Provided by:
findutils_4.2.27-1ubuntu1_i386 
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 OPERATORS), 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 directories that are writable
by other users), you should read the "Security Considerations" chapter
of the findutils documentation, which is called Finding Files and comes
with findutils. 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, anyway).
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 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
discovers 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 situation, 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 examined (though of course -maxdepth 0 would
prevent this).
If more than one of -H, -L and -P is specified, each overrides 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
command line will have been examined and some of its properties will
have been saved. If the named file is in fact a symbolic link, and the
-P option is in effect (or if neither -H nor -L were specified), the
information used for the comparison 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 (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 symbolic 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).
EXPRESSIONS
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, they
always take effect, rather than being processed only when their place
in the expression is reached. 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.
-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.
-ignore_readdir_race
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 commands 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.
-noignore_readdir_race
Turns off the effect of -ignore_readdir_race.
-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. Additionally, its subdirectories (if any) each have a
‘..’ entry linked to that directory. When find is examining a
directory, after it has statted 2 fewer subdirectories 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 command 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.
-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 figures 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 directory.
-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).
-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’, ‘FOO’,
‘foo’, ‘fOo’, etc. In these patterns, unlike filename
expansion by the shell, an initial ’.’ 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,
otherwise 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 pattern
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 symbolic 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 directories
removed) matches shell pattern pattern. The 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 symbolic).
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 permission. 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
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 examples. 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
consistent 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 symbolic modes will
yield surprising results. For example, ’+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 permissions 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 symbolic 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 regular 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)
‘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 metacharacters do
not treat ‘/’ or ‘.’ specially; so, for 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 specified, 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 removal 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 executed in the starting directory. There are
unavoidable 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 command line is built in much the same way
that xargs 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 process more than one matched file, but any
given invocation 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 specially; 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
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 command 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 consider 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 command 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 precisions can be
specified as with the ‘printf’ C function. 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 newline at the
end of the string. The escapes and directives are:
Alarm bell.
Backspace.