FIND(1)                    OpenBSD Reference Manual                    FIND(1)

NAME
     find - walk a file hierarchy

SYNOPSIS
     find [-dHhLXx] [-f path] path ... [expression]

DESCRIPTION
     find recursively descends the directory tree for each path listed, evalu-
     ating an expression (composed of the ``primaries'' and ``operators''
     listed below) in terms of each file in the tree.  In the absence of an
     expression, -print is assumed.  If an expression is given, but none of
     the primaries -exec, -ls, -ok, -print, or -print0 are specified, the giv-
     en expression is effectively replaced by ( given expression ) -print.

     The options are as follows:

     -d      Causes find to visit directories in post-order i.e. all entries
             in a directory will be acted on before the directory itself.  By
             default, find visits directories in pre-order i.e. before their
             contents.

     -f path
             Specifies a file hierarchy for find to traverse.  File hierar-
             chies may be specified without the -f option if they are given
             immediately after any other options.

     -H      Causes the file information and file type (see 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 sym-
             bolic links not on the command line is that of the link itself.

     -h      An alias for the -L option.  This option exists for backwards
             compatibility.

     -L      Causes the file information and file type (see 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 ex-
             ist, the file information and type will be for the link itself.

     -X      Permit find to be safely used in conjunction with xargs(1).  If a
             file name contains any of the delimiting characters used by
             xargs, a diagnostic message is displayed on standard error, and
             the file is skipped.  The delimiting characters include single
             (`'') and double (`"') quotes, backslash (`\'), space, tab, and
             newline (`\n') characters.  Alternatively, the -print0 primary
             may be used in conjunction with the -0 option to xargs(1), allow-
             ing all file names to be processed safely.

     -x      Prevents find from descending into directories that have a device
             number different than that of the file from which the descent be-
             gan.

     It is not an error to specify more than one of the mutually exclusive op-
     tions -H and -L.  Where more than one of these options is specified, the
     last option given overrides the others.

PRIMARIES
     -amin n
             True if the difference between the file last access time and the
             time find was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is n
             minutes.

     -anewer file
             True if the current file has a more recent last access time than
             file.

     -atime n
             True if the difference between the file last access time and the
             time find was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour peri-
             od, is n 24-hour periods.

     -cmin n
             True if the difference between the time of last change of file
             status information and the time find was started, rounded up to
             the next full minute, is n minutes.

     -cnewer file
             True if the current file has a more recent last change time than
             file.

     -ctime n
             True if the difference between the time of last change of file
             status information and the time find was started, rounded up to
             the next full 24-hour period, is n 24-hour periods.

     -depth  This primary always evaluates to true.  The same as specifying
             the -d option.

     -empty  True if the current file or directory is empty.

     -exec utility [argument ...] ;
             True if the program named utility returns a zero value as its ex-
             it 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.  utility will
             be executed from the directory from which find was executed.

             Since utility is executed every time a match is made, it is often
             more efficient to pipe the output of find to xargs(1).

     -execdir utility [argument ...] ;
             Identical to the -exec primary with the exception that utility
             will be executed from the directory that holds the current file.
             The filename substituted for the string "{}" is not qualified.

     -flags [-]flags
             The flags are comma-separated symbolic file flags (see chflags(1)
             for a list of valid flag names).  If the flags are preceded by a
             dash (`-'), this primary evaluates to true if at least all speci-
             fied flags are set in the file's flags.  If the flags are not
             preceded by a dash, this primary evaluates to true if the flags
             specified exactly match those of the file.

     -follow
             This primary always evaluates to true.  The same as specifying
             the -H option.

     -fstype type
             True if the file is contained in a file system of type 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 find is being executed whereas the latter matches any file
             system which is mounted read-only.

     -group gname
             True if the file belongs to the group gname.  If gname is numeric
             and there is no such group name, then gname is treated as a group
             ID.

     -iname pattern
             Identical to the -name primary except that the matching is done
             in a case insensitive manner.

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

     -links n
             True if the file has n links.

     -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 -dils''.

     -maxdepth n
             True if the current search depth is less than or equal to what is
             specified in n.

     -mindepth n
             True if the current search depth is at least what is specified in
             n.

     -mmin n
             True if the difference between the file last modification time
             and the time find was started, rounded up to the next full
             minute, is n minutes.

     -mtime n
             True if the difference between the file last modification time
             and the time find was started, rounded up to the next full
             24-hour period, is n 24-hour periods.

     -name pattern
             True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
             pattern, which may use any of the special characters documented
             in glob(7).

     -newer file
             True if the current file has a more recent last modification time
             than file.

     -nogroup
             True if the file belongs to an unknown group.

     -nouser
             True if the file belongs to an unknown user.

     -ok utility [argument ...] ;
             Identical to the -exec primary with the exception that find re-
             quests user affirmation for the execution of utility by printing
             a message to the terminal and reading a response.  If the re-
             sponse is other than `y' the command is not executed and the val-
             ue of the ok expression is false.

     -path pattern
             True if the pathname being examined matches pattern, which may
             use any of the special characters documented in glob(7).  Slashes
             (`/') are treated as normal characters and do not have to be
             matched explicitly.

     -perm [-]mode
             The mode may be either symbolic (see chmod(1)) or an octal num-
             ber.  If the mode is symbolic, a starting value of zero is as-
             sumed and the mode sets or clears permissions without regard to
             the process's file mode creation mask.  If the mode is octal, on-
             ly bits 07777 (S_ISUID | S_ISGID | S_ISTXT | S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG |
             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.

     -print  This primary always evaluates to true.  It prints the pathname of
             the current file to standard output, followed by a newline (`\n')
             character.

     -print0
             This primary always evaluates to true.  It prints the pathname of
             the current file to standard output, followed by a null charac-
             ter.

     -prune  This primary always evaluates to true.  It causes find to not de-
             scend into the current file.  Note, the -prune primary has no ef-
             fect if the -d option was specified.

     -size n[c]
             True if the file's size, rounded up, in 512-byte blocks is n.  If
             n is followed by a `c', then the primary is true if the file's
             size is n bytes.

     -type t
             True if the file is of the specified type.  Possible file types
             are as follows:

                   b     block special
                   c     character special
                   d     directory
                   f     regular file
                   l     symbolic link
                   p     FIFO
                   s     socket

     -user uname
             True if the file belongs to the user uname.  If uname is numeric
             and there is no such user name, then uname is treated as a user
             ID.

     -xdev   This primary always evaluates to true.  The same as specifying
             the -x option.

     All primaries which take a numeric argument allow the number to be pre-
     ceded 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''.  Exceptions are the primaries mindepth and
     maxdepth.

OPERATORS
     The primaries may be combined using the following operators.  The opera-
     tors are listed in order of decreasing precedence.

     ( expression )
                   This evaluates to true if the parenthesized expression
                   evaluates to true.

     ! expression  This is the unary NOT operator.  It evaluates to true if
                   the expression is false.

     expression -and expression
     expression expression
                   The -and operator is the logical 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.

     expression -or expression
                   The -or operator is the logical OR operator.  The expres-
                   sion 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.

     Operators, primaries, and arguments to primaries must be separate argu-
     ments to find, i.e. they should be separated by whitespace.

EXAMPLES
     Print out a list of all the files whose names end in ``.c'':

           $ find / -name '*.c'

     Print out a list of all the files which are not both newer than ``ttt''
     and owned by ``wnj'':

           $ find / \! \( -newer ttt -user wnj \)

     Print out a list of all core files on local file systems:

           $ find / \! -fstype local -prune -or -name '*.core'

     Find all files in /usr/src ending in a dot and single digit, but skip di-
     rectory /usr/src/gnu:

           $ find /usr/src -path /usr/src/gnu -prune -or -name \*.[0-9]

     Find and remove all *.jpg files in the current working directory:

           $ find . -name \*.jpg -exec rm {} \;
     or
           $ find . -name \*.jpg | xargs rm

SEE ALSO
     chflags(1), chmod(1), locate(1), ls(1), whereis(1), which(1), xargs(1),
     stat(2), fts(3), glob(7), symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The find utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX'')
     specification.

     The options [-dfhXx] and primaries -amin, -anewer, -cmin, -cnewer,
     -empty, -execdir, -flags, -follow, -fstype, -iname, -inum, -ls,
     -maxdepth, -mindepth, -mmin, and -print0 are extensions to that specifi-
     cation.  The -iname primary was inspired by GNU find.

     Historically, the -d, -H, and -x options were implemented using the pri-
     maries -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.

     The operator -or was implemented as -o, and the operator -and was imple-
     mented as -a.

     Historic implementations of the -exec and -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.

HISTORY
     A find command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.

CAVEATS
     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.

OpenBSD 4.7                    February 3, 2010                              6
