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FIND(1) General Commands Manual FIND(1)
NAME
find - search for files in a directory hierarchy
SYNOPSIS
find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-D debugopts] [-Olevel] [starting-point...]
[expression]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of find. GNU find
searches the directory tree rooted at each given starting-point 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 no
starting-point is specified, `.' is assumed.
If you are using find in an environment where security is impor‐
tant (for example if you are using it to search directories that
are writable by other users), you should read the `Security Con‐
siderations' 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 the argument `(' 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 five `real' options -H,
-L, -P, -D and -O must appear before the first path name, if at
all. A double dash -- can also be used to signal that any remain‐
ing arguments are not options (though ensuring that all start
points begin with either `./' or `/' is generally safer if you use
wildcards in the list of start points).
-P Never follow symbolic links. This is the default behav‐
iour. 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 infor‐
mation 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 sym‐
bolic link is broken). Actions that can cause symbolic
links to become broken while find is executing (for example
-delete) can give rise to confusing behaviour. 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 com‐
mand 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 com‐
mand line against a file we are currently considering. In each
case, the file specified on the command line will have been exam‐
ined 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 -newerXY, -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).
-D debugopts
Print diagnostic information; this can be helpful to diag‐
nose problems with why find is not doing what you want.
The list of debug options should be comma separated. Com‐
patibility of the debug options is not guaranteed between
releases of findutils. For a complete list of valid debug
options, see the output of find -D help. Valid debug
options include
exec Show diagnostic information relating to -exec,
-execdir, -ok and -okdir
opt Prints diagnostic information relating to the opti‐
misation of the expression tree; see the -O option.
rates Prints a summary indicating how often each predicate
succeeded or failed.
search Navigate the directory tree verbosely.
stat Print messages as files are examined with the stat
and lstat system calls. The find program tries to
minimise such calls.
tree Show the expression tree in its original and opti‐
mised form.
all Enable all of the other debug options (but help).
help Explain the debugging options.
-Olevel
Enables query optimisation. The find program reorders
tests to speed up execution while preserving the overall
effect; that is, predicates with side effects are not
reordered relative to each other. The optimisations per‐
formed at each optimisation level are as follows.
0 Equivalent to optimisation level 1.
1 This is the default optimisation level and corre‐
sponds to the traditional behaviour. Expressions
are reordered so that tests based only on the names
of files (for example -name and -regex) are per‐
formed first.
2 Any -type or -xtype tests are performed after any
tests based only on the names of files, but before
any tests that require information from the inode.
On many modern versions of Unix, file types are
returned by readdir() and so these predicates are
faster to evaluate than predicates which need to
stat the file first. If you use the -fstype FOO
predicate and specify a filesystem type FOO which is
not known (that is, present in `/etc/mtab') at the
time find starts, that predicate is equivalent to
-false.
3 At this optimisation level, the full cost-based
query optimiser is enabled. The order of tests is
modified so that cheap (i.e. fast) tests are per‐
formed first and more expensive ones are performed
later, if necessary. Within each cost band, predi‐
cates are evaluated earlier or later according to
whether they are likely to succeed or not. For -o,
predicates which are likely to succeed are evaluated
earlier, and for -a, predicates which are likely to
fail are evaluated earlier.
The cost-based optimiser has a fixed idea of how likely any
given test is to succeed. In some cases the probability
takes account of the specific nature of the test (for exam‐
ple, -type f is assumed to be more likely to succeed than
-type c). The cost-based optimiser is currently being
evaluated. If it does not actually improve the performance
of find, it will be removed again. Conversely, optimisa‐
tions that prove to be reliable, robust and effective may
be enabled at lower optimisation levels over time. How‐
ever, the default behaviour (i.e. optimisation level 1)
will not be changed in the 4.3.x release series. The find‐
utils test suite runs all the tests on find at each optimi‐
sation level and ensures that the result is the same.
EXPRESSION
The part of the command line after the list of starting points is
the expression. This is a kind of query specification describing
how we match files and what we do with the files that were
matched. An expression is composed of a sequence of things:
Tests Tests return a true or false value, usually on the basis of
some property of a file we are considering. The -empty
test for example is true only when the current file is
empty.
Actions
Actions have side effects (such as printing something on
the standard output) and return either true or false, usu‐
ally based on whether or not they are successful. The
-print action for example prints the name of the current
file on the standard output.
Global options
Global options affect the operation of tests and actions
specified on any part of the command line. Global options
always return true. The -depth option for example makes
find traverse the file system in a depth-first order.
Positional options
Positional options affect only tests or actions which fol‐
low them. Positional options always return true. The
-regextype option for example is positional, specifying the
regular expression dialect for regular expressions occur‐
ring later on the command line.
Operators
Operators join together the other items within the expres‐
sion. They include for example -o (meaning logical OR) and
-a (meaning logical AND). Where an operator is missing, -a
is assumed.
The -print action is performed on all files for which the whole
expression is true, unless it contains an action other than -prune
or -quit. Actions which inhibit the default -print are -delete,
-exec, -execdir, -ok, -okdir, -fls, -fprint, -fprintf, -ls, -print
and -printf.
The -delete action also acts like an option (since it implies
-depth).
POSITIONAL OPTIONS
Positional options always return true. They affect only tests
occurring later on the command line.
-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.
-follow
Deprecated; use the -L option instead. Dereference sym‐
bolic 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 con‐
sideration applies to -newerXY, -anewer and -cnewer. Simi‐
larly, 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.
-regextype type
Changes the regular expression syntax understood by -regex
and -iregex tests which occur later on the command line.
To see which regular expression types are known, use
-regextype help. The Texinfo documentation (see SEE ALSO)
explains the meaning of and differences between the various
types of regular expression.
-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. If a warning message relating to
command-line usage is produced, the exit status of find is
not affected. If the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable
is set, and -warn is also used, it is not specified which,
if any, warnings will be active.
GLOBAL OPTIONS
Global options always return true. Global options take effect
even for tests which occur earlier on the command line. To pre‐
vent confusion, global options should specified on the command-
line after the list of start points, just before the first test,
positional option or action. If you specify a global option in
some other place, find will issue a warning message explaining
that this can be confusing.
The global options occur after the list of start points, and so
are not the same kind of option as -L, for example.
-d A synonym for -depth, for compatibility with FreeBSD, Net‐
BSD, MacOS X and OpenBSD.
-depth Process each directory's contents before the directory
itself. The -delete action also implies -depth.
-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).
Furthermore, find with the -ignore_readdir_race option will
ignore errors of the -delete action in the case the file
has disappeared since the parent directory was read: it
will not output an error diagnostic, and the return code of
the -delete action will be true.
-maxdepth levels
Descend at most levels (a non-negative integer) levels of
directories below the starting-points. -maxdepth 0 means
only apply the tests and actions to the starting-points
themselves.
-mindepth levels
Do not apply any tests or actions at levels less than lev‐
els (a non-negative integer). -mindepth 1 means process
all files except the starting-points.
-mount Don't descend directories on other filesystems. An alter‐
nate name for -xdev, for compatibility with some other ver‐
sions 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 sub‐
directories (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 direc‐
tory 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.
-version, --version
Print the find version number and exit.
-xautofs
Don't descend directories on autofs filesystems.
-xdev Don't descend directories on other filesystems.
TESTS
Some tests, for example -newerXY and -samefile, allow comparison
between the file currently being examined and some reference file
specified on the command line. When these tests are used, the
interpretation of the reference file is determined by the options
-H, -L and -P and any previous -follow, but the reference file is
only examined once, at the time the command line is parsed. If
the reference file cannot be examined (for example, the stat(2)
system call fails for it), an error message is issued, and find
exits with a nonzero status.
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 reference
Time of the last access of the current file is more recent
than that of the last data modification of the reference
file. If reference is a symbolic link and the -H option or
the -L option is in effect, then the time of the last data
modification 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 reference
Time of the last status change of the current file is more
recent than that of the last data modification of the ref‐
erence file. If reference is a symbolic link and the -H
option or the -L option is in effect, then the time of the
last data modification 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.
-executable
Matches files which are executable and directories which
are searchable (in a file name resolution sense) by the
current user. This takes into account access control lists
and other permissions artefacts which the -perm test
ignores. This test makes use of the access(2) system call,
and so can be fooled by NFS servers which do UID mapping
(or root-squashing), since many systems implement access(2)
in the client's kernel and so cannot make use of the UID
mapping information held on the server. Because this test
is based only on the result of the access(2) system call,
there is no guarantee that a file for which this test suc‐
ceeds can actually be executed.
-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 exam‐
ple, the patterns `fo*' and `F??' match the file names
`Foo', `FOO', `foo', `fOo', etc. The pattern `*foo*` will
also match a file called '.foobar'.
-inum n
File has inode number n. It is normally easier to use the
-samefile test instead.
-ipath pattern
Like -path. but the match is case insensitive.
-iregex pattern
Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.
-iwholename pattern
See -ipath. This alternative is less portable than -ipath.
-links n
File has n hard links.
-lname pattern
File is a symbolic link whose contents match shell pattern
pattern. The metacharacters do not treat `/' or `.' spe‐
cially. 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 com‐
ments 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. Because the lead‐
ing directories are removed, the file names considered for
a match with -name will never include a slash, so `-name
a/b' will never match anything (you probably need to use
-path instead). A warning is issued if you try to do this,
unless the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
The metacharacters (`*', `?', and `[]') match a `.' at the
start of the base name (this is a change in findu‐
tils-4.2.2; see section STANDARDS CONFORMANCE below). To
ignore a directory and the files under it, use -prune
rather than checking every file in the tree; see an example
in the description of that action. Braces are not recog‐
nised 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 reference
Time of the last data modification of the current file is
more recent than that of the last data modification of the
reference file. If reference is a symbolic link and the -H
option or the -L option is in effect, then the time of the
last data modification of the file it points to is always
used.
-newerXY reference
Succeeds if timestamp X of the file being considered is
newer than timestamp Y of the file reference. The letters
X and Y can be any of the following letters:
a The access time of the file reference
B The birth time of the file reference
c The inode status change time of reference
m The modification time of the file reference
t reference is interpreted directly as a time
Some combinations are invalid; for example, it is invalid
for X to be t. Some combinations are not implemented on
all systems; for example B is not supported on all systems.
If an invalid or unsupported combination of XY is speci‐
fied, a fatal error results. Time specifications are
interpreted as for the argument to the -d option of GNU
date. If you try to use the birth time of a reference
file, and the birth time cannot be determined, a fatal
error message results. If you specify a test which refers
to the birth time of files being examined, this test will
fail for any files where the birth time is unknown.
-nogroup
No group corresponds to file's numeric group ID.
-nouser
No user corresponds to file's numeric user ID.
-path pattern
File name matches shell pattern pattern. The metacharac‐
ters do not treat `/' or `.' specially; so, for example,
find . -path "./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. Note that the
pattern match test applies to the whole file name, starting
from one of the start points named on the command line. It
would only make sense to use an absolute path name here if
the relevant start point is also an absolute path. This
means that this command will never match anything:
find bar -path /foo/bar/myfile -print
Find compares the -path argument with the concatenation of
a directory name and the base name of the file it's examin‐
ing. Since the concatenation will never end with a slash,
-path arguments ending in a slash will match nothing
(except perhaps a start point specified on the command
line). The predicate -path is also supported by HP-UX find
and is part of the POSIX 2008 standard.
-perm mode
File's permission bits are exactly mode (octal or sym‐
bolic). 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. Sym‐
bolic modes are accepted in this form, and this is usually
the way in which you 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. Sym‐
bolic modes are accepted in this form. You must specify
`u', `g' or `o' if you use a symbolic mode. See the EXAM‐
PLES section for some illustrative examples. If no permis‐
sion bits in mode are set, this test matches any file (the
idea here is to be consistent with the behaviour of -perm
-000).
-perm +mode
This is no longer supported (and has been deprecated since
2005). Use -perm /mode instead.
-readable
Matches files which are readable by the current user. This
takes into account access control lists and other permis‐
sions artefacts which the -perm test ignores. This test
makes use of the access(2) system call, and so can be
fooled by NFS servers which do UID mapping (or root-squash‐
ing), since many systems implement access(2) in the
client's kernel and so cannot make use of the UID mapping
information held on the server.
-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 reg‐
ular expressions understood by find are by default Emacs
Regular Expressions (except that `.' matches newline), 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, rounding up. The following
suffixes can be used:
`b' for 512-byte blocks (this is the default if no suf‐
fix is used)
`c' for bytes
`w' for two-byte words
`k' for kibibytes (KiB, units of 1024 bytes)
`M' for mebibytes (MiB, units of 1024 * 1024 = 1048576
bytes)
`G' for gibibytes (GiB, units of 1024 * 1024 * 1024 =
1073741824 bytes)
The size is simply the st_size member of the struct stat
populated by the lstat (or stat) system call, rounded up as
shown above. In other words, it's consistent with the
result you get for ls -l. Bear in mind that the `%k' and
`%b' format specifiers of -printf handle sparse files dif‐
ferently. The `b' suffix always denotes 512-byte blocks
and never 1024-byte blocks, which is different to the be‐
haviour of -ls.
The + and - prefixes signify greater than and less than, as
usual; i.e., an exact size of n units does not match. Bear
in mind that the size is rounded up to the next unit.
Therefore -size -1M is not equivalent to -size -1048576c.
The former only matches empty files, the latter matches
files from 0 to 1,048,575 bytes.
-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 sym‐
bolic link is broken. If you want to search for
symbolic links when -L is in effect, use -xtype.
s socket
D door (Solaris)
To search for more than one type at once, you can supply
the combined list of type letters separated by a comma `,'
(GNU extension).
-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
See -path. This alternative is less portable than -path.
-writable
Matches files which are writable by the current user. This
takes into account access control lists and other permis‐
sions artefacts which the -perm test ignores. This test
makes use of the access(2) system call, and so can be
fooled by NFS servers which do UID mapping (or root-squash‐
ing), since many systems implement access(2) in the
client's kernel and so cannot make use of the UID mapping
information held on the server.
-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 sym‐
bolic links, -xtype checks the type of the file that -type
does not check.
-context pattern
(SELinux only) Security context of the file matches glob
pattern.
ACTIONS
-delete
Delete files; true if removal succeeded. If the removal
failed, an error message is issued. If -delete fails,
find's exit status will be nonzero (when it eventually
exits). Use of -delete automatically turns on the `-depth'
option.
Warnings: Don't forget that the find command line is evalu‐
ated as an expression, so putting -delete first will make
find try to delete everything below the starting points you
specified. When testing a find command line that you later
intend to use with -delete, you should explicitly specify
-depth in order to avoid later surprises. Because -delete
implies -depth, you cannot usefully use -prune and -delete
together.
Together with the -ignore_readdir_race option, find will
ignore errors of the -delete action in the case the file
has disappeared since the parent directory was read: it
will not output an error diagnostic, and the return code of
the -delete action will be true.
-exec command ;
Execute command; true if 0 status is returned. All follow‐
ing arguments to find are taken to be arguments to the com‐
mand 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 com‐
mand, 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 exam‐
ples 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 action; you should
use the -execdir option instead.
-exec command {} +
This variant of the -exec action 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,
and (when find is being invoked from a shell) it should be
quoted (for example, '{}') to protect it from interpreta‐
tion by shells. The command is executed in the starting
directory. If any invocation with the `+' form returns a
non-zero value as exit status, then find returns a non-zero
exit status. If find encounters an error, this can some‐
times cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may
not be run at all. This variant of -exec always returns
true.
-execdir command ;
-execdir command {} +
Like -exec, but the specified command is run from the sub‐
directory containing the matched file, which is not nor‐
mally the directory in which you started find. As with
-exec, the {} should be quoted if find is being invoked
from a shell. 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 action,
the `+' form of -execdir will build a command line to
process more than one matched file, but any given invoca‐
tion 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 `.';
otherwise, an attacker can run any commands they like by
leaving an appropriately-named file in a directory in which
you will run -execdir. The same applies to having entries
in $PATH which are empty or which are not absolute direc‐
tory names. If any invocation with the `+' form returns a
non-zero value as exit status, then find returns a non-zero
exit status. If find encounters an error, this can some‐
times cause an immediate exit, so some pending commands may
not be run at all. The result of the action depends on
whether the + or the ; variant is being used; -execdir com‐
mand {} + always returns true, while -execdir command {} ;
returns true only if command returns 0.
-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.
-ls True; list current file in ls -dils format on standard out‐
put. The block counts are of 1 KB blocks, unless the envi‐
ronment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, in which case
512-byte blocks are used. See the UNUSUAL FILENAMES sec‐
tion for information about how unusual characters in file‐
names are handled.
-ok command ;
Like -exec but ask the user first. If the user agrees, run
the command. Otherwise just return false. If the command
is run, its standard input is redirected from /dev/null.
The response to the prompt is matched against a pair of
regular expressions to determine if it is an affirmative or
negative response. This regular expression is obtained
from the system if the `POSIXLY_CORRECT' environment vari‐
able is set, or otherwise from find's message translations.
If the system has no suitable definition, find's own defi‐
nition will be used. In either case, the interpretation of
the regular expression itself will be affected by the envi‐
ronment variables 'LC_CTYPE' (character classes) and
'LC_COLLATE' (character ranges and equivalence classes).
-okdir command ;
Like -execdir but ask the user first in the same way as for
-ok. If the user does not agree, just 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, fol‐
lowed 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 FILE‐
NAMES section for information about how unusual characters
in filenames are handled.
-print0
True; print the full file name on the standard output, fol‐
lowed 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:
\a Alarm bell.
\b Backspace.
\c Stop printing from this format immediately and flush
the output.
\f Form feed.
\n Newline.
\r Carriage return.
\t Horizontal tab.
\v Vertical tab.
\0 ASCII NUL.
\\ A literal backslash (`\').
\NNN The character whose ASCII code is NNN (octal).
A `\' character followed by any other character is treated
as an ordinary character, so they both are printed.
%% A literal percent sign.
%a File's last access time in the format returned by
the C `ctime' function.
%Ak File's last access time in the format specified by
k, which is either `@' or a directive for the C
`strftime' function. The possible values for k are
listed below; some of them might not be available on
all systems, due to differences in `strftime'
between systems.
@ seconds since Jan. 1, 1970, 00:00 GMT, with
fractional part.
Time fields:
H hour (00..23)
I hour (01..12)
k hour ( 0..23)
l hour ( 1..12)
M minute (00..59)
p locale's AM or PM
r time, 12-hour (hh:mm:ss [AP]M)
S Second (00.00 .. 61.00). There is a frac‐
tional part.
T time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss.xxxxxxxxxx)
+ Date and time, separated by `+', for example
`2004-04-28+22:22:05.0'. This is a GNU
extension. The time is given in the current
timezone (which may be affected by setting
the TZ environment variable). The seconds
field includes a fractional part.
X locale's time representation (H:M:S). The
seconds field includes a fractional part.
Z time zone (e.g., EDT), or nothing if no time
zone is determinable
Date fields:
a locale's abbreviated weekday name (Sun..Sat)
A locale's full weekday name, variable length
(Sunday..Saturday)
b locale's abbreviated month name (Jan..Dec)
B locale's full month name, variable length
(January..December)
c locale's date and time (Sat Nov 04 12:02:33
EST 1989). The format is the same as for
ctime(3) and so to preserve compatibility
with that format, there is no fractional part
in the seconds field.
d day of month (01..31)
D date (mm/dd/yy)
h same as b
j day of year (001..366)
m month (01..12)
U week number of year with Sunday as first day
of week (00..53)
w day of week (0..6)
W week number of year with Monday as first day
of week (00..53)
x locale's date representation (mm/dd/yy)
y last two digits of year (00..99)
Y year (1970...)
%b The amount of disk space used for this file in
512-byte blocks. Since disk space is allocated in
multiples of the filesystem block size this is usu‐
ally greater than %s/512, but it can also be smaller
if the file is a sparse file.
%c File's last status change time in the format
returned by the C `ctime' function.
%Ck File's last status change time in the format speci‐
fied by k, which is the same as for %A.
%d File's depth in the directory tree; 0 means the file
is a starting-point.
%D The device number on which the file exists (the
st_dev field of struct stat), in decimal.
%f File's name with any leading directories removed
(only the last element).
%F Type of the filesystem the file is on; this value
can be used for -fstype.
%g File's group name, or numeric group ID if the group
has no name.
%G File's numeric group ID.
%h Leading directories of file's name (all but the last
element). If the file name contains no slashes
(since it is in the current directory) the %h speci‐
fier expands to `.'.
%H Starting-point under which file was found.
%i File's inode number (in decimal).
%k The amount of disk space used for this file in 1 KB
blocks. Since disk space is allocated in multiples
of the filesystem block size this is usually greater
than %s/1024, but it can also be smaller if the file
is a sparse file.
%l Object of symbolic link (empty string if file is not
a symbolic link).
%m File's permission bits (in octal). This option uses
the `traditional' numbers which most Unix implemen‐
tations use, but if your particular implementation
uses an unusual ordering of octal permissions bits,
you will see a difference between the actual value
of the file's mode and the output of %m. Normally
you will want to have a leading zero on this number,
and to do this, you should use the # flag (as in,
for example, `%#m').
%M File's permissions (in symbolic form, as for ls).
This directive is supported in findutils 4.2.5 and
later.
%n Number of hard links to file.
%p File's name.
%P File's name with the name of the starting-point
under which it was found removed.
%s File's size in bytes.
%S File's sparseness. This is calculated as (BLOCK‐
SIZE*st_blocks / st_size). The exact value you will
get for an ordinary file of a certain length is sys‐
tem-dependent. However, normally sparse files will
have values less than 1.0, and files which use indi‐
rect blocks may have a value which is greater than
1.0. In general the number of blocks used by a file
is file system dependent. The value used for BLOCK‐
SIZE is system-dependent, but is usually 512 bytes.
If the file size is zero, the value printed is unde‐
fined. On systems which lack support for st_blocks,
a file's sparseness is assumed to be 1.0.
%t File's last modification time in the format returned
by the C `ctime' function.
%Tk File's last modification time in the format speci‐
fied by k, which is the same as for %A.
%u File's user name, or numeric user ID if the user has
no name.
%U File's numeric user ID.
%y File's type (like in ls -l), U=unknown type
(shouldn't happen)
%Y File's type (like %y), plus follow symlinks:
`L'=loop, `N'=nonexistent, `?' for any other error
when determining the type of the symlink target.
%Z (SELinux only) file's security context.
%{ %[ %(
Reserved for future use.
A `%' character followed by any other character is dis‐
carded, but the other character is printed (don't rely on
this, as further format characters may be introduced). A
`%' at the end of the format argument causes undefined be‐
haviour since there is no following character. In some
locales, it may hide your door keys, while in others it may
remove the final page from the novel you are reading.
The %m and %d directives support the # , 0 and + flags, but
the other directives do not, even if they print numbers.
Numeric directives that do not support these flags include
G, U, b, D, k and n. The `-' format flag is supported and
changes the alignment of a field from right-justified
(which is the default) to left-justified.
See the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section for information about how
unusual characters in filenames are handled.
-prune True; if the file is a directory, do not descend into it.
If -depth is given, then -prune has no effect. Because
-delete implies -depth, you cannot usefully use -prune and
-delete together.
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 . -path ./src/emacs -prune -o -print
-quit Exit immediately. No child processes will be left running,
but no more paths specified on the command line will be
processed. For example, find /tmp/foo /tmp/bar -print
-quit will print only /tmp/foo. Any command lines which
have been built up with -execdir ... {} + will be invoked
before find exits. The exit status may or may not be zero,
depending on whether an error has already occurred.
OPERATORS
Listed in order of decreasing precedence:
( expr )
Force precedence. Since parentheses are special to the
shell, you will normally need to quote them. Many of the
examples in this manual page use backslashes for this pur‐
pose: `\(...\)' instead of `(...)'.
! expr True if expr is false. This character will also usually
need protection from interpretation by the shell.
-not expr
Same as ! expr, but not POSIX compliant.
expr1 expr2
Two expressions in a row are taken to be joined with an
implied -a; expr2 is not evaluated if expr1 is false.
expr1 -a expr2
Same as expr1 expr2.
expr1 -and expr2
Same as expr1 expr2, but not POSIX compliant.
expr1 -o expr2
Or; expr2 is not evaluated if expr1 is true.
expr1 -or expr2
Same as expr1 -o expr2, but not POSIX compliant.
expr1 , expr2
List; both expr1 and expr2 are always evaluated. The value
of expr1 is discarded; the value of the list is the value
of expr2. The comma operator can be useful for searching
for several different types of thing, but traversing the
filesystem hierarchy only once. The -fprintf action can be
used to list the various matched items into several differ‐
ent output files.
Please note that -a when specified implicitly (for example by two
tests appearing without an explicit operator between them) or
explicitly has higher precedence than -o. This means that find .
-name afile -o -name bfile -print will never print afile.
UNUSUAL FILENAMES
Many of the actions of find result in the printing of data which
is under the control of other users. This includes file names,
sizes, modification times and so forth. File names are a poten‐
tial problem since they can contain any character except `\0' and
`/'. Unusual characters in file names can do unexpected and often
undesirable things to your terminal (for example, changing the
settings of your function keys on some terminals). Unusual char‐
acters are handled differently by various actions, as described
below.
-print0, -fprint0
Always print the exact filename, unchanged, even if the
output is going to a terminal.
-ls, -fls
Unusual characters are always escaped. White space, back‐
slash, and double quote characters are printed using C-
style escaping (for example `\f', `\"'). Other unusual
characters are printed using an octal escape. Other print‐
able characters (for -ls and -fls these are the characters
between octal 041 and 0176) are printed as-is.
-printf, -fprintf
If the output is not going to a terminal, it is printed as-
is. Otherwise, the result depends on which directive is in
use. The directives %D, %F, %g, %G, %H, %Y, and %y expand
to values which are not under control of files' owners, and
so are printed as-is. The directives %a, %b, %c, %d, %i,
%k, %m, %M, %n, %s, %t, %u and %U have values which are
under the control of files' owners but which cannot be used
to send arbitrary data to the terminal, and so these are
printed as-is. The directives %f, %h, %l, %p and %P are
quoted. This quoting is performed in the same way as for
GNU ls. This is not the same quoting mechanism as the one
used for -ls and -fls. If you are able to decide what for‐
mat to use for the output of find then it is normally bet‐
ter to use `\0' as a terminator than to use newline, as
file names can contain white space and newline characters.
The setting of the `LC_CTYPE' environment variable is used
to determine which characters need to be quoted.
-print, -fprint
Quoting is handled in the same way as for -printf and
-fprintf. If you are using find in a script or in a situa‐
tion where the matched files might have arbitrary names,
you should consider using -print0 instead of -print.
The -ok and -okdir actions print the current filename as-is. This
may change in a future release.
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
For closest compliance to the POSIX standard, you should set the
POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable. The following options are
specified in the POSIX standard (IEEE Std 1003.1-2008, 2016 Edi‐
tion):
-H This option is supported.
-L This option is supported.
-name This option is supported, but POSIX conformance depends on
the POSIX conformance of the system's fnmatch(3) library
function. As of findutils-4.2.2, shell metacharacters
(`*', `?' or `[]' for example) will match a leading `.',
because IEEE PASC interpretation 126 requires this. This
is a change from previous versions of findutils.
-type Supported. POSIX specifies `b', `c', `d', `l', `p', `f'
and `s'. GNU find also supports `D', representing a Door,
where the OS provides these. Furthermore, GNU find allows
multiple types to be specified at once in a comma-separated
list.
-ok Supported. Interpretation of the response is according to
the `yes' and `no' patterns selected by setting the
`LC_MESSAGES' environment variable. When the `POSIXLY_COR‐
RECT' environment variable is set, these patterns are taken
system's definition of a positive (yes) or negative (no)
response. See the system's documentation for nl_lang‐
info(3), in particular YESEXPR and NOEXPR. When
`POSIXLY_CORRECT' is not set, the patterns are instead
taken from find's own message catalogue.
-newer Supported. If the file specified is a symbolic link, it is
always dereferenced. This is a change from previous behav‐
iour, which used to take the relevant time from the sym‐
bolic link; see the HISTORY section below.
-perm Supported. If the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable is
not set, some mode arguments (for example +a+x) which are
not valid in POSIX are supported for backward-compatibil‐
ity.
Other primaries
The primaries -atime, -ctime, -depth, -exec, -group,
-links, -mtime, -nogroup, -nouser, -ok, -path, -print,
-prune, -size, -user and -xdev are all supported.
The POSIX standard specifies parentheses `(', `)', negation `!'
and the `and' and `or' operators ( -a, -o).
All other options, predicates, expressions and so forth are exten‐
sions beyond the POSIX standard. Many of these extensions are not
unique to GNU find, however.
The POSIX standard requires that find detects loops:
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 hierar‐
chy or terminate.
GNU find complies with these requirements. The link count of
directories which contain entries which are hard links to an
ancestor will often be lower than they otherwise should be. This
can mean that GNU find will sometimes optimise away the visiting
of a subdirectory which is actually a link to an ancestor. Since
find does not actually enter such a subdirectory, it is allowed to
avoid emitting a diagnostic message. Although this behaviour may
be somewhat confusing, it is unlikely that anybody actually
depends on this behaviour. If the leaf optimisation has been
turned off with -noleaf, the directory entry will always be exam‐
ined and the diagnostic message will be issued where it is appro‐
priate. Symbolic links cannot be used to create filesystem cycles
as such, but if the -L option or the -follow option is in use, a
diagnostic message is issued when find encounters a loop of sym‐
bolic links. As with loops containing hard links, the leaf opti‐
misation will often mean that find knows that it doesn't need to
call stat() or chdir() on the symbolic link, so this diagnostic is
frequently not necessary.
The -d option is supported for compatibility with various BSD sys‐
tems, but you should use the POSIX-compliant option -depth
instead.
The POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable does not affect the be‐
haviour of the -regex or -iregex tests because those tests aren't
specified in the POSIX standard.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
LANG Provides a default value for the internationalization vari‐
ables that are unset or null.
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of
all the other internationalization variables.
LC_COLLATE
The POSIX standard specifies that this variable affects the
pattern matching to be used for the -name option. GNU find
uses the fnmatch(3) library function, and so support for
`LC_COLLATE' depends on the system library. This variable
also affects the interpretation of the response to -ok;
while the `LC_MESSAGES' variable selects the actual pattern
used to interpret the response to -ok, the interpretation
of any bracket expressions in the pattern will be affected
by `LC_COLLATE'.
LC_CTYPE
This variable affects the treatment of character classes
used in regular expressions and also with the -name test,
if the system's fnmatch(3) library function supports this.
This variable also affects the interpretation of any char‐
acter classes in the regular expressions used to interpret
the response to the prompt issued by -ok. The `LC_CTYPE'
environment variable will also affect which characters are
considered to be unprintable when filenames are printed;
see the section UNUSUAL FILENAMES.
LC_MESSAGES
Determines the locale to be used for internationalised mes‐
sages. If the `POSIXLY_CORRECT' environment variable is
set, this also determines the interpretation of the
response to the prompt made by the -ok action.
NLSPATH
Determines the location of the internationalisation message
catalogues.
PATH Affects the directories which are searched to find the exe‐
cutables invoked by -exec, -execdir, -ok and -okdir.
POSIXLY_CORRECT
Determines the block size used by -ls and -fls. If
POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, blocks are units of 512 bytes.
Otherwise they are units of 1024 bytes.
Setting this variable also turns off warning messages (that
is, implies -nowarn) by default, because POSIX requires
that apart from the output for -ok, all messages printed on
stderr are diagnostics and must result in a non-zero exit
status.
When POSIXLY_CORRECT is not set, -perm +zzz is treated just
like -perm /zzz if +zzz is not a valid symbolic mode. When
POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, such constructs are treated as an
error.
When POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, the response to the prompt
made by the -ok action is interpreted according to the sys‐
tem's message catalogue, as opposed to according to find's
own message translations.
TZ Affects the time zone used for some of the time-related
format directives of -printf and -fprintf.
EXAMPLES
find /tmp -name core -type f -print | xargs /bin/rm -f
Find files named core in or below the directory /tmp and delete
them. Note that this will work incorrectly if there are any file‐
names containing newlines, single or double quotes, or spaces.
find /tmp -name core -type f -print0 | xargs -0 /bin/rm -f
Find files named core in or below the directory /tmp and delete
them, processing filenames in such a way that file or directory
names containing single or double quotes, spaces or newlines are
correctly handled. The -name test comes before the -type test in
order to avoid having to call stat(2) on every file.
find . -type f -exec file '{}' \;
Runs `file' on every file in or below the current directory.
Notice that the braces are enclosed in single quote marks to pro‐
tect them from interpretation as shell script punctuation. The
semicolon is similarly protected by the use of a backslash, though
single quotes could have been used in that case also.
find / \( -perm -4000 -fprintf /root/suid.txt '%#m %u %p\n' \) , \
\( -size +100M -fprintf /root/big.txt '%-10s %p\n' \)
Traverse the filesystem just once, listing setuid files and direc‐
tories into /root/suid.txt and large files into /root/big.txt.
find $HOME -mtime 0
Search for files in your home directory which have been modified
in the last twenty-four hours. This command works this way
because the time since each file was last modified is divided by
24 hours and any remainder is discarded. That means that to match
-mtime 0, a file will have to have a modification in the past
which is less than 24 hours ago.
find /sbin /usr/sbin -executable \! -readable -print
Search for files which are executable but not readable.
find . -perm 664
Search for files which have read and write permission for their
owner, and group, but which other users can read but not write to.
Files which meet these criteria but have other permissions bits
set (for example if someone can execute the file) will not be
matched.
find . -perm -664
Search for files which have read and write permission for their
owner and group, and which other users can read, without regard to
the presence of any extra permission bits (for example the exe‐
cutable bit). This will match a file which has mode 0777, for
example.
find . -perm /222
Search for files which are writable by somebody (their owner, or
their group, or anybody else).
find . -perm /220
find . -perm /u+w,g+w
find . -perm /u=w,g=w
All three of these commands do the same thing, but the first one
uses the octal representation of the file mode, and the other two
use the symbolic form. These commands all search for files which
are writable by either their owner or their group. The files
don't have to be writable by both the owner and group to be
matched; either will do.
find . -perm -220
find . -perm -g+w,u+w
Both these commands do the same thing; search for files which are
writable by both their owner and their group.
find . -perm -444 -perm /222 \! -perm /111
find . -perm -a+r -perm /a+w \! -perm /a+x
These two commands both search for files that are readable for
everybody ( -perm -444 or -perm -a+r), have at least one write bit
set ( -perm /222 or -perm /a+w) but are not executable for anybody
( ! -perm /111 and ! -perm /a+x respectively).
cd /source-dir
find . -name .snapshot -prune -o \( \! -name '*~' -print0 \)|
cpio -pmd0 /dest-dir
This command copies the contents of /source-dir to /dest-dir, but
omits files and directories named .snapshot (and anything in
them). It also omits files or directories whose name ends in ~,
but not their contents. The construct -prune -o \( ... -print0 \)
is quite common. The idea here is that the expression before
-prune matches things which are to be pruned. However, the -prune
action itself returns true, so the following -o ensures that the
right hand side is evaluated only for those directories which
didn't get pruned (the contents of the pruned directories are not
even visited, so their contents are irrelevant). The expression
on the right hand side of the -o is in parentheses only for clar‐
ity. It emphasises that the -print0 action takes place only for
things that didn't have -prune applied to them. Because the
default `and' condition between tests binds more tightly than -o,
this is the default anyway, but the parentheses help to show what
is going on.
find repo/ \( -exec test -d '{}'/.svn \; -or \
-exec test -d {}/.git \; -or -exec test -d {}/CVS \; \) \
-print -prune
Given the following directory of projects and their associated SCM
administrative directories, perform an efficient search for the
projects' roots:
repo/project1/CVS
repo/gnu/project2/.svn
repo/gnu/project3/.svn
repo/gnu/project3/src/.svn
repo/project4/.git
In this example, -prune prevents unnecessary descent into directo‐
ries that have already been discovered (for example we do not
search project3/src because we already found project3/.svn), but
ensures sibling directories (project2 and project3) are found.
find /tmp -type f,d,l
Search for files, directories, and symbolic links in the directory
/tmp passing these types as a comma-separated list (GNU exten‐
sion), which is otherwise equivalent to the longer, yet more por‐
table:
find /tmp \( -type f -o -type d -o -type l \)
EXIT STATUS
find exits with status 0 if all files are processed successfully,
greater than 0 if errors occur. This is deliberately a very broad
description, but if the return value is non-zero, you should not
rely on the correctness of the results of find.
When some error occurs, find may stop immediately, without com‐
pleting all the actions specified. For example, some starting
points may not have been examined or some pending program invoca‐
tions for -exec ... {} + or -execdir ... {} + may not have been
performed.
SEE ALSO
locate(1), locatedb(5), updatedb(1), xargs(1), chmod(1),
fnmatch(3), regex(7), stat(2), lstat(2), ls(1), printf(3), strf‐
time(3), ctime(3)
The full documentation for find is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
If the info and find programs are properly installed at your site,
the command info find should give you access to the complete man‐
ual.
HISTORY
As of findutils-4.2.2, shell metacharacters (`*', `?' or `[]' for
example) used in filename patterns will match a leading `.',
because IEEE POSIX interpretation 126 requires this.
As of findutils-4.3.3, -perm /000 now matches all files instead of
none.
Nanosecond-resolution timestamps were implemented in findu‐
tils-4.3.3.
As of findutils-4.3.11, the -delete action sets find's exit status
to a nonzero value when it fails. However, find will not exit
immediately. Previously, find's exit status was unaffected by the
failure of -delete.
Feature Added in Also occurs in
-newerXY 4.3.3 BSD
-D 4.3.1
-O 4.3.1
-readable 4.3.0
-writable 4.3.0
-executable 4.3.0
-regextype 4.2.24
-exec ... + 4.2.12 POSIX
-execdir 4.2.12 BSD
-okdir 4.2.12
-samefile 4.2.11
-H 4.2.5 POSIX
-L 4.2.5 POSIX
-P 4.2.5 BSD
-delete 4.2.3
-quit 4.2.3
-d 4.2.3 BSD
-wholename 4.2.0
-iwholename 4.2.0
-ignore_readdir_race 4.2.0
-fls 4.0
-ilname 3.8
-iname 3.8
-ipath 3.8
-iregex 3.8
The syntax -perm +MODE was removed in findutils-4.5.12, in favour
of -perm /MODE. The +MODE syntax had been deprecated since findu‐
tils-4.2.21 which was released in 2005.
NON-BUGS
Operator precedence surprises
The command find . -name afile -o -name bfile -print will never
print afile because this is actually equivalent to find . -name
afile -o \( -name bfile -a -print \). Remember that the prece‐
dence of -a is higher than that of -o and when there is no opera‐
tor specified between tests, -a is assumed.
“paths must precede expression” error message
$ find . -name *.c -print
find: paths must precede expression
find: possible unquoted pattern after predicate `-name'?
This happens when the shell could expand the pattern *.c to more
than one file name existing in the current directory, and passing
the resulting file names in the command line to find like this:
find . -name frcode.c locate.c word_io.c -print
That command is of course not going to work, because the -name
predicate allows exactly only one pattern as argument. Instead of
doing things this way, you should enclose the pattern in quotes or
escape the wildcard, thus allowing find to use the pattern with
the wildcard during the search for file name matching instead of
file names expanded by the parent shell:
$ find . -name '*.c' -print
$ find . -name \*.c -print
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1990-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License
GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
BUGS
There are security problems inherent in the behaviour that the
POSIX standard specifies for find, which therefore cannot be
fixed. For example, the -exec action is inherently insecure, and
-execdir should be used instead. Please see Finding Files for
more information.
The environment variable LC_COLLATE has no effect on the -ok
action.
The best way to report a bug is to use the form at https://savan‐
nah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils. The reason for this is that
you will then be able to track progress in fixing the problem.
Other comments about find(1) and about the findutils package in
general can be sent to the bug-findutils mailing list. To join
the list, send email to bug-findutils-request@gnu.org.
FIND(1)