of it with this option off (if you
need to do that, you will need to issue two find com-
mands instead, one with the option and one without it).
-maxdepth levels
Descend at most levels (a non-negative integer) levels
of directories below the command line arguments.
`-maxdepth 0' means only apply the tests and actions to
the command line arguments.
-mindepth levels
Do not apply any tests or actions at levels less than
levels (a non-negative integer). `-mindepth 1' means
process all files except the command line arguments.
-mount
Don't descend directories on other filesystems. An
alternate name for -xdev, for compatibility with some
other versions of find.
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-noignorereaddirrace
Turns off the effect of -ignorereaddirrace.
-noleaf
Do not optimize by assuming that directories contain 2
fewer subdirectories than their hard link count. This
option is needed when searching filesystems that do not
follow the Unix directory-link convention, such as CD-
ROM or MS-DOS filesystems or AFS volume mount points.
Each directory on a normal Unix filesystem has at least
2 hard links: its name and its `.' entry. Addition-
ally, its subdirectories (if any) each have a `..'
entry linked to that directory. When find is examining
a directory, after it has statted 2 fewer subdirec-
tories than the directory's link count, it knows that
the rest of the entries in the directory are non-
directories (`leaf' files in the directory tree). If
only the files' names need to be examined, there is no
need to stat them; this gives a significant increase in
search speed.
-regextype type
Changes the regular expression syntax understood by
-regex and -iregex tests which occur later on the com-
mand line. Currently-implemented types are emacs (this
is the default), posix-awk, posix-basic, posix-egrep
and posix-extended.
-version, --version
Print the find version number and exit.
-warn, -nowarn
Turn warning messages on or off. These warnings apply
only to the command line usage, not to any conditions
that find might encounter when it searches directories.
The default behaviour corresponds to -warn if standard
input is a tty, and to -nowarn otherwise.
-xdev
Don't descend directories on other filesystems.
TESTS
Numeric arguments can be specified as
]n for greater than n,
-n for less than n,
n for exactly n.
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-amin n
File was last accessed n minutes ago.
-anewer file
File was last accessed more recently than file was
modified. If file is a symbolic link and the -H option
or the -L option is in effect, the access time of the
file it points to is always used.
-atime n
File was last accessed n*24 hours ago. When find fig-
ures out how many 24-hour periods ago the file was last
accessed, any fractional part is ignored, so to match
-atime ]1, a file has to have been accessed at least
two days ago.
-cmin n
File's status was last changed n minutes ago.
-cnewer file
File's status was last changed more recently than file
was modified. If file is a symbolic link and the -H
option or the -L option is in effect, the status-change
time of the file it points to is always used.
-ctime n
File's status was last changed n*24 hours ago. See the
comments for -atime to understand how rounding affects
the interpretation of file status change times.
-empty
File is empty and is either a regular file or a direc-
tory.
-false
Always false.
-fstype type
File is on a filesystem of type type. The valid
filesystem types vary among different versions of Unix;
an incomplete list of filesystem types that are
accepted on some version of Unix or another is: ufs,
4.2, 4.3, nfs, tmp, mfs, S51K, S52K. You can use
-printf with the %F directive to see the types of your
filesystems.
-gid n
File's numeric group ID is n.
-group gname
File belongs to group gname (numeric group ID allowed).
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-ilname pattern
Like -lname, but the match is case insensitive. If the
-L option or the -follow option is in effect, this test
returns false unless the symbolic link is broken.
-iname pattern
Like -name, but the match is case insensitive. For
example, the patterns `fo*' and `F??' match the file
names `Foo', `FO', `foo', `fOo', etc. In these pat-
terns, unlike filename expansion by the shell, an ini-
tial '.' can be matched by '*'. That is, find -name
*bar will match the file `.foobar'. Please note that
you should quote patterns as a matter of course, other-
wise the shell will expand any wildcard characters in
them.
-inum n
File has inode number n. It is normally easier to use
the -samefile test instead.
-ipath pattern
Behaves in the same way as -iwholename. This option is
deprecated, so please do not use it.
-iregex pattern
Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.
-iwholename pattern
Like -wholename, but the match is case insensitive.
-links n
File has n links.
-lname pattern
File is a symbolic link whose contents match shell pat-
tern pattern. The metacharacters do not treat `/' or
`.' specially. If the -L option or the -follow option
is in effect, this test returns false unless the sym-
bolic link is broken.
-mmin n
File's data was last modified n minutes ago.
-mtime n
File's data was last modified n*24 hours ago. See the
comments for -atime to understand how rounding affects
the interpretation of file modification times.
-name pattern
Base of file name (the path with the leading direc-
tories removed) matches shell pattern pattern. The
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metacharacters (`*', `?', and `[]') match a `.' at the
start of the base name (this is a change in findutils-
4.2.2; see section STANDARDS CONFORMANCE below). To
ignore a directory and the files under it, use -prune;
see an example in the description of -wholename.
Braces are not recognised as being special, despite the
fact that some shells including Bash imbue braces with
a special meaning in shell patterns. The filename
matching is performed with the use of the fnmatch(3)
library function. Don't forget to enclose the pattern
in quotes in order to protect it from expansion by the
shell.
-newer file
File was modified more recently than file. If file is
a symbolic link and the -H option or the -L option is
in effect, the modification time of the file it points
to is always used.
-nouser
No user corresponds to file's numeric user ID.
-nogroup
No group corresponds to file's numeric group ID.
-path pattern
See -wholename. The predicate -path is also supported
by HP-UX find.
-perm mode
File's permission bits are exactly mode (octal or sym-
bolic). Since an exact match is required, if you want
to use this form for symbolic modes, you may have to
specify a rather complex mode string. For example
'-perm g=w' will only match files which have mode 0020
(that is, ones for which group write permission is the
only permission set). It is more likely that you will
want to use the '/' or '-' forms, for example '-perm
-g=w', which matches any file with group write permis-
sion. See the EXAMPLES section for some illustrative
examples.
-perm -mode
All of the permission bits mode are set for the file.
Symbolic modes are accepted in this form, and this is
usually the way in which would want to use them. You
must specify 'u', 'g' or 'o' if you use a symbolic
mode. See the EXAMPLES section for some illustrative
examples.
-perm /mode
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Any of the permission bits mode are set for the file.
Symbolic modes are accepted in this form. You must
specify 'u', 'g' or 'o' if you use a symbolic mode.
See the EXAMPLES section for some illustrative exam-
ples. If no permission bits in mode are set, this test
currently matches no files. However, it will soon be
changed to match any file (the idea is to be more con-
sistent with the behaviour of perm -000).
-perm ]mode
Deprecated, old way of searching for files with any of
the permission bits in mode set. You should use -perm
/mode instead. Trying to use the ']' syntax with sym-
bolic modes will yield surprising results. For exam-
ple, ']u]x' is a valid symbolic mode (equivalent to
]u,]x, i.e. 0111) and will therefore not be evaluated
as -perm ]mode but instead as the exact mode specifier
-perm mode and so it matches files with exact permis-
sions 0111 instead of files with any execute bit set.
If you found this paragraph confusing, you're not alone
- just use -perm /mode. This form of the -perm test is
deprecated because the POSIX specification requires the
interpretation of a leading ']' as being part of a sym-
bolic mode, and so we switched to using '/' instead.
-regex pattern
File name matches regular expression pattern. This is
a match on the whole path, not a search. For example,
to match a file named `./fubar3', you can use the regu-
lar expression `.*bar.' or `.*b.*3', but not `f.*r3'.
The regular expressions understood by find are by
default Emacs Regular Expressions, but this can be
changed with the -regextype option.
-samefile name
File refers to the same inode as name. When -L is in
effect, this can include symbolic links.
-size n[cwbkMG]
File uses n units of space. The following suffixes can
be used:
`b' for 512-byte blocks (this is the default if no
suffix is used)
`c' for bytes
`w' for two-byte words
`k' for Kilobytes (units of 1024 bytes)
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`M' for Megabytes (units of 1048576 bytes)
`G' for Gigabytes (units of 1073741824 bytes)
The size does not count indirect blocks, but it does
count blocks in sparse files that are not actually
allocated. Bear in mind that the `%k' and `%b' format
specifiers of -printf handle sparse files differently.
The `b' suffix always denotes 512-byte blocks and never
1 Kilobyte blocks, which is different to the behaviour
of -ls.
-true
Always true.
-type c
File is of type c:
b block (buffered) special
c character (unbuffered) special
d directory
p named pipe (FIFO)
f regular file
l symbolic link; this is never true if the -L option
or the -follow option is in effect, unless the
symbolic link is broken. If you want to search
for symbolic links when -L is in effect, use
-xtype.
s socket
D door (Solaris)
-uid n
File's numeric user ID is n.
-used n
File was last accessed n days after its status was last
changed.
-user uname
File is owned by user uname (numeric user ID allowed).
-wholename pattern
File name matches shell pattern pattern. The metachar-
acters do not treat `/' or `.' specially; so, for
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example,
find . -wholename './sr*sc'
will print an entry for a directory called './src/misc'
(if one exists). To ignore a whole directory tree, use
-prune rather than checking every file in the tree.
For example, to skip the directory `src/emacs' and all
files and directories under it, and print the names of
the other files found, do something like this:
find . -wholename './src/emacs' -prune -o
-print
-xtype c
The same as -type unless the file is a symbolic link.
For symbolic links: if the -H or -P option was speci-
fied, true if the file is a link to a file of type c;
if the -L option has been given, true if c is `l'. In
other words, for symbolic links, -xtype checks the type
of the file that -type does not check.
ACTIONS
-delete
Delete files; true if removal succeeded. If the remo-
val failed, an error message is issued. Use of this
action automatically turns on the '-depth' option.
-exec command ;
Execute command; true if 0 status is returned. All
following arguments to find are taken to be arguments
to the command until an argument consisting of `;' is
encountered. The string `{}' is replaced by the
current file name being processed everywhere it occurs
in the arguments to the command, not just in arguments
where it is alone, as in some versions of find. Both
of these constructions might need to be escaped (with a
`\') or quoted to protect them from expansion by the
shell. See the EXAMPLES section for examples of the
use of the `-exec' option. The specified command is
run once for each matched file. The command is exe-
cuted in the starting directory. There are unavoid-
able security problems surrounding use of the -exec
option; you should use the -execdir option instead.
-exec command {} ]
This variant of the -exec option runs the specified
command on the selected files, but the command line is
built by appending each selected file name at the end;
the total number of invocations of the command will be
much less than the number of matched files. The com-
mand line is built in much the same way that xargs
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builds its command lines. Only one instance of '{}' is
allowed within the command. The command is executed in
the starting directory.
-execdir command ;
-execdir command {} ]
Like -exec, but the specified command is run from the
subdirectory containing the matched file, which is not
normally the directory in which you started find. This
a much more secure method for invoking commands, as it
avoids race conditions during resolution of the paths
to the matched files. As with the -exec option, the
']' form of -execdir will build a command line to pro-
cess more than one matched file, but any given invoca-
tion of command will only list files that exist in the
same subdirectory. If you use this option, you must
ensure that your $PATH environment variable does not
reference the current directory; otherwise, an attacker
can run any commands they like by leaving an
appropriately-named file in a directory in which you
will run -execdir.
-fls file
True; like -ls but write to file like -fprint. The
output file is always created, even if the predicate is
never matched. See the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section for
information about how unusual characters in filenames
are handled.
-fprint file
True; print the full file name into file file. If file
does not exist when find is run, it is created; if it
does exist, it is truncated. The file names
``/dev/stdout'' and ``/dev/stderr'' are handled spe-
cially; they refer to the standard output and standard
error output, respectively. The output file is always
created, even if the predicate is never matched. See
the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section for information about how
unusual characters in filenames are handled.
-fprint0 file
True; like -print0 but write to file like -fprint. The
output file is always created, even if the predicate is
never matched. See the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section for
information about how unusual characters in filenames
are handled.
-fprintf file format
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True; like -printf but write to file like -fprint. The
output file is always created, even if the predicate is
never matched. See the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section for
information about how unusual characters in filenames
are handled.
-ok command ;
Like -exec but ask the user first (on the standard
input); if the response does not start with `y' or `Y',
do not run the command, and return false. If the com-
mand is run, its standard input is redirected from
/dev/null.
-print
True; print the full file name on the standard output,
followed by a newline. If you are piping the output
of find into another program and there is the faintest
possibility that the files which you are searching for
might contain a newline, then you should seriously con-
sider using the `-print0' option instead of `-print'.
See the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section for information about
how unusual characters in filenames are handled.
-okdir command ;
Like -execdir but ask the user first (on the standard
input); if the response does not start with `y' or `Y',
do not run the command, and return false. If the com-
mand is run, its standard input is redirected from
/dev/null.
-print0
True; print the full file name on the standard output,
followed by a null character (instead of the newline
character that `-print' uses). This allows file names
that contain newlines or other types of white space to
be correctly interpreted by programs that process the
find output. This option corresponds to the `-0'
option of xargs.
-printf format
True; print format on the standard output, interpreting
`\' escapes and `%' directives. Field widths and pre-
cisions can be specified as with the `printf' C func-
tion. Please note that many of the fields are printed
as %s rather than %d, and this may mean that flags
don't work as you might expect. This also means that
the `-' flag does work (it forces fields to be left-
aligned). Unlike -print, -printf does not add a new-
line at the end of the string. The escapes and direc-
tives are:
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\a Alarm bell.
\b Backspace.
\c Stop printing from this format immediately and
flush the output.
\f Form feed.
\n Newline.
\r Carriage return.
\t Horizontal tab.
\v Vertical tab.
\ ASCI NUL.
\\ A literal backslash (`\').
\N The character whose ASCI code is N (octal).
A `\' character followed by any other character is
treated as an ordinary character, so they both are
printed.
%% A literal percent sign.
%a File's last access time in the format returned by
the C `ctime' function.
%Ak File's last access time in the format specified by
k, which is either `@' or a directive for the C
`strftime' function. The possible values for k
are listed below; some of them might not be avail-
able on all systems, due to differences in
`strftime' between systems.
@ seconds since Jan. 1, 1970, 00:00 GMT.
Time fields:
H hour (00..23)
I hour (01..12)
k hour ( 0..23)
l hour ( 1..12)
M minute (00..59)
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p locale's AM or PM
r time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss [AP]M)
S second (00..61)
T time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)
] Date and time, separated by ']', for example
`2004-04-28]22:22:05'. The time is given in
the current timezone (which may be affected
by setting the TZ environment variable).
This is a GNU extension.
X locale's time representation (H:M:S)
Z time zone (e.g., EDT), or nothing if no time
zone is determinable
Date fields:
a locale's abbreviated weekday name (Sun..Sat)
A locale's full weekday name, variable length
(Sunday..Saturday)
b locale's abbreviated month name (Jan..Dec)
B locale's full month name, variable length
(January..December)
c locale's date and time (Sat Nov 04 12:02:33
EST 1989)
d day of month (01..31)
D date (mm/dd/yy)
h same as b
j day of year (001..366)
m month (01..12)
U week number of year with Sunday as first day
of week (00..53)
w day of week (0..6)
W week number of year with Monday as first day
of week (00..53)
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x locale's date representation (mm/dd/yy)
y last two digits of year (00..99)
Y year (1970...)
%b The amount of disk space used for this file in
512-byte blocks. Since disk space is allocated in
multiples of the filesystem block size this is
usually greater than %s/512, but it can also be
smaller if the file is a sparse file.
%c File's last status change time in the format
returned by the C `ctime' function.
%Ck File's last status change time in the format
specified by k, which is the same as for %A.
%d File's depth in the directory tree; 0 means the
file is a command line argument.
%D The device number on which the file exists (the
stdev field of struct stat), in decimal.
%f File's name with any leading directories removed
(only the last element).
%F Type of the filesystem the file is on; this value
can be used for -fstype.
%g File's group name, or numeric group ID if the
group has no name.
%G File's numeric group ID.
%h Leading directories of file's name (all but the
last element). If the file name contains no
slashes (since it is in the current directory) the
%h specifier expands to ".".
%H Command line argument under which file was found.
%i File's inode number (in decimal).
%k The amount of disk space used for this file in 1K
blocks. Since disk space is allocated in multiples
of the filesystem block size this is usually
greater than %s/1024, but it can also be smaller
if the file is a sparse file.
%l Object of symbolic link (empty string if file is
not a symbolic link).
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%m File's permission bits (in octal). This option
uses the 'traditional' numbers which most Unix
implementations use, but if your particular imple-
mentation uses an unusual ordering of octal per-
missions bits, you will see a difference between
the actual value of the file's mode and the output
of %m. Normally you will want to have a leading
zero on this number, and to do this, you should
use the # flag (as in, for example, '%#m').
%M File's permissions (in symbolic form, as for ls).
This directive is supported in findutils 4.2.5 and
later.
%n Number of hard links to file.
%p File's name.
%P File's name with the name of the command line
argument under which it was found removed.
%s File's size in bytes.
%t File's last modification time in the format
returned by the C `ctime' function.
%Tk File's last modification time in the format speci-
fied by k, which is the same as for %A.
%u File's user name, or numeric user ID if the user
has no name.
%U File's numeric user ID.
%y File's type (like in ls -l), U=unknown type
(shouldn't happen)
%Y File's type (like %y), plus follow symlinks:
L=loop, N=nonexistent
A `%' character followed by any other character is dis-
carded, but the other character is printed (don't rely
on this, as further format characters may be intro-
duced). A `%' at the end of the format argument causes
undefined behaviour since there is no following charac-
ter. In some locales, it may hide your door keys,
while in others it may remove the final page from the
novel you are reading.
The %m and %d directives support the # , 0 and ] flags,
but the other directives do not, even if they print
numbers. Numeric directives that do not support these
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flags include G, U, b, D, k and n. The `-' format flag
is supported and changes the alignment of a field from
right-justified (which is the default) to left-
justified.
See the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section for information about
how unusual characters in filenames are handled.
-prune
If -depth is not given, true; if the file is a direc-
tory, do not descend into it.
If -depth is given, false; no effect.
-quit
Exit immediately. No child processes will be left run-
ning, but no more paths specified on the command line
will be processed. For example, find /tmp/foo /tmp/bar
-print -quit will print only /tmp/foo. Any command
lines which have been built up with -execdir ... {} ]
will be invoked before find exits. The exit status
may or may not be zero, depending on whether an error
has already occurred.
-ls True; list current file in `ls -dils' format on stan-
dard output. The block counts are of 1K blocks, unless
the environment variable POSIXLYCORECT is set, in
which case 512-byte blocks are used. See the UNUSUAL
FILENAMES section for information about how unusual
characters in filenames are handled.
UNUSUAL FILENAMES
Many of the actions of find result in the printing of data
which is under the control of other users. This includes
file names, sizes, modification times and so forth. File
names are a potential problem since they can contain any
character except '\0' and '/'. Unusual characters in file
names can do unexpected and often undesirable things to your
terminal (for example, changing the settings of your func-
tion keys on some terminals). Unusual characters are han-
dled differently by various actions, as described below.
-print0, -fprint0
Always print the exact filename, unchanged, even if the
output is going to a terminal.
-ls, -fls
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Unusual characters are always escaped. White space,
backslash, and double quote characters are printed
using C-style escaping (for example '\f', '\"'). Other
unusual characters are printed using an octal escape.
Other printable characters (for -ls and -fls these are
the characters between octal 041 and 0176) are printed
as-is.
-printf, -fprintf
If the output is not going to a terminal, it is printed
as-is. Otherwise, the result depends on which direc-
tive is in use. The directives %D, %F, %g, %G, %H, %Y,
and %y expand to values which are not under control of
files' owners, and so are printed as-is. The direc-
tives %a, %b, %c, %d, %i, %k, %m, %M, %n, %s, %t, %u
and %U have values which are under the control of
files' owners but which cannot be used to send arbi-
trary data to the terminal, and so these are printed
as-is. The directives %f, %h, %l, %p and %P are
quoted. This quoting is performed in the same way as
for GNU ls. This is not the same quoting mechanism as
the one used for -ls and -fls. If you are able to
decide what format to use for the output of find then
it is normally better to use '\0' as a terminator than
to use newline, as file names can contain white space
and newline characters.
-print, -fprint
Quoting is handled in the same way as for -printf and
-fprintf. If you are using find in a script or in a
situation where the matched files might have arbitrary
names, you should consider using -print0 instead of
-print.
The -ok and -okdir actions print the current filename as-is.
This may change in a future release.
OPERATORS
Listed in order of decreasing precedence:
( expr )
Force precedence.
! expr
True if expr is false.
-not expr
Same as ! expr, but not POSIX compliant.
expr1 expr2
Two expressions in a row are taken to be joined with an
implied "and"; expr2 is not evaluated if expr1 is
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User Commands FIND(1)
false.
expr1 -a expr2
Same as expr1 expr2.
expr1 -and expr2
Same as expr1 expr2, but not POSIX compliant.
expr1 -o expr2
Or; expr2 is not evaluated if expr1 is true.
expr1 -or expr2
Same as expr1 -o expr2, but not POSIX compliant.
expr1 , expr2
List; both expr1 and expr2 are always evaluated. The
value of expr1 is discarded; the value of the list is
the value of expr2. The comma operator can be use-
ful for searching for several different types of thing,
but traversing the filesystem hierarchy only once.
The -fprintf action can be used to list the various
matched items into several different output files.
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
The following options are specified in the POSIX standard
(IE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition):
-H This option is supported.
-L This option is supported.
-name
This option is supported, but POSIX conformance depends
on the POSIX conformance of the system's fnmatch(3)
library function. As of findutils-4.2.2, shell meta-
characters ('*'. '?' or '[]' for example) will match a
leading '.', because IE PASC interpretation 126
requires this. This is a change from previous ver-
sions of findutils.
-type
Supported. POSIX specifies `b', `c', `d', `l', `p',
`f' and `s'. GNU find also supports `D', representing
a Door, where the OS provides these.
-ok Supported. Interpretation of the response is not
locale-dependent (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).
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User Commands FIND(1)
-newer
Supported. If the file specified is a symbolic link,
it is always dereferenced. This is a change from pre-
vious behaviour, which used to take the relevant time
from the symbolic link; see the HISTORY section below.
Other predicates
The predicates `-atime', `-ctime', `-depth', `-group',
`-links', `-mtime', `-nogroup', `-nouser', `-perm',
`-print', `-prune', `-size', `-user' and `-xdev', are
all supported.
The POSIX standard specifies parentheses `(', `)', negation
`!' and the `and' and `or' operators (`-a', `-o').
All other options, predicates, expressions and so forth are
extensions beyond the POSIX standard. Many of these exten-
sions are not unique to GNU find, however.
The POSIX standard requires that
The find utility shall detect infinite loops; that is,
entering a previously visited directory that is an
ancestor of the last file encountered. When it detects
an infinite loop, find shall write a diagnostic message
to standard error and shall either recover its position
in the hierarchy or terminate.
The link count of directories which contain entries which
are hard links to an ancestor will often be lower than they
otherwise should be. This can mean that GNU find will some-
times optimise away the visiting of a subdirectory which is
actually a link to an ancestor. Since find does not actu-
ally enter such a subdirectory, it is allowed to avoid emit-
ting a diagnostic message. Although this behaviour may be
somewhat confusing, it is unlikely that anybody actually
depends on this behaviour. If the leaf optimisation has
been turned off with -noleaf, the directory entry will
always be examined and the diagnostic message will be issued
where it is appropriate. Symbolic links cannot be used to
create filesystem cycles as such, but if the -L option or
the -follow option is in use, a diagnostic message is issued
when find encounters a loop of symbolic links. As with
loops containing hard links, the leaf optimisation will
often mean that find knows that it doesn't need to call
stat() or chdir() on the symbolic link, so this diagnostic
is frequently not necessary.
The -d option is supported for compatibility with various
BSD systems, but you should use the POSIX-compliant option
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User Commands FIND(1)
-depth instead.
The POSIXLYCORECT environment variable does not affect the
behaviour of the -regex or -iregex tests because those tests
aren't specified in the POSIX standard.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
LANG Provides a default value for the internationalization
variables that are unset or null.
LCAL
If set to a non-empty string value, override the values
of all the other internationalization variables.
LCOLATE
The POSIX standard specifies that this variable affects
the pattern matching to be used for the `-name' option.
GNU find uses the fnmatch(3) library function, and so
support for `LCOLATE' depends on the system library.
POSIX also specifies that the `LCOLATE' environment
variable affects the interpretation of the user's
response to the query issued by `-ok', but this is not
the case for GNU find.
LCTYPE
This variable affects the treatment of character
classes used with the `-name' test, if the system's
fnmatch(3) library function supports this. It has no
effect on the behaviour of the `-ok' expression.
LCMESAGES
Determines the locale to be used for internationalised
messages.
NLSPATH
Determines the location of the internationalisation
message catalogues.
PATH Affects the directories which are searched to find the
executables invoked by `-exec', `-execdir', `-ok' and
`-okdir'.
POSIXLYCORECT
Determines the block size used by `-ls' and `-fls'. If
`POSIXLYCORECT' is set, blocks are units of 512
bytes. Otherwise they are units of 1024 bytes.
TZ Affects the time zone used for some of the time-related
format directives of -printf and -fprintf.
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User Commands FIND(1)
EXAMPLES
find /tmp -name core -type f
Find files named core in or below the directory /tmp and
delete them. Note that this will work incorrectly if there
are any filenames containing newlines, single or double
quotes, or spaces.
find /tmp -name core -type f
Find files named core in or below the directory /tmp and
delete them, processing filenames in such a way that file or
directory names containing single or double quotes, spaces
or newlines are correctly handled. The -name test comes
before the -type test in order to avoid having to call
stat(2) on every file.
find . -type f -exec file
Runs `file' on every file in or below the current directory.
Notice that the braces are enclosed in single quote marks to
protect them from interpretation as shell script punctua-
tion. The semicolon is similarly protected by the use of a
backslash, though ';' could have been used in that case
also.
find / \( -perm -4000 -fprintf
\( -size ]100M -fprintf /root/big.txt '%-10s
Traverse the filesystem just once, listing setuid files and
directories into /root/suid.txt and large files into
/root/big.txt.
find $HOME -mtime 0
Search for files in your home directory which have been
modified in the last twenty-four hours. This command works
this way because the time since each file was last modified
is divided by 24 hours and any remainder is discarded. That
means that to match -mtime 0, a file will have to have a
modification in the past which is less than 24 hours ago.
find . -perm 664
Search for files which have read and write permission for
their owner, and group, but which other users can read but
not write to. Files which meet these criteria but have
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User Commands FIND(1)
other permissions bits set (for example if someone can exe-
cute the file) will not be matched.
find . -perm -664
Search for files which have read and write permission for
their owner and group, and which other users can read,
without regard to the presence of any extra permission bits
(for example the executable bit). This will match a file
which has mode 0777, for example.
find . -perm /222
Search for files which are writable by somebody (their
owner, or their group, or anybody else).
find . -perm /220
find . -perm /u]w,g]w
find . -perm /u=w,g=w
All three of these commands do the same thing, but the first
one uses the octal representation of the file mode, and the
other two use the symbolic form. These commands all search
for files which are writable by either their owner or their
group. The files don't have to be writable by both the
owner and group to be matched; either will do.
find . -perm -220
find . -perm -g]w,u]w
Both these commands do the same thing; search for files
which are writable by both their owner and their group.
find . -perm -444 -perm /222
find . -perm -a]r -perm /a]w
These two commands both search for files that are readable
for everybody (-perm -444 or -perm -a]r), have at least on
write bit set (-perm /222 or -perm /a]w) but are not execut-
able for anybody (! -perm /111 and ! -perm /a]x respec-
tively)
EXIT STATUS
find exits with status 0 if all files are processed success-
fully, greater than 0 if errors occur. This is deli-
berately a very broad description, but if the return value
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User Commands FIND(1)
is non-zero, you should not rely on the correctness of the
results of find.
SEE ALSO
locate(1), locatedb(5), updatedb(1), xargs(1), chmod(1),
fnmatch(3), regex(7), stat(2), lstat(2), ls(1), printf(3),
strftime(3), ctime(3), Finding Files (on-line in Info, or
printed).
HISTORY
As of findutils-4.2.2, shell metacharacters ('*'. '?' or
'[]' for example) used in filename patterns will match a
leading '.', because IE POSIX interpretation 126 requires
this.
NON-BUGS
$ find . -name *.c -print
find: paths must precede expression
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path...] [expression]
This happens because *.c has been expanded by the shell
resulting in find actually receiving a command line like
this:
find . -name bigram.c code.c frcode.c
That command is of course not going to work. Instead of
doing things this way, you should enclose the pattern in
quotes:
$ find . -name '*.c' -print
BUGS
The test -perm /000 currently matches no files, but for
greater consistency with -perm -000, this will be changed to
match all files; this change will probably be made in early
2006. Meanwhile, a warning message is given if you do this.
There are security problems inherent in the behaviour that
the POSIX standard specifies for find, which therefore can-
not be fixed. For example, the -exec action is inherently
insecure, and -execdir should be used instead. Please see
Finding Files for more information.
The best way to report a bug is to use the form at
http:/savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils. The reason
for this is that you will then be able to track progress in
fixing the problem. Other comments about find(1) and about
the findutils package in general can be sent to the
bug-findutils mailing list. To join the list, send email to
bug-findutils-request@gnu.org.
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