find [-P | -L | -H] [-EXdsx] [-f pathname]
[pathname …] expression
Traverse a file hierarchy beginning at pathnames
and select files matching an expression, outputting or executing a command with the matching file names as an argument.
expression is composed of the primaries and operands .
lsof |grep 'find '|grep cwd # may be bhelpful on a large directory tree with few matches.
| symbolic link handling:
|
-P | information is of the link ( Pointer ). default.
| -L | file Linked to information is used
| -H symbolic links on the command
is information for those of the files referenced by the link.
symbolic links not on the command is that of the link .
If the referenced file does not exist, information will be for the link .
| |
| -E -regex and -iregex are extended regular expressions
| -X names containing apostrophe ( ' ), quotes ( " ),
backslash (\), space, tab and newline (delimiters used by xargs) are skippend and an error is output to standard error.
| -d
-depth 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.
Useful when used with cpio to process files that are contained in
directories with various permissions.
Ensures write permission while placing files in a directory, then sets the directory's permissions .
Always true
dir1
file11
dir2
file21
file22
file2
|
order is file11, file21,file22,file2, dir2, dir1
| |
default: visit directories before their contents not a breadth-first traversal.
| -maxdepth n True. Limit the depth of the search into directories to no more than n.
-mindepth n True. do not apply any tests or actions at levels less than n
-f pathnames. May also be specified as the operands following options.
| -s traverse the file hierarchies in
lexicographical order, i.e., alphabetical order within each directory.
find -s and find | sort may give different results.
| -x prevents descending into directories that have a device number different than that of the file from which the descent began.
eXclude volume crossing .
| PRIMARIES
Primaries which take a numeric argument, match when equal unless
preceeded with a plus (+) meaning more than n or
minus (-) less than n
| -empty | True if the current file or directory is empty.
|
time-stamp oriented
|
Relative times are base on time find was started.
+ more than ttt (before), - less than ttt (more recently than, since)
w 7 Days, d 24 hours, h 60 minutes, m 60 seconds and s second. Units may be combined, for example: 1h30m.
i.e. 1 (day is default) means before yesterday at this time, not anytime yesterday.
For example running find . -mtime -1 this afternoon will NOT find files modified yesterday morning!
| To find files modified since yesterday at this time use: | find . -mtime -`date +1d%Hh%Mm` -ls
|
| current file was:
| -mmin ±mmodified m minutes ago
| -mtime [±]n[wdhms]
example find . -name \*.c -mtime -4d -ls|sedfind
| -mnewer file |
| |
| -Bmin [±]m Born (created) … m minutes ago
| -Btime [±]n[wdhms] Born n wdhms ago. Default d days! (i.e. n*24 hours
| -Bnewer file Born before file was modified.
| |
| -amin [±]m accessed access times may not be enabled see
-atime [±]n[wdhms] |
| -anewer file|
| |
| -cmin [±]mstatus changed
| -ctime [±]n[wdhms] |
| -cnewer file|
-newer file |
| -newerct ccyy-mm-dd
current file has a more recent | c
access
change
modification | time than ccyy-mm-dd
date of the form understood by cvs
|
| -newercf file
True if the
| current file has a more recent | access (a.)
change(c.)
modification(m.) | time than file's
| access (.a)
change (.c)
modification (.m)
|
Example: find . -newermm a.out # find files modified before a.out's modification
| execution options
-exec util [args …] {} \;
{} is replaced by the pathname of the current file.
True if util returns zero.
The expression must be terminated by a semicolon (;) escaped with a \.
util will be executed from the directory from which find was executed.
util and args are not subject to the further expansion of shell patterns and constructs.
| -execdir util [args …] {} \; util will be executed from the directory of the current file
| -exec util [args …] {} + {} is replaced with
as many pathnames as possible for each invocation of util
like xargs
| -execdir util [args…] {} +|
| -ok util [args … ] {} \;
Requests user affirmation for the execution of util.
y executes the command, anything else skips the command and returns false.
/usr/bin/find . -iname "*~" -ok rm {} \;
"rm ./Applications/Album/CHRIS.HTM~"? n
"rm ./Documents/JackTheRiperCracker.html~"? n
"rm ./Documents/main.java~"? y
"rm ./Documents/MSU/585-01-security/Project/1-intro.txt~"?
| -okdir util {} [args …];
-perm [±]modeTests file permissions.
mode may be symbolic (see chmod) or octal .
| -mmm | true if all bits in mmm are set in the file's mode bits.
| +mmm | true if any bits in mmm are set in the file's .
| mmm | true if the bits in mmm match the file's .
If symbolic, a starting value of 000 and the mode sets or clears permissions (ignoring the process' file mode creation mask.
If octal, only bits 07777 (SUID | SGID | STXT | U | G | O) of the file's mode bits participate in the comparison.
i.e. q, zzz is ignored
| -flags [±]flags,notflags
flags :
archived , opaque , nodump , sappend , uappend , schange, simmutable , uchange, uimmutable , hidden
.(see chflags)
Those with the "no" prefix are notflags (except nodump).
flags are checked to be set
notflags are checked to be reset.
True if flags exactly match
the file's and none of the flags match those of notflags.
- flags: true if at least all of the flags and none
in notflags are set in the file's.
+ flags: true if any of the flags are set in the file's, or
any of the notflags
are not set in the file's.
Different from -perm, which only allows specifing permission bits(mode) that are set.
|
Pattern matching
Special shell pattern matching characters ([,
], *, and ?) may be used as part of pattern.
These characters may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a backslash (\).
| -iname pattern| the match is case insensitive.
| -path pattern True if the pathname matches pattern.
shell pattern matching characters ([, ], *, and
?) may be used as part of pattern,
in which case the entire pattern should be enclosed in "
To match these characters in the path escape them with a backslash (\).
Slashes (/) are treated as normal characters and do not have to be matched explicitly.
| -ipath pattern case insensitive path,
| -regex pattern True if the whole path of the file matches pattern using regular expression.
To match ./foo/xyzzy, use:
.*/[xyz]* or .*/foo/.*,
not xyzzy or /foo/.
| -iregex patterncase insensitive regex,
|
-size n [ckMGTP] |
True if the file's size, rounded up, in 512-byte blocks
is n,
c, size is characters, kilobytes, Mega, Giga, Tera, Peta.
| -links n True if the file has n links.
| -inum n True if the file has inode number n.
| -type t True if the file is :
d directory | c character special
| f regular file | b block special
| l symbolic link
| p FIFO | s socket
|
| -fstype type True if the file is type.
> lsvfs
Filesystem Refs Flags
---------------- ----
nfs 0
devfs 1
nullfs 0
hfs 3 local
apfs 3 local
autofs 2
smbfs 1
pseudo-types:
local matches any file system physically mounted on the system where the find is being executed
rdonly matches any file system which is mounted read-only.
| -user uname|UID True if owner is uname or UID
| -group group True if the file belongs to group name or ID.
| -nouser True if the file belongs to an unknown user.
For example if a tar
file from another system was extracted.
| -nogroup| True if the file belongs to an unknown group.
| | Effect output (which are always true )
| -print Outputs the pathname of
the current file to standard output.
If none of -exec, -ls,
-print0, or -ok is specified, the given expression shall be
replaced by
( expression ) -print.
| -print0
Outputs the pathname of the current file followed NULL .
Useful when filenames contain
or spaces or other special characters espically with xargs
| -ls To STDOUT, format as per ls -dgils.
inode blks† perm…s links† owner group bytes modification pathname
1151651 32 -rwx------ 1 userme mygrp 1638 May 9 2007 ./ds/archive/asts.xls
3147130 360 -rwx------ 1 userme mygrp 18278 Jan 27 2008 ./ds/asts-0801.xls
4666431 360 -rwx------ 1 userme mygrp 18380 Dec 20 2008 ./ds/asts-0812.xls
9067172 528 -rwx------ 1 userme mygrp 26828 Dec 9 2007 ./ds/asts-3yrs.xls
9933738 664 -rwx------ 1 userme mygrp 33689 Dec 9 2007 ./ds/asts-allyrs.xls
For block or character special file, the major and minor numbers will be displayed .
For symbolic link, the pathname of the linked-to file will be displayed preceded by ->.
|
To removed everything before the bytes use:
sed "s/^[[:digit:]]\{1,18\} \{1,9\}[[:digit:]]\{0,6\} .......... \{0,5\}[[:digit:]]\{0,4\} [[:alpha:]]\{1,7\} [[:alpha:]]\{1,7\} //"
| -delete
files and directories.
This executes from the current working directory as find recurses down the tree.
It will not delete a filename with a / in its pathname relative to . for security reasons.
Processing is a Depth-first traversal
| -prune Don't descend into the current file.
Ignored with -d (Depth first)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
OPERATORS
Primaries may be combined using these operators, listed in order of decreasing precedence.
\(† expression \) evaluates to true if the parenthesized expression evaluates to true.
\! expression
-false expression
-not expression
expression -and expression
expression expression
default opeator. The second expression is not evaluated if the first expression is false.
expression -or expression
The second expression is not evalated if the first expression is true.
Operands and primaries must be separate arguments to find.
Primaries which take arguments expect each argument to be a separate argument .
Examples
Names do not end in .c.
find mysrclib \! -name "*.c" -print
Newer than ttt and owned by user wnj
find mysrclib -newer ttt -user wnj -print
Are not both newer than ttt and owned by wnj.
find mysrclib \! \( -newer ttt -user wnj \) -print
Either owned by wnj or newer than ttt.
find mysrclib \( -newer ttt -or -user wnj \) -print
Recent than the current time minus one minute.
/usr/bin/find . -newerct '1 minute ago' -print whose inode change time is more
See Also
chflags, chmod, cvs, locate, whereis, which, stat, fts, getgrent, getpwent, strmode, re_format, psymlink .
Standards
Single character options as well as -iname, -inum, -iregex,
-print0, -delete, -ls, and -regex are extensions to IEEE Std 1003.2 (POSIX.2).
Historically -d, -h and -x were implemented using -depth, -follow, and -xdev.
These are evaluated to true.
As they were 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.
The -or was implemented as -o, and -and was implemented as -a.
of the -exec and -ok did not replace
{} 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.
The -E was implemented on the analogy of grep(1) and sed(1).
BUGS
The special characters used by find are also special characters to many
shell programs. In particular, the characters *, [, ],
?, (, ), !, \ and ; may have to be escaped from the shell.
As there is no delimiter separating options and file names or file names
and the expression, it is difficult to specify files named -xdev or !.
These problems are handled by the -f option and the getopt(3) -- construct.
STANDARDS
a superset of the syntax specified by the IEEE Std 1003.2 (POSIX.2) standard.
single character options and -iname, -inum, -iregex, -print0, -delete, -ls, and -regex primaries are extensions to IEEE Std
1003.2 (POSIX.2).
-d, -h and -x were implemented using the primaries -depth, -follow, and -xdev and evaluated true. As global variables that took effect before the
traversal began, some expressions could have unexpected results.
An example -print -o -depth. As -print
evaluates to true, depth would not be evaluated. This is not the case.
-or was implemented as -o, and the operator -and was implemented as -a.
In some implementations -exec and -ok did not replace
{} if it had preceding or following non-whitespace .
This version replaces it whereever utility name or arguments .
-E was implemented on the analogy of grep(1) and sed(1).
Reminder: *, [, ],
?, (, ), !,
\ and ; may have to be escaped from the shell.
There is no delimiter separating options, names and expression,
making it difficult to specify files named -xdev or !.
Use -f and the getopt -- construct.
-delete does not interact well with other options that cause the filesystem tree traversal options to be changed.
-mindepth and -maxdepth are actually global options (as documented above). They
should probably be replaced by options which look like options.
BSD May 3, 2001 +2006