Provided by: manpages-posix_2.16-1_all 
NAME
find - find files
SYNOPSIS
find [-H | -L] path ... [operand_expression ...]
DESCRIPTION
The find utility shall recursively descend the directory hierarchy from each file
specified by path, evaluating a Boolean expression composed of the primaries described in
the OPERANDS section for each file encountered.
The find utility shall be able to descend to arbitrary depths in a file hierarchy and
shall not fail due to path length limitations (unless a path operand specified by the
application exceeds {PATH_MAX} requirements).
The find utility shall detect infinite loops; that is, entering a previously visited
directory that is an ancestor of the last file encountered. When it detects an infinite
loop, find shall write a diagnostic message to standard error and shall either recover its
position in the hierarchy or terminate.
OPTIONS
The find utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The following options shall be supported by the implementation:
-H Cause 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 shall be for the link itself. File information for all symbolic links not
on the command line shall be that of the link itself.
-L Cause 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.
Specifying more than one of the mutually-exclusive options -H and -L shall not be
considered an error. The last option specified shall determine the behavior of the
utility.
OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:
The path operand is a pathname of a starting point in the directory hierarchy.
The first argument that starts with a '-' , or is a '!' or a '(' , and all subsequent
arguments shall be interpreted as an expression made up of the following primaries and
operators. In the descriptions, wherever n is used as a primary argument, it shall be
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.
The following primaries shall be supported:
-name pattern
The primary shall evaluate as true if the basename of the filename being examined
matches pattern using the pattern matching notation described in Pattern Matching
Notation .
-nouser
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs to a user ID for which the
getpwuid() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
(or equivalent) returns NULL.
-nogroup
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs to a group ID for which the
getgrgid() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
(or equivalent) returns NULL.
-xdev The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall cause find not to continue
descending past directories that have a different device ID ( st_dev, see the
stat() function defined in the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001).
If any -xdev primary is specified, it shall apply to the entire expression even if
the -xdev primary would not normally be evaluated.
-prune The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall cause find not to descend the
current pathname if it is a directory. If the -depth primary is specified, the
-prune primary shall have no effect.
-perm [-]mode
The mode argument is used to represent file mode bits. It shall be identical in
format to the symbolic_mode operand described in chmod() , and shall be interpreted
as follows. To start, a template shall be assumed with all file mode bits cleared.
An op symbol of '+' shall set the appropriate mode bits in the template; '-' shall
clear the appropriate bits; '=' shall set the appropriate mode bits, without regard
to the contents of process' file mode creation mask. The op symbol of '-' cannot be
the first character of mode; this avoids ambiguity with the optional leading
hyphen. Since the initial mode is all bits off, there are not any symbolic modes
that need to use '-' as the first character.
If the hyphen is omitted, the primary shall evaluate 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 shall evaluate as true if at least
all the bits in the resulting template are set in the file permission bits.
-perm [-]onum
If the hyphen is omitted, the primary shall evaluate as true when the file
permission bits exactly match the value of the octal number onum and only the bits
corresponding to the octal mask 07777 shall be compared. (See the description of
the octal mode in chmod() .) Otherwise, if onum is prefixed by a hyphen, the
primary shall evaluate as true if at least all of the bits specified in onum that
are also set in the octal mask 07777 are set.
-type c
The primary shall evaluate as true if the type of the file is c, where c is 'b' ,
'c' , 'd' , 'l' , 'p' , 'f' , or 's' for block special file, character special
file, directory, symbolic link, FIFO, regular file, or socket, respectively.
-links n
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file has n links.
-user uname
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs to the user uname. If uname
is a decimal integer and the getpwnam() (or equivalent) function does not return a
valid user name, uname shall be interpreted as a user ID.
-group gname
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs to the group gname. If gname
is a decimal integer and the getgrnam() (or equivalent) function does not return a
valid group name, gname shall be interpreted as a group ID.
-size n[c]
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file size in bytes, divided by 512 and
rounded up to the next integer, is n. If n is followed by the character 'c' , the
size shall be in bytes.
-atime n
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file access time subtracted from the
initialization time, divided by 86400 (with any remainder discarded), is n.
-ctime n
The primary shall evaluate as true if the time of last change of file status
information subtracted from the initialization time, divided by 86400 (with any
remainder discarded), is n.
-mtime n
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file modification time subtracted from
the initialization time, divided by 86400 (with any remainder discarded), is n.
-exec utility_name [argument ...] ;
-exec utility_name [argument ...]
{} +
The end of the primary expression shall be punctuated by a semicolon or by a plus
sign. Only a plus sign that follows an argument containing the two characters "{}"
shall punctuate the end of the primary expression. Other uses of the plus sign
shall not be treated as special.
If the primary expression is punctuated by a semicolon, the utility utility_name shall be
invoked once for each pathname and the primary shall evaluate as true if the utility
returns a zero value as exit status. A utility_name or argument containing only the two
characters "{}" shall be replaced by the current pathname.
If the primary expression is punctuated by a plus sign, the primary shall always evaluate
as true, and the pathnames for which the primary is evaluated shall be aggregated into
sets. The utility utility_name shall be invoked once for each set of aggregated pathnames.
Each invocation shall begin after the last pathname in the set is aggregated, and shall be
completed before the find utility exits and before the first pathname in the next set (if
any) is aggregated for this primary, but it is otherwise unspecified whether the
invocation occurs before, during, or after the evaluations of other primaries. If any
invocation returns a non-zero value as exit status, the find utility shall return a non-
zero exit status. An argument containing only the two characters "{}" shall be replaced by
the set of aggregated pathnames, with each pathname passed as a separate argument to the
invoked utility in the same order that it was aggregated. The size of any set of two or
more pathnames shall be limited such that execution of the utility does not cause the
system's {ARG_MAX} limit to be exceeded. If more than one argument containing only the two
characters "{}" is present, the behavior is unspecified.
If a utility_name or argument string contains the two characters "{}" , but not just the
two characters "{}" , it is implementation-defined whether find replaces those two
characters or uses the string without change. The current directory for the invocation of
utility_name shall be the same as the current directory when the find utility was started.
If the utility_name names any of the special built-in utilities (see Special Built-In
Utilities ), the results are undefined.
-ok utility_name [argument ...] ;
The -ok primary shall be equivalent to -exec, except that the use of a plus sign to
punctuate the end of the primary expression need not be supported, and find shall
request affirmation of the invocation of utility_name using the current file as an
argument by writing to standard error as described in the STDERR section. If the
response on standard input is affirmative, the utility shall be invoked. Otherwise,
the command shall not be invoked and the value of the -ok operand shall be false.
-print The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall cause the current pathname to
be written to standard output.
-newer file
The primary shall evaluate as true if the modification time of the current file is
more recent than the modification time of the file named by the pathname file.
-depth The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall cause descent of the directory
hierarchy to be done so that all entries in a directory are acted on before the
directory itself. If a -depth primary is not specified, all entries in a directory
shall be acted on after the directory itself. If any -depth primary is specified,
it shall apply to the entire expression even if the -depth primary would not
normally be evaluated.
The primaries can be combined using the following operators (in order of decreasing
precedence):
( expression )
True if expression is true.
! expression
Negation of a primary; the unary NOT operator.
expression [-a] expression
Conjunction of primaries; the AND operator is implied by the juxtaposition of two
primaries or made explicit by the optional -a operator. The second expression shall
not be evaluated if the first expression is false.
expression -o expression
Alternation of primaries; the OR operator. The second expression shall not be
evaluated if the first expression is true.
If no expression is present, -print shall be used as the expression. Otherwise, if the
given expression does not contain any of the primaries -exec, -ok, or -print, the given
expression shall be effectively replaced by:
( given_expression ) -print
The -user, -group, and -newer primaries each shall evaluate their respective arguments
only once.
STDIN
If the -ok primary is used, the response shall be read from the standard input. An entire
line shall be read as the response. Otherwise, the standard input shall not be used.
INPUT FILES
None.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of find:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or
null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2,
Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables
used to determine the values of locale categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other
internationalization variables.
LC_COLLATE
Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes, and multi-
character collating elements used in the pattern matching notation for the -n
option and in the extended regular expression defined for the yesexpr locale
keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
LC_CTYPE
This variable determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte
characters in arguments), the behavior of character classes within the pattern
matching notation used for the -n option, and the behavior of character classes
within regular expressions used in the extended regular expression defined for the
yesexpr locale keyword in the LC_MESSAGES category.
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale for the processing of affirmative responses that should be
used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard
error.
NLSPATH
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .
PATH Determine the location of the utility_name for the -exec and -ok primaries, as
described in the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Chapter 8,
Environment Variables.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The -print primary shall cause the current pathnames to be written to standard output. The
format shall be:
"%s\n", <path>
STDERR
The -ok primary shall write a prompt to standard error containing at least the
utility_name to be invoked and the current pathname. In the POSIX locale, the last non-
<blank> in the prompt shall be '?' . The exact format used is unspecified.
Otherwise, the standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 All path operands were traversed successfully.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
When used in operands, pattern matching notation, semicolons, opening parentheses, and
closing parentheses are special to the shell and must be quoted (see Quoting ).
The bit that is traditionally used for sticky (historically 01000) is specified in the
-perm primary using the octal number argument form. Since this bit is not defined by this
volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, applications must not assume that it actually refers to
the traditional sticky bit.
EXAMPLES
1. The following commands are equivalent:
find .
find . -print
They both write out the entire directory hierarchy from the current directory.
2. The following command:
find / \( -name tmp -o -name '*.xx' \) -atime +7 -exec rm {} \;
removes all files named tmp or ending in .xx that have not been accessed for seven or more
24-hour periods.
3. The following command:
find . -perm -o+w,+s
prints ( -print is assumed) the names of all files in or below the current directory, with
all of the file permission bits S_ISUID, S_ISGID, and S_IWOTH set.
4. The following command:
find . -name SCCS -prune -o -print
recursively prints pathnames of all files in the current directory and below, but skips
directories named SCCS and files in them.
5. The following command:
find . -print -name SCCS -prune
behaves as in the previous example, but prints the names of the SCCS directories.
6. The following command is roughly equivalent to the -nt extension to test:
if [ -n "$(find file1 -prune -newer file2)" ]; then
printf %s\\n "file1 is newer than file2"
fi
7. The descriptions of -atime, -ctime, and -mtime use the terminology n "86400 second
periods (days)". For example, a file accessed at 23:59 is selected by:
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.
RATIONALE
The -a operator was retained as an optional operator for compatibility with historical
shell scripts, even though it is redundant with expression concatenation.
The descriptions of the '-' modifier on the mode and onum arguments to the -perm primary
agree with historical practice on BSD and System V implementations. System V and BSD
documentation both describe it in terms of checking additional bits; in fact, it uses the
same bits, but checks for having at least all of the matching bits set instead of having
exactly the matching bits set.
The exact format of the interactive prompts is unspecified. Only the general nature of the
contents of prompts are specified because:
* Implementations may desire more descriptive prompts than those used on historical
implementations.
* Since the historical prompt strings do not terminate with <newline>s, there is no
portable way for another program to interact with the prompts of this utility via
pipes.
Therefore, an application using this prompting option relies on the system to provide the
most suitable dialog directly with the user, based on the general guidelines specified.
The -name file operand was changed to use the shell pattern matching notation so that find
is consistent with other utilities using pattern matching.
The -size operand refers to the size of a file, rather than the number of blocks it may
occupy in the file system. The intent is that the st_size field defined in the System
Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 should be used, not the st_blocks found in
historical implementations. There are at least two reasons for this:
1. In both System V and BSD, find only uses st_size in size calculations for the operands
specified by this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. (BSD uses st_blocks only when
processing the -ls primary.)
2. Users usually think of file size in terms of bytes, which is also the unit used by the
ls utility for the output from the -l option. (In both System V and BSD, ls uses
st_size for the -l option size field and uses st_blocks for the ls -s calculations.
This volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not specify ls -s.)
The descriptions of -atime, -ctime, and -mtime were changed from the SVID description of n
"days'' to "24-hour periods". The description is also different in terms of the exact
timeframe for the n case (versus the +n or -n), but it matches all known historical
implementations. It refers to one 86400 second period in the past, not any time from the
beginning of that period to the current time. For example, -atime 3 is true if the file
was accessed any time in the period from 72 hours to 48 hours ago.
Historical implementations do not modify "{}" when it appears as a substring of an -exec
or -ok utility_name or argument string. There have been numerous user requests for this
extension, so this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 allows the desired behavior. At least
one recent implementation does support this feature, but encountered several problems in
managing memory allocation and dealing with multiple occurrences of "{}" in a string while
it was being developed, so it is not yet required behavior.
Assuming the presence of -print was added to correct a historical pitfall that plagues
novice users, it is entirely upwards-compatible from the historical System V find utility.
In its simplest form ( find directory), it could be confused with the historical BSD fast
find. The BSD developers agreed that adding -print as a default expression was the correct
decision and have added the fast find functionality within a new utility called locate.
Historically, the -L option was implemented using the primary -follow. The -H and -L
options were added for two reasons. First, they offer a finer granularity of control and
consistency with other programs that walk file hierarchies. Second, the -follow primary
always evaluated to true. As they were historically really global variables that took
effect before the traversal began, some valid expressions had unexpected results. An
example is the expression -print -o -follow. Because -print always evaluates to true, the
standard order of evaluation implies that -follow would never be evaluated. This was never
the case. Historical practice for the -follow primary, however, is not consistent. Some
implementations always follow symbolic links on the command line whether -follow is
specified or not. Others follow symbolic links on the command line only if -follow is
specified. Both behaviors are provided by the -H and -L options, but scripts using the
current -follow primary would be broken if the -follow option is specified to work either
way.
Since the -L option resolves all symbolic links and the -type l primary is true for
symbolic links that still exist after symbolic links have been resolved, the command:
find -L . -type l
prints a list of symbolic links reachable from the current directory that do not resolve
to accessible files.
A feature of SVR4's find utility was the -exec primary's + terminator. This allowed
filenames containing special characters (especially <newline>s) to be grouped together
without the problems that occur if such filenames are piped to xargs. Other
implementations have added other ways to get around this problem, notably a -print0
primary that wrote filenames with a null byte terminator. This was considered here, but
not adopted. Using a null terminator meant that any utility that was going to process
find's -print0 output had to add a new option to parse the null terminators it would now
be reading.
The "-exec ... {} +" syntax adopted was a result of IEEE PASC Interpretation 1003.2 #210.
It should be noted that this is an incompatible change to the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard.
For example, the following command prints all files with a '-' after their name if they
are regular files, and a '+' otherwise:
find / -type f -exec echo {} - ';' -o -exec echo {} + ';'
The change invalidates usage like this. Even though the previous standard stated that this
usage would work, in practice many did not support it and the standard developers felt it
better to now state that this was not allowable.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Quoting , Pattern Matching Notation , Special Built-In Utilities , chmod() , pax , sh ,
test , the System Interfaces volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, getgrgid(), getpwuid(),
stat()
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group
Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The
original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .