find - search for files in a directory hierarchy



  • 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 important (for example if you
           are using it to search directories that are writable by other users), you should read  the
           "Security  Considerations" chapter of the findutils documentation, which is called Finding
           Files and comes with findutils.	 That document also includes a lot more detail	and  dis‐
           cussion 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,  any‐
           way).
    
           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 remaining  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 behaviour.  When find examines or
    	      prints  information  a  file, and the file is a symbolic link, the information used
    	      shall be taken from the properties of the symbolic link itself.
    
           -L     Follow symbolic links.  When find examines or prints information about  files,  the
    	      information  used  shall be taken from the properties of the file to which the link
    	      points, not from the link itself (unless it is a broken symbolic link  or  find  is
    	      unable  to  examine the file to which the link points).  Use of this option implies
    	      -noleaf.	If you later use the -P option, -noleaf will still be in effect.   If  -L
    	      is  in  effect  and  find  discovers  a  symbolic link to a subdirectory during its
    	      search, the subdirectory pointed to by the symbolic link will be searched.
    
    	      When the -L option is in effect, the -type predicate will always match against  the
    	      type of the file that a symbolic link points to rather than the link itself (unless
    	      the symbolic link is broken).  Actions that can cause symbolic links to become bro‐
    	      ken while find is executing (for example -delete) can give rise to confusing behav‐
    	      iour.  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 what‐
    	      ever 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  can‐
    	      not  be examined.  If -H is in effect and one of the paths specified on the command
    	      line is a symbolic link to a directory, the contents  of	that  directory  will  be
    	      examined (though of course -maxdepth 0 would prevent this).
    
           If  more  than  one of -H, -L and -P is specified, each overrides the others; the last one
           appearing on the command line takes effect.  Since it is the default, the -P option should
           be considered to be in effect unless either -H or -L is specified.
    
           GNU  find  frequently stats files during the processing of the command line itself, before
           any searching has begun.  These options also affect how	those  arguments  are  processed.
           Specifically,  there  are  a number of tests that compare files listed on the command line
           against a file we are currently considering.  In each case, the file specified on the com‐
           mand line will have been examined and some of its properties will have been saved.  If the
           named file is in fact a symbolic link, and the -P option is in effect (or  if  neither  -H
           nor  -L	were  specified),  the information used for the comparison will be taken from the
           properties of the symbolic link.  Otherwise, it will be taken from the properties  of  the
           file  the  link	points	to.   If  find cannot follow the link (for example because it has
           insufficient privileges or the link points to a nonexistent file) the  properties  of  the
           link itself will be used.
    
           When  the  -H  or  -L  options are in effect, any symbolic links listed as the argument of
           -newer will be dereferenced, and the timestamp will be taken from the file  to  which  the
           symbolic link points.  The same consideration applies to -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 debugoptions
    	      Print  diagnostic  information;  this  can be helpful to diagnose problems with why
    	      find is not doing what you want.	The list of debug options should be  comma  sepa‐
    	      rated.   Compatibility  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
    
    	      help   Explain the debugging options
    
    	      tree   Show the expression tree in its original and optimised form.
    
    	      stat   Print  messages  as files are examined with the stat and lstat system calls.
    		     The find program tries to minimise such calls.
    
    	      opt    Prints diagnostic information relating to the optimisation of the expression
    		     tree; see the -O option.
    
    	      rates  Prints a summary indicating how often each predicate succeeded or failed.
    
           -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 performed at each optimisation
    	      level are as follows.
    
    	      0      Equivalent to optimisation level 1.
    
    	      1      This is the default optimisation level and corresponds  to  the  traditional
    		     behaviour.   Expressions are reordered so that tests based only on the names
    		     of files (for example -name and -regex) are performed 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  read‐
    		     dir()  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 spec‐
    		     ify  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 performed
    		     first  and  more  expensive  ones are performed later, if necessary.  Within
    		     each cost band, predicates 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 suc‐
    	      ceed.  In some cases the probability takes account of the specific  nature  of  the
    	      test  (for  example, -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 opti‐
    	      misation levels over time.  However, the default behaviour (i.e. optimisation level
    	      1) will not be changed in the 4.3.x release series.  The findutils test suite  runs
    	      all the tests on find at each optimisation 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, usually 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  exam‐
    	      ple makes find traverse the file system in a depth-first order.
    
           Positional options
    	      Positional  optiona  affect  only  tests	or actions which follow them.  Positional
    	      options always return true.  The -regextype option for example is positional, spec‐
    	      ifying  the  regular  expression dialect for regulat expressions occurring later on
    	      the command line.
    
           Operators
    	      Operators join together the other items within the expression.   They  include  for
    	      example -o (meaning logical OR) and -a (meaning logical AND).  Where an operator is
    	      missing, -a is assumed.
    
           If the whole expression contains no actions other than -prune or -print,  -print  is  per‐
           formed on all files for which the whole expression is true.
    
           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 com‐
           mand line.
    
           -daystart
    	      Measure times (for -amin, -atime, -cmin, -ctime, -mmin, and -mtime) from the begin‐
    	      ning  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  symbolic  links.   Implies
    	      -noleaf.	 The -follow option affects only those tests which appear after it on the
    	      command line.  Unless the -H or -L option has been specified, the position  of  the
    	      -follow  option  changes the behaviour of the -newer predicate; any files listed as
    	      the argument of -newer will be dereferenced if they are symbolic links.	The  same
    	      consideration applies to -newerXY, -anewer and -cnewer.  Similarly, the -type pred‐
    	      icate 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 predi‐
    	      cates 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  directo‐
    	      ries.   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  pro‐
    	      duced, 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,  warn‐
    	      ings 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 prevent 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, NetBSD, 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).
    
           -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 levels (a non-negative inte‐
    	      ger).  -mindepth 1 means process all files except the starting-points.
    
           -mount Don't descend directories on other filesystems.  An alternate name for  -xdev,  for
    	      compatibility with some other versions of find.
    
           -noignore_readdir_race
    	      Turns off the effect of -ignore_readdir_race.
    
           -noleaf
    	      Do  not  optimize  by assuming that directories contain 2 fewer subdirectories than
    	      their hard link count.  This option is needed when searching  filesystems  that  do
    	      not follow the Unix directory-link convention, such as CD-ROM or MS-DOS filesystems
    	      or AFS volume mount points.  Each directory on a	normal	Unix  filesystem  has  at
    	      least  2 hard links: its name and its `.'  entry.  Additionally, its subdirectories
    	      (if any) each have a `..' entry linked to that directory.  When find is examining a
    	      directory,  after  it  has statted 2 fewer subdirectories than the directory's link
    	      count, it knows that the rest of the entries in the directory  are  non-directories
    	      (`leaf'  files  in  the directory tree).	If only the files' names need to be exam‐
    	      ined, there is no need to stat them; this gives a significant  increase  in  search
    	      speed.
    
           -version, --version
    	      Print the find version number and exit.
    
           -xdev  Don't descend directories on other filesystems.
    
       TESTS
           Some  tests,  for  example  -newerXY and -samefile, allow comparison between the file cur‐
           rently 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 file
    	      File was last accessed more recently than file was modified.  If file is a symbolic
    	      link and the -H option or the -L option is in effect, the access time of	the  file
    	      it points to is always used.
    
           -atime n
    	      File  was  last  accessed  n*24  hours ago.  When find figures out how many 24-hour
    	      periods ago the file was last accessed, any fractional part is ignored, so to match
    	      -atime +1, a file has to have been accessed at least two days ago.
    
           -cmin n
    	      File's status was last changed n minutes ago.
    
           -cnewer file
    	      File's  status was last changed more recently than file was modified.  If file is a
    	      symbolic link and the -H option or the -L option is in  effect,  the  status-change
    	      time of the file it points to is always used.
    
           -ctime n
    	      File's  status  was  last  changed  n*24 hours ago.  See the comments for -atime to
    	      understand how rounding affects the interpretation of file status change times.
    
           -empty File is empty and is either a regular file or a directory.
    
           -executable
    	      Matches files which are executable and directories which are searchable (in a  file
    	      name  resolution	sense).   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  guaran‐
    	      tee that a file for which this test succeeds can actually be executed.
    
           -false Always false.
    
           -fstype type
    	      File  is	on a filesystem of type type.  The valid filesystem types vary among dif‐
    	      ferent versions of Unix; an incomplete list of filesystem types that  are  accepted
    	      on  some	version  of Unix or another is: ufs, 4.2, 4.3, nfs, tmp, mfs, S51K, S52K.
    	      You can use -printf with the %F directive to see the types of your filesystems.
    
           -gid n File's numeric group ID is n.
    
           -group gname
    	      File belongs to group gname (numeric group ID allowed).
    
           -ilname pattern
    	      Like -lname, but the match is case insensitive.  If the -L option  or  the  -follow
    	      option is in effect, this test returns false unless the symbolic link is broken.
    
           -iname pattern
    	      Like -name, but the match is case insensitive.  For example, the patterns `fo*' and
    	      `F??' match the file names `Foo', `FOO', `foo', `fOo', etc.   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 links.
    
           -lname pattern
    	      File  is a symbolic link whose contents match shell pattern pattern.  The metachar‐
    	      acters do not treat `/' or `.' specially.  If the -L option or the  -follow  option
    	      is in effect, this test returns false unless the symbolic link is broken.
    
           -mmin n
    	      File's data was last modified n minutes ago.
    
           -mtime n
    	      File's  data  was  last  modified  n*24  hours ago.  See the comments for -atime to
    	      understand how rounding affects the interpretation of file modification times.
    
           -name pattern
    	      Base of file name (the path with the leading  directories  removed)  matches  shell
    	      pattern  pattern.  Because the leading directories are removed, the file names con‐
    	      sidered 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 findutils-4.2.2;  see  section  STANDARDS	CONFORMANCE  below).   To
    	      ignore  a  directory  and  the  files  under  it, use -prune; see an example in the
    	      description of -path.  Braces are not recognised as being special, despite the fact
    	      that  some  shells including Bash imbue braces with a special meaning in shell pat‐
    	      terns.  The filename matching is performed with the use of the  fnmatch(3)  library
    	      function.    Don't  forget  to enclose the pattern in quotes in order to protect it
    	      from expansion by the shell.
    
           -newer file
    	      File was modified more recently than file.  If file is a symbolic link and  the  -H
    	      option  or  the -L option is in effect, the modification time of the file it points
    	      to is always used.
    
           -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 com‐
    	      binations are not implemented on all systems; for example B is not supported on all
    	      systems.	 If  an  invalid  or  unsupported combination of XY is specified, 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 metacharacters 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.
    	      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
    	      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 examining.  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 will be in a forthcoming version of the POSIX standard.
    
           -perm mode
    	      File's  permission bits are exactly mode (octal or symbolic).  Since an exact match
    	      is required, if you want to use this form for symbolic modes, you may have to spec‐
    	      ify  a  rather  complex mode string.  For example `-perm g=w' will only match files
    	      which have mode 0020 (that is, ones for which group write permission  is	the  only
    	      permission set).	It is more likely that you will want to use the `/' or `-' forms,
    	      for example `-perm -g=w', which matches any file with group write permission.   See
    	      the EXAMPLES section for some illustrative examples.
    
           -perm -mode
    	      All  of the permission bits mode are set for the file.  Symbolic modes are accepted
    	      in this form, and this is usually the way in which 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.  Symbolic modes are  accepted
    	      in  this	form.	You must specify `u', `g' or `o' if you use a symbolic mode.  See
    	      the EXAMPLES section for some illustrative examples.  If no permission bits in mode
    	      are set, this test matches any file (the idea here is to be consistent with the be‐
    	      haviour 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.  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.
    
           -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 regu‐
    	      lar  expression  `.*bar.'  or  `.*b.*3',	but not `f.*r3'.  The regular expressions
    	      understood by find are by default  Emacs	Regular  Expressions,  but  this  can  be
    	      changed with the -regextype option.
    
           -samefile name
    	      File  refers  to	the  same inode as name.   When -L is in effect, this can include
    	      symbolic links.
    
           -size n[cwbkMG]
    	      File uses n units of space, rounding up.	The following suffixes can be used:
    
    	      `b'    for 512-byte blocks (this is the default if no suffix is used)
    
    	      `c'    for bytes
    
    	      `w'    for two-byte words
    
    	      `k'    for Kilobytes (units of 1024 bytes)
    
    	      `M'    for Megabytes (units of 1048576 bytes)
    
    	      `G'    for Gigabytes (units of 1073741824 bytes)
    
    	      The size does not count indirect blocks, but it does count blocks in  sparse  files
    	      that are not actually allocated.	Bear in mind that the `%k' and `%b' format speci‐
    	      fiers of -printf handle sparse files differently.  The `b'  suffix  always  denotes
    	      512-byte blocks and never 1 Kilobyte blocks, which is different to the behaviour of
    	      -ls.
    
    	      The + and - prefixes signify greater than and less than, as usual.   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 1 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 symbolic link is broken.  If you want  to  search  for
    		     symbolic links when -L is in effect, use -xtype.
    
    	      s      socket
    
    	      D      door (Solaris)
    
           -uid n File's numeric user ID is n.
    
           -used n
    	      File was last accessed n days after its status was last changed.
    
           -user uname
    	      File is owned by user uname (numeric user ID allowed).
    
           -wholename pattern
    	      See -path.  This alternative is less portable than -path.
    
           -writable
    	      Matches files which are writable.  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.
    
           -xtype c
    	      The  same  as -type unless the file is a symbolic link.  For symbolic links: if the
    	      -H or -P option was specified, true if the file is a link to a file of type  c;  if
    	      the  -L  option  has  been  given,  true if c is `l'.  In other words, for symbolic
    	      links, -xtype checks the type of the file that -type does not check.
    
           -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 eventu‐
    	      ally exits).  Use of -delete automatically turns on the `-depth' option.
    
    	      Warnings: Don't forget that the find command line is evaluated 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 sur‐
    	      prises.  Because -delete implies -depth, you cannot usefully use -prune and -delete
    	      together.
    
           -exec command ;
    	      Execute command; true if 0 status is returned.  All following arguments to find are
    	      taken to be arguments to the command until an argument consisting of `;' is encoun‐
    	      tered.  The string `{}' is replaced by the current file name being processed every‐
    	      where it occurs in the arguments to the command, not just in arguments where it  is
    	      alone,  as  in some versions of find.  Both of these constructions might need to be
    	      escaped (with a `\') or quoted to protect them from expansion by	the  shell.   See
    	      the  EXAMPLES  section  for examples of the use of the -exec option.  The specified
    	      command is run once for each matched file.  The command is executed in the starting
    	      directory.    There  are unavoidable security problems surrounding use of the -exec
    	      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.   The
    	      command  is  executed in the starting directory.	If find encounters an error, this
    	      can sometimes 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 subdirectory containing the
    	      matched file, which is not normally the directory in which you started find.   This
    	      a  much more secure method for invoking commands, as it avoids race conditions dur‐
    	      ing 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 invocation of command will only list files that  exist  in  the
    	      same  subdirectory.   If you use this option, you must ensure that your $PATH envi‐
    	      ronment variable does not reference `.'; otherwise, an attacker can  run	any  com‐
    	      mands  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  directory  names.  If find encounters an error, this can
    	      sometimes 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 command {} + 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/std‐
    	      out' 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  cre‐
    	      ated,  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  cre‐
    	      ated,  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 output.   The  block  counts
    	      are  of 1K blocks, unless the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, in which
    	      case 512-byte blocks are used.  See the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section  for  information
    	      about how unusual characters in filenames 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 variable is set, or
    	      otherwise from find's message translations.  If the system has no suitable  defini‐
    	      tion,  find's  own definition will be used.   In either case, the interpretation of
    	      the regular expression  itself  will  be	affected  by  the  environment	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 redi‐
    	      rected from /dev/null.
    
           -print True; print the full file name on the standard output, followed by a newline.    If
    	      you  are	piping	the output of find into another program and there is the faintest
    	      possibility that the files which you are searching for  might  contain  a  newline,
    	      then you should seriously consider using the -print0 option instead of -print.  See
    	      the UNUSUAL FILENAMES section for information about how unusual characters in file‐
    	      names are handled.
    
           -print0
    	      True; print the full file name on the standard output, followed by a null character
    	      (instead of the newline character that -print uses).  This allows file  names  that
    	      contain  newlines or other types of white space to be correctly interpreted by pro‐
    	      grams 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 `%' direc‐
    	      tives.  Field widths and precisions can be specified as with the `printf'  C  func‐
    	      tion.   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  charac‐
    	      ter, 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 fractional 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 usually
    		     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' func‐
    		     tion.
    
    	      %Ck    File's last status change time in the format specified 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 spec‐
    		     ifier 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 1K 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' num‐
    		     bers which most Unix implementations use, but if your particular implementa‐
    		     tion uses an unusual ordering of octal permissions bits, you will see a dif‐
    		     ference 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  sup‐
    		     ported 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 (BLOCKSIZE*st_blocks  /	st_size).
    		     The  exact  value	you  will get for an ordinary file of a certain length is
    		     system-dependent.	However, normally sparse files will have values less than
    		     1.0,  and	files which use indirect blocks may have a value which is greater
    		     than 1.0.	 The value used for BLOCKSIZE is system-dependent, but is usually
    		     512  bytes.    If the file size is zero, the value printed is undefined.  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' func‐
    		     tion.
    
    	      %Tk    File's last modification time in the format specified 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
    
    	      %Z     (SELinux only) file's security context.
    
    	      %{ %[ %(
    		     Reserved for future use.
    
    	      A `%' character followed by any other character is discarded, but the other charac‐
    	      ter is printed (don't rely on this, as further  format  characters  may  be  intro‐
    	      duced).	A  `%' at the end of the format argument causes undefined behaviour 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-justi‐
    	      fied.
    
    	      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,
    	      false;  no  effect.  Because -delete implies -depth, you cannot usefully use -prune
    	      and -delete together.
    
           -quit  Exit immediately.  No child processes will be left running, but no more paths spec‐
    	      ified  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 purpose: `\(...\)' 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 "and"; 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 hier‐
    	      archy only once.	The -fprintf action can be used to list the various matched items
    	      into several different 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 potential 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 characters 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 termi‐
    	      nal.
    
           -ls, -fls
    	      Unusual characters are always escaped.  White space, backslash,  and  double  quote
    	      characters  are  printed	using  C-style	escaping (for example `\f', `\"').  Other
    	      unusual characters are printed using an octal escape.  Other  printable  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 format to use for the output of find then
    	      it  is  normally	better	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 situation 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 environ‐
           ment variable.  The following options are  specified  in  the  POSIX  standard  (IEEE  Std
           1003.1, 2003 Edition):
    
           -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 metacharac‐
    	      ters  (`*',  `?'	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.
    
           -ok    Supported.  Interpretation of the response is according to the "yes" and "no"  pat‐
    	      terns  selected  by  setting  the  `LC_MESSAGES'	environment  variable.	 When the
    	      `POSIXLY_CORRECT' environment variable is set, these patterns  are  taken  system's
    	      definition  of  a positive (yes) or negative (no) response.  See the system's docu‐
    	      mentation  for  nl_langinfo(3),  in  particular	YESEXPR   and	NOEXPR.      When
    	      `POSIXLY_CORRECT'  is  not set, the patterns are instead taken from find's own mes‐
    	      sage catalogue.
    
           -newer Supported.  If the file specified is a symbolic link, it	is  always  dereferenced.
    	      This is a change from previous behaviour, which used to take the relevant time from
    	      the symbolic link; see the HISTORY section below.
    
           -perm  Supported.  If the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable is not set, some mode argu‐
    	      ments  (for  example +a+x) which are not valid in POSIX are supported for backward-
    	      compatibility.
    
           Other predicates
    	      The predicates -atime, -ctime, -depth, -group, -links, -mtime,  -nogroup,  -nouser,
    	      -print,  -prune,	-size,	-user  and  -xdev `-atime', `-ctime', `-depth', `-group',
    	      `-links', `-mtime', `-nogroup', `-nouser', `-perm',  `-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 extensions  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 vis‐
    	      ited directory that is an ancestor of the last file encountered.	When  it  detects
    	      an infinite loop, find shall write a diagnostic message to standard error and shall
    	      either recover its position in the hierarchy or terminate.
    
           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	subdirec‐
           tory  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  behav‐
           iour  may  be somewhat confusing, it is unlikely that anybody actually depends on this be‐
           haviour.  If the leaf optimisation has been turned off with -noleaf, the  directory  entry
           will always be examined and the diagnostic message will be issued where it is appropriate.
           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 symbolic links.  As with loops containing hard links, the leaf optimisation 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 systems, but you should  use
           the POSIX-compliant option -depth instead.
    
           The  POSIXLY_CORRECT  environment  variable does not affect the behaviour 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 variables that are	unset  or
    	      null.
    
           LC_ALL If  set  to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other interna‐
    	      tionalization 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  interpreta‐
    	      tion 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 expres‐
    	      sions and also with the -name test, if the  system's  fnmatch(3)	library  function
    	      supports	this.	This  variable	also  affects the interpretation of any character
    	      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 charac‐
    	      ters are considered to be unprintable when filenames are printed; see  the  section
    	      UNUSUAL FILENAMES.
    
           LC_MESSAGES
    	      Determines   the	locale	to  be	used  for  internationalised  messages.   If  the
    	      `POSIXLY_CORRECT' environment variable is set, this also determines the interpreta‐
    	      tion 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 executables 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 system'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 filenames 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 protect them from interpretation as shell script punctu‐
           ation.	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   directories   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 executable 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	represen‐
           tation  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 exe‐
           cutable 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 directo‐
           ries  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 irrel‐
           evant).	 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 directo‐
           ries, 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 directories  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.
    
    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  completing	all  the  actions
           specified.   For  example, some starting points may not have been examined or some pending
           program invocations 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), strftime(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 manual.
    
    HISTORY
           As  of  findutils-4.2.2, shell metacharacters (`*', `?' or `[]' for example) used in file‐
           name 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 findutils-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 findutils-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 precedence of -a is higher than that of -o and when there is no  operator  speci‐
           fied between tests, -a is assumed.
    
       “paths must precede expression” error message
           $ find . -name *.c -print
           find: paths must precede expression
           Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-Olevel] [-D ... [path...] [expression]
    
           This happens because *.c has been expanded by the shell resulting in find actually receiv‐
           ing a command line like this:
           find . -name frcode.c locate.c word_io.c -print
           That command is of course not going to work.  Instead of doing things this way, you should
           enclose the pattern in quotes or escape the wildcard:
           $ find . -name '*.c' -print
           $ find . -name \*.c -print
    
    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 informa‐
           tion.
    
           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   http://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  findu‐
           tils  package in general can be sent to the bug-findutils mailing list.	To join the list,
           send email to [email protected].
    
    											  FIND(1)
    

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