.\" $OpenBSD: find.1,v 1.10 1996/12/23 04:58:09 millert Exp $ .\" 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. 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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. .\" .\" from: @(#)find.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 .\" .Dd August 31, 1996 .Dt FIND 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm find .Nd walk a file hierarchy .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm find .Op Fl HdhXx .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 encountered 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 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 h The .Fl h 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 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. As an alternative, the .Fl print0 function may be used safely in conjunction with the .Fl 0 argument to .Xr xargs 1 .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 -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 -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 -empty True if the current file or directory is empty. .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 -follow Follow symbolic links. .It Ic -fstype Ar type True if the file is contained in a file system of type .Ar type . Two special file system types are recognized: ``local'' and ``rdonly''. These do not describe actual file system types; 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 -maxdepth Ar n True if the current search depth is less than or equal to what is specified in .Ar n . .It Ic -mindepth Ar n True if the current search depth is at least what is specified in .Ar n . .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 Ns 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, followed by a newline character. If neither .Ic -exec , .Ic -ls , .Ic -ok , nor .Ic -print0 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 a null character. .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 W whiteout .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 stat 2 , .Xr fts 3 , .Xr getpwent 3 , .Xr getgrent 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 The options and the .Ic -empty , .Ic -follow , .Ic -fstype , .Ic -inum , .Ic -links , .Ic -ls , .Ic -maxdepth , .Ic -mindepth and .Ic -print0 primaries are extensions to .St -p1003.2 . .Pp Historically, the .Fl d , .Fl s 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.