FIND(1)                    OpenBSD Reference Manual                    FIND(1)

NAME
     find - walk a file hierarchy



SYNOPSIS
     find [-HdhXxW] [-f file] [file ...] expression

DESCRIPTION
     find recursively descends the directory tree for each file listed, evalu-
     ating an expression (composed of the ``primaries'' and ``operands'' list-
     ed below) in terms of each file in the tree.

     The options are as follows:

     -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.

     -d      Causes find to perform a depth-first traversal, i.e., directories
             are visited in post-order and all entries in a directory will be
             acted on before the directory itself.  By default, find visits
             directories in pre-order, i.e., before their contents.  Note, the
             default is not a breadth-first traversal.

     -f file
             Specifies a file hierarchy for find to traverse.  File hierar-
             chies may also be specified as the operands immediately following
             the options.

     -h      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.  As an alternative, the -print0 func-
             tion may be used safely in conjunction with the -0 argument to
             xargs(1).

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

     -W      Let find take whiteouts into account when scanning directories.

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.

     -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.

     -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.

     -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.

     -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.

     -follow
             Follow symbolic links.

     -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.

     -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 -dgils''.

     -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. Special shell pattern matching characters (`[', `]',
             `*', and `?') may be used as part of pattern. These characters
             may be matched explicitly by escaping them with a backslash
             (`\').

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

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

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

     -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. Special
             shell pattern matching characters (`[', `]', `*', and `?') may be
             used as part of pattern. These characters may be matched explic-
             itly by escaping them with a backslash (`\'). Slashes (`/') are
             treated as normal characters and do not have to be matched ex-
             plicitly.

     -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.  If neither -exec, -ls, -ok, nor -print0 is specified,
             the given expression shall be effectively replaced by (given
             expression) -print.

     -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:

                   W     whiteout (currently, these won't even be visible
                         without also specifying -W)
                   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.

     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''.

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.

     All operands and primaries must be separate arguments to find. Primaries
     which themselves take arguments expect each argument to be a separate ar-
     gument to find.

EXAMPLES
     The following examples are shown as given to the shell:

     find  /  \!  -name  "*.c"  -print

            Print out a list of all the files whose names do not end in

     find  /  -newer  ttt  -user  wnj  -print
            Print out a list of all the files owned by user ``wnj'' that are
            newer than the file ``ttt''.

     find  /  \!  \(  -newer  ttt  -user  wnj  \)  -print
            Print out a list of all the files which are not both newer than
            ``ttt'' and owned by ``wnj''.

     find  /  \(  -newer  ttt  -or  -user wnj  \)  -print
            Print out a list of all the files that are either owned by ``wnj''
            or that are newer than ``ttt''.

SEE ALSO
     chmod(1),  locate(1),  whereis(1),  which(1),  stat(2),  fts(3),
     getgrent(3),  getpwent(3),  strmode(3),  symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The find utility syntax is a superset of the syntax specified by the IEEE
     Std1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') standard.

     The options and primaries -amin, -cmin, -empty, -follow, -fstype, -inum,
     -links, -ls, -mmin, -maxdepth, -mindepth, -execdir, and -print0 are ex-
     tensions to IEEE Std1003.2 (``POSIX.2'').

     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 eval-
     uates 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.

BUGS
     The special characters used by find are also special characters to many
     shell programs.  In particular, the characters `*', `[', `]', `?', `(',
     `)', `!', `\', and `;' may have to be escaped from the shell.

     As there is no delimiter separating options and file names or file names
     and the expression, it is difficult to specify files named ``-xdev'' or
     ``!''. These problems are handled by the -f option and the getopt(3)
     ``--'' construct.

     The -W option is probably not the most elegant way to handle whiteouts.
     It may be replaced by a more sophisticated algorithm eventually.

OpenBSD 2.6                     August 31, 1996                              5