Tribblix: manual page: find.1

FIND(1) User Commands FIND(1)

NAME

find - find files

SYNOPSIS

/usr/bin/find [-E] [-H | -L] path... expression

/usr/xpg4/bin/find [-H | -L] path... expression

DESCRIPTION

The find utility recursively descends the directory hierarchy for
each path seeking files that match a Boolean expression written in
the primaries specified below.

find is able to descend to arbitrary depths in a file hierarchy and
does not fail due to path length limitations (unless a path operand
specified by the application exceeds PATH_MAX requirements).

find detects infinite loops; that is, entering a previously visited
directory that is an ancestor of the last file encountered.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:

-E
Interpret regular expressions followed by -regex and -iregex
primaries as extended regular expressions.

-H
Causes the file information and file type evaluated for each
symbolic link encountered on the command line to be those of
the file referenced by the link, and not the link itself. If
the referenced file does not exist, the file information and
type is for the link itself. File information for all symbolic
links not on the command line is that of the link itself.

-L
Causes the file information and file type evaluated for each
symbolic link to be those of the file referenced by the link,
and not the link itself. See NOTES.

Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options -H and -L
is not considered an error. The last option specified determines the
behavior of the utility.

OPERANDS

The following operands are supported:

path
A pathname of a starting point in the directory
hierarchy.

expression
The first argument that starts with a -, or is a ! or a
(, and all subsequent arguments are interpreted as an
expression made up of the following primaries and
operators. In the descriptions, wherever n is used as a
primary argument, it is interpreted as a decimal
integer optionally preceded by a plus (+) or minus (-)
sign, as follows:

+n
more than n

n
exactly n

-n
less than n

Expressions

Valid expressions are:

-acl
True if the file have additional ACLs defined.

-amin n
File was last accessed n minutes ago.

-atime n
True if the file was accessed n days ago. The access
time of directories in path is changed by find
itself.

-cmin n
File's status was last changed n minutes ago.

-cpio device
Always true. Writes the current file on device in
cpio format (5120-byte records).

-ctime n
True if the file's status was changed n days ago.

-delete
Always true. Deletes the files and folders found
recursively from the current directory. This option
implicitly enables -depth and is incompatible with
following symlinks, if specified. For security
reasons, relative paths starting with '/' are not
allowed.

-depth
Always true. Causes descent of the directory
hierarchy to be done so that all entries in a
directory are acted on before the directory itself.
This can be useful when find is used with cpio(1) to
transfer files that are contained in directories
without write permission.

-exec command
True if the executed command returns a zero value as
exit status. The end of command must be punctuated
by an escaped semicolon (;). A command argument {}
is replaced by the current pathname. If the last
argument to -exec is {} and you specify + rather
than the semicolon (;), the command is invoked fewer
times, with {} replaced by groups of pathnames. If
any invocation of the command returns a non-zero
value as exit status, find returns a non-zero exit
status.

-follow
Always true and always evaluated no matter where it
appears in expression. The behavior is unspecified
if -follow is used when the find command is invoked
with either the -H or the -L option. Causes
symbolic links to be followed. When following
symbolic links, find keeps track of the directories
visited so that it can detect infinite loops. For
example, such a loop would occur if a symbolic link
pointed to an ancestor. This expression should not
be used with the find-type l expression. See NOTES.

-fstype type
True if the filesystem to which the file belongs is
of type type.

-group gname
True if the file belongs to the group gname. If
gname is numeric and there's no such group name, it
is taken as a group ID.

-groupacl gname
True if the file's ACL contains an entry for the
group gname. If gname is numeric and there's no
such group name, it is taken as a group ID.

-gsid sid
True if the file belongs to a group with the Windows
Security Identifier (SID) specified by sid.

-gsidacl sid
True if the file's ACL contains an group entry
containing the Windows Security Identifier (SID)
specified by sid.

-iname pattern
Like -name, but the match is case insensitive.

-inum n
True if the file has inode number n.

-ipath pattern
Like -path, but the match is case insensitive.

-iregex pattern
Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.

-links n
True if the file has n links.

-local
True if the file system type is not a remote file
system type as defined in the /etc/dfs/fstypes file.
nfs is used as the default remote filesystem type if
the /etc/dfs/fstypes file is not present. The -local
option descends the hierarchy of non-local
directories. See EXAMPLES for an example of how to
search for local files without descending.

-ls
Always true. Prints current pathname together with
its associated statistics. These include
(respectively):

o inode number

o size in kilobytes (1024 bytes)

o protection mode

o number of hard links

o user

o group

o size in bytes

o modification time.
If the file is a special file, the size field
instead contains the major and minor device numbers.

If the file is a symbolic link, the pathname of the
linked-to file is printed preceded by `->'. The
format is identical to that of ls -gilds (see
ls(1B)).

Formatting is done internally, without executing the
ls program.

-maxdepth n
Always true; descend at most n directory levels
below the command line arguments. If any -maxdepth
primary is specified, it applies to the entire
expression even if it would not normally be
evaluated. -maxdepth 0 limits the whole search to
the command line arguments.

-mindepth n
Always true; do not apply any tests or actions at
levels less than n. If any -mindepth primary is
specified, it applies to the entire expression even
if it would not normally be evaluated. -mindepth 1
processes all but the command line arguments.

-mmin n
File's data was last modified n minutes ago.

-mount
Always true. Restricts the search to the file system
containing the directory specified. Does not list
mount points to other file systems.

-mtime n
True if the file's data was modified n days ago.

-name pattern
True if pattern matches the basename of the current
file name. Normal shell file name generation
characters (see sh(1)) can be used. A backslash (\)
is used as an escape character within the pattern.
The pattern should be escaped or quoted when find is
invoked from the shell.

Unless the character '.' is explicitly specified in
the beginning of pattern, a current file name
beginning with '.' does not match pattern when using
/usr/bin/find. /usr/xpg4/bin/find does not make this
distinction; wildcard file name generation
characters can match file names beginning with '.'.

-ncpio device
Always true. Writes the current file on device in
cpio -c format (5120 byte records).

-newer file
True if the current file has been modified more
recently than the argument file.

-nogroup
True if the file belongs to non-existing group.

-nouser
True if the file belongs to non-existing user.

-ok command
Like -exec, except that the generated command line
is printed with a question mark first, and is
executed only if the response is affirmative.

-path
Like -name, but matches the entire file path and not
just basename, and without any special treatment of
leading periods.

-perm [-]mode
The mode argument is used to represent file mode
bits. It is identical in format to the symbolic mode
operand, symbolic_mode_list, described in chmod(1),
and is interpreted as follows. To start, a template
is assumed with all file mode bits cleared. An op
symbol of:

+
Set the appropriate mode bits in the
template

-
Clear the appropriate bits

=
Set the appropriate mode bits, without
regard to the contents of the file mode
creation mask of the process

The op symbol of - cannot be the first character of
mode, to avoid ambiguity with the optional leading
hyphen. Since the initial mode is all bits off,
there are no symbolic modes that need to use - as
the first character.

If the hyphen is omitted, the primary evaluates as
true when the file permission bits exactly match the
value of the resulting template.

Otherwise, if mode is prefixed by a hyphen, the
primary evaluates as true if at least all the bits
in the resulting template are set in the file
permission bits.

-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 (-), only the bits that are
set in onum are compared with the file permission
flags, and the expression evaluates true if they
match.

-print
Always true. Causes the current pathname to be
printed.

-print0
Always true. Causes the current pathname to be
printed, terminated by an ASCII NUL character
(character code 0) instead of a newline.

-prune
Always yields true. Does not examine any directories
or files in the directory structure below the
pattern just matched. (See EXAMPLES). If -depth is
specified, -prune has no effect.

-regex pattern
True if the full path of the file matches pattern
using regular expressions.

-sidacl sid
True if the file's ACL contains an entry referencing
the Windows Security Identifier (SID) specified by
sid.

-size n[c]
True if the file is n blocks long (512 bytes per
block). If n is followed by a c, the size is in
bytes.

-type c
True if the type of the file is c, where c is b, c,
d, D, f, l, p, or s for block special file,
character special file, directory, door, plain file,
symbolic link, fifo (named pipe), or socket,
respectively.

-user uname
True if the file belongs to the user uname. If uname
is numeric and there's no such user name, it is
taken as a user ID.

-useracl uname
True if the file's ACL contains an entry for the
user uname. If uname is numeric and there's no such
user name, it is taken as a user ID.

-usid sid
True if the file is owned by the Windows Security
Identifier (SID) specified by sid.

-usidacl sid
True if the file's ACL contains an user entry
containing the Windows Security Identifier (SID)
specified by sid.

-xdev
Same as the -mount primary.

-xattr
True if the file has extended attributes.

Complex Expressions

The primaries can be combined using the following operators (in order
of decreasing precedence):

1)(expression)

True if the parenthesized expression is true (parentheses are
special to the shell and must be escaped).

2)!expression

The negation of a primary (! is the unary not operator).

3) expression[-a] expression

Concatenation of primaries (the and operation is implied by the
juxtaposition of two primaries).

4) expression-oexpression

Alternation of primaries (-o is the or operator).

When you use find in conjunction with cpio, if you use the -L option
with cpio, you must use the -L option or the -follow primitive with
find and vice versa. Otherwise the results are unspecified.

If no expression is present, -print is used as the expression.
Otherwise, if the specified expression does not contain any of the
primaries -exec, -ok, -ls, or -print, the specified expression is
effectively replaced by:

(specified) -print

The -user, -group, and -newer primaries each evaluate their
respective arguments only once. Invocation of command specified by
-exec or -ok does not affect subsequent primaries on the same file.

USAGE

See largefile(7) for the description of the behavior of find when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2^31 bytes).

EXAMPLES

Example 1: Writing Out the Hierarchy Directory

The following commands are equivalent:

example% find .
example% find . -print

They both write out the entire directory hierarchy from the current
directory.

Example 2: Removing Files

The following command removes all files in your home directory named
a.out or *.o that have not been accessed for a week:

example% find $HOME $ -name a.out -o -name '*.o' $ \
-atime +7 -exec rm {} \;

Example 3: Printing All File Names But Skipping SCCS Directories

The following command recursively print all file names in the current
directory and below, but skipping SCCS directories:

example% find . -name SCCS -prune -o -print

Example 4: Printing all file names and the SCCS directory name

Recursively print all file names in the current directory and below,
skipping the contents of SCCS directories, but printing out the SCCS
directory name:

example% find . -print -name SCCS -prune

Example 5: Testing for the Newer File

The following command is basically equivalent to the -nt extension to
test(1):

example$ if [ -n "$(find
file1 -prune -newer file2)" ]; then

printf %s\\n "file1 is newer than file2"

Example 6: Selecting a File Using 24-hour Mode

The descriptions of -atime, -ctime, and -mtime use the terminology n
``24-hour periods''. For example, a file accessed at 23:59 is
selected by:

example% find . -atime -1 -print

at 00:01 the next day (less than 24 hours later, not more than one
day ago). The midnight boundary between days has no effect on the
24-hour calculation.

Example 7: Printing Files Matching a User's Permission Mode

The following command recursively print all file names whose
permission mode exactly matches read, write, and execute access for
user, and read and execute access for group and other:

example% find . -perm u=rwx,g=rx,o=rx

The above could alternatively be specified as follows:

example% find . -perm a=rwx,g-w,o-w

Example 8: Printing Files with Write Access for other

The following command recursively print all file names whose
permission includes, but is not limited to, write access for other:

example% find . -perm -o+w

Example 9: Printing Local Files without Descending Non-local

Directories

example% find . ! -local -prune -o -print

Example 10: Printing the Files in the Name Space Possessing Extended

Attributes

example% find . -xattr

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See environ(7) for descriptions of the following environment
variables that affect the execution of find: LANG, LC_ALL,
LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

PATH
Determine the location of the utility_name for the -exec and
-ok primaries.

Affirmative responses are processed using the extended regular
expression defined for the yesexpr keyword in the LC_MESSAGES
category of the user's locale. The locale specified in the LC_COLLATE
category defines the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and
multi-character collating elements used in the expression defined for
yesexpr. The locale specified in LC_CTYPE determines the locale for
interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data a characters, the
behavior of character classes used in the expression defined for the
yesexpr. See locale(7).

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

0
All path operands were traversed successfully.

>0
An error occurred.

FILES

/etc/passwd
Password file

/etc/group
Group file

/etc/dfs/fstypes
File that registers distributed file system
packages

ATTRIBUTES

WARNINGS

The following options are obsolete and will not be supported in
future releases:

-cpio device
Always true. Writes the current file on device in
cpio format (5120-byte records).

-ncpio device
Always true. Writes the current file on device in
cpio -c format (5120-byte records).

NOTES

When using find to determine files modified within a range of time,
use the -mtime argument before the -print argument. Otherwise, find
gives all files.

Some files that might be under the Solaris root file system are
actually mount points for virtual file systems, such as mntfs or
namefs. When comparing against a ufs file system, such files are not
selected if -mount or -xdev is specified in the find expression.

Using the -L or -follow option is not recommended when descending a
file-system hierarchy that is under the control of other users. In
particular, when using -exec, symbolic links can lead the find
command out of the hierarchy in which it started. Using -type is not
sufficient to restrict the type of files on which the -exec command
operates, because there is an inherent race condition between the
type-check performed by the find command and the time the executed
command operates on the file argument.

August 23, 2020 FIND(1)