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31 .\" @(#)find.1 8.7 (Berkeley) 5/9/95
39 .Nd walk a file hierarchy
42 .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
48 .Op Fl H | Fl L | Fl P
56 utility recursively descends the directory tree for each
64 listed below) in terms
65 of each file in the tree.
67 The options are as follows:
68 .Bl -tag -width indent
70 Interpret regular expressions followed by
74 primaries as extended (modern) regular expressions rather than basic
75 regular expressions (BRE's).
78 manual page fully describes both formats.
80 Cause the file information and file type (see
82 returned for each symbolic link specified on the command line to be
83 those of the file referenced by the link, not the link itself.
84 If the referenced file does not exist, the file information and type will
85 be for the link itself.
86 File information of all symbolic links not on
87 the command line is that of the link itself.
89 Cause the file information and file type (see
91 returned for each symbolic link to be those of the file referenced by the
92 link, not the link itself.
93 If the referenced file does not exist, the file information and type will
94 be for the link itself.
96 This option is equivalent to the deprecated
100 Cause the file information and file type (see
102 returned for each symbolic link to be those of the link itself.
107 to be safely used in conjunction with
109 If a file name contains any of the delimiting characters used by
111 a diagnostic message is displayed on standard error, and the file
113 The delimiting characters include single
119 space, tab and newline characters.
121 However, you may wish to consider the
123 primary in conjunction with
125 as an effective alternative.
129 to perform a depth-first traversal.
131 This option is a BSD-specific equivalent of the
135 Refer to its description under
137 for more information.
141 to traverse the file hierarchies in lexicographical order,
142 i.e., alphabetical order within each directory.
147 may give different results.
151 from descending into directories that have a device number different
152 than that of the file from which the descent began.
154 This option is equivalent to the deprecated
159 All primaries which take a numeric argument allow the number to be
160 preceded by a plus sign
164 A preceding plus sign means
166 a preceding minus sign means
170 .Bl -tag -width indent
172 True if the difference between the time of a file's inode creation
175 was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is
178 .It Ic -Bnewer Ar file
181 .It Ic -Btime Ar n Ns Op Cm smhdw
182 If no units are specified, this primary evaluates to
183 true if the difference between the time of a file's inode creation
186 was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is
190 If units are specified, this primary evaluates to
191 true if the difference between the time of a file's inode creation
194 was started is exactly
199 primary description for information on supported time units.
201 May be used in conjunction with other primaries to locate
202 files with extended ACLs.
205 for more information.
206 .It Ic -amin Oo Cm - Ns | Ns Cm + Oc Ns Ar n
207 True if the difference between the file last access time and the time
209 was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is
219 .It Ic -anewer Ar file
222 .It Ic -atime Ar n Ns Op Cm smhdw
223 If no units are specified, this primary evaluates to
224 true if the difference between the file last access time and the time
226 was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is
230 If units are specified, this primary evaluates to
231 true if the difference between the file last access time and the time
233 was started is exactly
236 Possible time units are as follows:
238 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
251 Any number of units may be combined in one
253 argument, for example,
254 .Dq Li "-atime -1h30m" .
255 Units are probably only useful when used in conjunction with the
260 .It Ic -cmin Oo Cm - Ns | Ns Cm + Oc Ns Ar n
261 True if the difference between the time of last change of file status
262 information and the time
264 was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is
274 .It Ic -cnewer Ar file
277 .It Ic -ctime Ar n Ns Op Cm smhdw
278 If no units are specified, this primary evaluates to
279 true if the difference between the time of last change of file status
280 information and the time
282 was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is
286 If units are specified, this primary evaluates to
287 true if the difference between the time of last change of file status
288 information and the time
290 was started is exactly
295 primary description for information on supported time units.
297 Non-portable, BSD-specific version of
299 GNU find implements this as a primary in mistaken emulation of
303 Delete found files and/or directories.
306 from the current working directory as
308 recurses down the tree.
309 It will not attempt to delete a filename with a
311 character in its pathname relative to
313 for security reasons.
314 Depth-first traversal processing is implied by this option.
317 primary will fail to delete a directory if it is not empty.
318 Following symlinks is incompatible with this option.
321 same as the non-portable
326 to perform a depth-first traversal, i.e., directories
327 are visited in post-order and all entries in a directory will be acted
328 on before the directory itself.
331 visits directories in pre-order, i.e., before their contents.
334 a breadth-first traversal.
343 to process files that are contained in directories with unusual permissions.
344 It ensures that you have write permission while you are placing files in a
345 directory, then sets the directory's permissions as the last thing.
347 True if the depth of the file relative to the starting point of the traversal
351 True if the current file or directory is empty.
352 .It Ic -exec Ar utility Oo Ar argument ... Oc Li \&;
353 True if the program named
355 returns a zero value as its exit status.
358 may be passed to the utility.
359 The expression must be terminated by a semicolon
363 from a shell you may need to quote the semicolon if the shell would
364 otherwise treat it as a control operator.
367 appears anywhere in the utility name or the
368 arguments it is replaced by the pathname of the current file.
370 will be executed from the directory from which
376 are not subject to the further expansion of shell patterns
378 .It Ic -exec Ar utility Oo Ar argument ... Oc Li {} +
383 is replaced with as many pathnames as possible for each invocation of
385 This behaviour is similar to that of
387 .It Ic -execdir Ar utility Oo Ar argument ... Oc Li \&;
390 primary is identical to the
392 primary with the exception that
394 will be executed from the directory that holds
396 The filename substituted for
400 .It Ic -execdir Ar utility Oo Ar argument ... Oc Li {} +
405 is replaced with as many pathnames as possible for each invocation of
407 This behaviour is similar to that of
409 .It Ic -flags Oo Cm - Ns | Ns Cm + Oc Ns Ar flags , Ns Ar notflags
410 The flags are specified using symbolic names (see
420 are checked to be set, and flags in
422 are checked to be not set.
423 Note that this is different from
425 which only allows the user to specify mode bits that are set.
427 If flags are preceded by a dash
429 this primary evaluates to true
430 if at least all of the bits in
432 and none of the bits in
434 are set in the file's flags bits.
435 If flags are preceded by a plus
437 this primary evaluates to true
438 if any of the bits in
440 is set in the file's flags bits,
441 or any of the bits in
443 is not set in the file's flags bits.
445 this primary evaluates to true
448 exactly match the file's flags bits,
453 .It Ic -fstype Ar type
454 True if the file is contained in a file system of type
458 command can be used to find out the types of file systems
459 that are available on the system.
460 In addition, there are two pseudo-types,
464 The former matches any file system physically mounted on the system where
467 is being executed and the latter matches any file system which is
472 for compatibility with GNU find.
473 GNU find imposes a restriction that
478 .It Ic -group Ar gname
479 True if the file belongs to the group
483 is numeric and there is no such group name, then
485 is treated as a group ID.
486 .It Ic -ignore_readdir_race
487 Ignore errors because a file or a directory is deleted
488 after reading the name from a directory.
489 This option does not affect errors occurring on starting points.
490 .It Ic -ilname Ar pattern
493 but the match is case insensitive.
494 This is a GNU find extension.
495 .It Ic -iname Ar pattern
498 but the match is case insensitive.
500 True if the file has inode number
502 .It Ic -ipath Ar pattern
505 but the match is case insensitive.
506 .It Ic -iregex Ar pattern
509 but the match is case insensitive.
510 .It Ic -iwholename Ar pattern
513 for GNU find compatibility.
518 .It Ic -lname Ar pattern
521 but the contents of the symbolic link are matched instead of the file
523 This is a GNU find extension.
525 This primary always evaluates to true.
526 The following information for the current file is written to standard output:
527 its inode number, size in 512-byte blocks, file permissions, number of hard
528 links, owner, group, size in bytes, last modification time, and pathname.
529 If the file is a block or character special file, the device number
530 will be displayed instead of the size in bytes.
531 If the file is a symbolic link, the pathname of the linked-to file will be
532 displayed preceded by
534 The format is identical to that produced by
538 .It Ic -maxdepth Ar n
539 Always true; descend at most
541 directory levels below the command line arguments.
544 primary is specified, it applies to the entire expression even if it would
545 not normally be evaluated.
546 .Dq Ic -maxdepth Li 0
547 limits the whole search to the command line arguments.
548 .It Ic -mindepth Ar n
549 Always true; do not apply any tests or actions at levels less than
553 primary is specified, it applies to the entire expression even if it would
554 not normally be evaluated.
555 .Dq Ic -mindepth Li 1
556 processes all but the command line arguments.
557 .It Ic -mmin Oo Cm - Ns | Ns Cm + Oc Ns Ar n
558 True if the difference between the file last modification time and the time
560 was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is
569 .It Ic -mnewer Ar file
575 for GNU find compatibility.
576 .It Ic -mtime Ar n Ns Op Cm smhdw
577 If no units are specified, this primary evaluates to
578 true if the difference between the file last modification time and the time
580 was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is
584 If units are specified, this primary evaluates to
585 true if the difference between the file last modification time and the time
587 was started is exactly
592 primary description for information on supported time units.
593 .It Ic -name Ar pattern
594 True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
596 Special shell pattern matching characters
602 may be used as part of
604 These characters may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a
607 .It Ic -newer Ar file
608 True if the current file has a more recent last modification time than
610 .It Ic -newer Ns Ar X Ns Ar Y Ar file
611 True if the current file has a more recent last access time
612 .Pq Ar X Ns = Ns Cm a ,
614 .Pq Ar X Ns = Ns Cm B ,
616 .Pq Ar X Ns = Ns Cm c ,
618 .Pq Ar X Ns = Ns Cm m
619 than the last access time
620 .Pq Ar Y Ns = Ns Cm a ,
622 .Pq Ar Y Ns = Ns Cm B ,
624 .Pq Ar Y Ns = Ns Cm c ,
626 .Pq Ar Y Ns = Ns Cm m
633 is instead interpreted as a direct date specification of the form
641 True if the file belongs to an unknown group.
642 .It Ic -noignore_readdir_race
643 Turn off the effect of
644 .Ic -ignore_readdir_race .
645 This is default behaviour.
647 This option is for GNU find compatibility.
648 In GNU find it disables an optimization not relevant to
652 True if the file belongs to an unknown user.
653 .It Ic -ok Ar utility Oo Ar argument ... Oc Li \&;
656 primary is identical to the
658 primary with the exception that
660 requests user affirmation for the execution of the
663 a message to the terminal and reading a response.
664 If the response is not affirmative
669 the command is not executed and the
673 .It Ic -okdir Ar utility Oo Ar argument ... Oc Li \&;
676 primary is identical to the
678 primary with the same exception as described for the
681 .It Ic -path Ar pattern
682 True if the pathname being examined matches
684 Special shell pattern matching characters
690 may be used as part of
692 These characters may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a
697 are treated as normal characters and do not have to be
699 .It Ic -perm Oo Cm - Ns | Ns Cm + Oc Ns Ar mode
702 may be either symbolic (see
707 is symbolic, a starting value of zero is assumed and the
709 sets or clears permissions without regard to the process' file mode
713 is octal, only bits 07777
714 .Pq Dv S_ISUID | S_ISGID | S_ISTXT | S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO
715 of the file's mode bits participate
719 is preceded by a dash
721 this primary evaluates to true
722 if at least all of the bits in the
724 are set in the file's mode bits.
727 is preceded by a plus
729 this primary evaluates to true
730 if any of the bits in the
732 are set in the file's mode bits.
733 Otherwise, this primary evaluates to true if
736 exactly match the file's mode bits.
737 Note, the first character of a symbolic mode may not be a dash
740 This primary always evaluates to true.
741 It prints the pathname of the current file to standard output.
743 .Ic -exec , -ls , -print0 ,
746 is specified, the given expression shall be effectively replaced by
747 .Cm \&( Ar "given expression" Cm \&) Ic -print .
749 This primary always evaluates to true.
750 It prints the pathname of the current file to standard output, followed by an
753 character (character code 0).
755 This primary always evaluates to true.
758 to not descend into the current file.
761 primary has no effect if the
763 option was specified.
767 to immediately terminate successfully.
768 .It Ic -regex Ar pattern
769 True if the whole path of the file matches
771 using regular expression.
772 To match a file named
774 you can use the regular expression
782 .It Ic -samefile Ar name
783 True if the file is a hard link to
785 If the command option
787 is specified, it is also true if the file is a symbolic link and
790 .It Ic -size Ar n Ns Op Cm ckMGTP
791 True if the file's size, rounded up, in 512-byte blocks is
797 then the primary is true if the
803 is followed by a scale indicator then the file's size is compared to
807 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
809 kilobytes (1024 bytes)
811 megabytes (1024 kilobytes)
813 gigabytes (1024 megabytes)
815 terabytes (1024 gigabytes)
817 petabytes (1024 terabytes)
820 True if the current file is sparse,
821 i.e. has fewer blocks allocated than expected based on its size in bytes.
822 This might also match files that have been compressed by the filesystem.
824 True if the file is of the specified type.
825 Possible file types are as follows:
827 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
846 for compatibility with GNU find.
847 GNU find imposes a restriction that
852 .It Ic -user Ar uname
853 True if the file belongs to the user
857 is numeric and there is no such user name, then
859 is treated as a user ID.
860 .It Ic -wholename Ar pattern
863 for GNU find compatibility.
866 The primaries may be combined using the following operators.
867 The operators are listed in order of decreasing precedence.
869 .Bl -tag -width indent -compact
870 .It Cm \&( Ar expression Cm \&)
871 This evaluates to true if the parenthesized expression evaluates to
874 .It Cm \&! Ar expression
875 .It Cm -not Ar expression
879 It evaluates to true if the expression is false.
886 .It Ar expression Cm -and Ar expression
887 .It Ar expression expression
890 operator is the logical
893 As it is implied by the juxtaposition of two expressions it does not
894 have to be specified.
895 The expression evaluates to true if both expressions are true.
896 The second expression is not evaluated if the first expression is false.
898 .It Ar expression Cm -or Ar expression
901 operator is the logical
904 The expression evaluates to true if either the first or the second expression
906 The second expression is not evaluated if the first expression is true.
909 All operands and primaries must be separate arguments to
911 Primaries which themselves take arguments expect each argument
912 to be a separate argument to
916 .Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
919 environment variables affect the execution of the
921 utility as described in
924 The following examples are shown as given to the shell:
925 .Bl -tag -width indent
926 .It Li "find / \e! -name \*q*.c\*q -print"
927 Print out a list of all the files whose names do not end in
929 .It Li "find / -newer ttt -user wnj -print"
930 Print out a list of all the files owned by user
935 .It Li "find / \e! \e( -newer ttt -user wnj \e) -print"
936 Print out a list of all the files which are not both newer than
940 .It Li "find / \e( -newer ttt -or -user wnj \e) -print"
941 Print out a list of all the files that are either owned by
943 or that are newer than
945 .It Li "find / -newerct '1 minute ago' -print"
946 Print out a list of all the files whose inode change time is more
947 recent than the current time minus one minute.
948 .It Li "find / -type f -exec echo {} \e;"
951 command to print out a list of all the files.
952 .It Li "find -L /usr/ports/packages -type l -exec rm -- {} +"
953 Delete all broken symbolic links in
954 .Pa /usr/ports/packages .
955 .It Li "find /usr/src -name CVS -prune -o -depth +6 -print"
956 Find files and directories that are at least seven levels deep
957 in the working directory
959 .It Li "find /usr/src -name CVS -prune -o -mindepth 7 -print"
960 Is not equivalent to the previous example, since
962 is not evaluated below level seven.
967 primary is deprecated; the
969 option should be used instead.
972 section below for details.
993 utility syntax is a superset of the syntax specified by the
997 All the single character options except
1002 .Ic -amin , -anewer , -cmin , -cnewer , -delete , -empty , -fstype ,
1003 .Ic -iname , -inum , -iregex , -ls , -maxdepth , -mindepth , -mmin ,
1004 .Ic -path , -print0 , -regex, -sparse
1007 birthtime related primaries are extensions to
1014 options were implemented using the primaries
1015 .Ic -depth , -follow ,
1018 These primaries always evaluated to true.
1019 As they were really global variables that took effect before the traversal
1020 began, some legal expressions could have unexpected results.
1021 An example is the expression
1022 .Ic -print Cm -o Ic -depth .
1025 always evaluates to true, the standard order of evaluation
1028 would never be evaluated.
1029 This is not the case.
1040 Historic implementations of the
1044 primaries did not replace the string
1046 in the utility name or the
1047 utility arguments if it had preceding or following non-whitespace characters.
1048 This version replaces it no matter where in the utility name or arguments
1053 option was inspired by the equivalent
1064 The special characters used by
1066 are also special characters to many shell programs.
1067 In particular, the characters
1078 may have to be escaped from the shell.
1080 As there is no delimiter separating options and file names or file
1083 it is difficult to specify files named
1087 These problems are handled by the
1096 primary does not interact well with other options that cause the file system
1097 tree traversal options to be changed.
1103 primaries are actually global options (as documented above).
1105 probably be replaced by options which look like options.