Find Files containing solr
# python files, text files and java files
grep --color --include="*[py|txt|java]" -rHnE "^import [a-z,\s]+$" *
# same as above with extended
find . -regextype posix-extended -iregex ".*.py|.*.txt|.*.txt" -exec grep --color -rHnE "import|except" '{}' \; -print
#find . -name "*.py" -exec grep --color -rHnE "import|except" '{}' \; -print
Find Files containing solr
#geek nr. 1 - find "solr" in "*.py" files
find . -name "*.py" -exec grep --color -Hn "import os" '{}' \;
#geek nr. 2 - find "solr" in "*.py" files - same result as above
find . -name "*.py" | xargs grep --color -Hn "import os"
#same as
grep --include="*.py" -rHnE "import os" *
Find Files containing solr
find . -type f -print0|xargs -0 grep "solr" grep -le "solr"
-print0 quotes and handles spaces, double quotes etc
-type f = only find files – no directories
finding multipe file extensions
find . -regextype posix-extended -iregex ".*.txt|.*.mp4"
FIND Files Excluding Some with ERROR redirect
find . -name "*" |egrep -v "spool|maillog|\.log|\/apps\/temp|\/work\/|bounce_tbl.sql|pdf$|gz$"| xargs egrep "8\.73|\.53|jdbc.url" 1> tmp/dbconnections.txt 2>tmp/dbconnections.txt
find . -name "*" -exec egrep "8\.73|\.53|jdbc.url" '{}' \; -print 1> ./tmp/dbconnections2.txt 2>./tmp/dbconnections2.txt
find . -name "*" -exec egrep "connections" '{}' \; -print 1> ~/tmp/dbconnections3.txt 2>~/tmp/dbconnections3.txt&
Recursive set CHMOD
find . -name "*.sh" -exec chmod -v u+x '{}' \;
Search And Replace In Files in Shell
for filename in `find . -name "*.conf"`; do sed 's/\/home\//\/data\//g' $filename > $filename.new ; mv $filename $filename.old && mv $filename.new $filename; echo $filename; done for filename in `find . -name "sphinx.334*-mod-*.conf"`; do sed 's/\/home\//\/data\//g' $filename > $filename.new ; mv $filename $filename.old && mv $filename.new $filename; echo $filename; done
Finding Java Files with the keyword
find . -iname '*.java' | xargs grep 'upload' -sl
More find tips…
All TXT Files(case insensitive) containing “paris hilton” (case insensitive)
find . -iname "*.Txt" -exec grep -qi "paris hilton" '{}' \; -print
All Files containing “paris hilton”
find . -exec grep -q "paris hilton" '{}' \; -print
All Files and Inserts containing “paris hilton”
find . -exec grep "paris hilton" '{}' \; -print
In XML Files:
find . -name "*.xml" -exec grep "Genre name=" '{}' \; -print > /tmp/genre2.txt
cd /home/user/000/000/000/000/
find . -name "*.xml" -exec grep "Upgrade U" '{}' \; -print
find . -name "*.xml" -exec grep "Outside " '{}' \; -print
find . -name "*" -exec grep "657516" '{}' \; -print
Find “upload” in BZ Files
find . -iname '*.bz2' | xargs bzgrep 'upload' -sl
> man find
FIND(1) FIND(1)
NAME
find - search for files in a directory hierarchy
SYNOPSIS
find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-D debugopts] [-Olevel] [path...] [expression]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of find. GNU find searches the directory tree rooted at
each given file name 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 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 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 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). 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 pints 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 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 command 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 separated. Compatibility of the debug options is not guaran‐
teed 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 readdir() and so these predicates are faster to evaluate than predicates which need to stat
the file first.
3 At this optimisation level, the full cost-based query optimiser is enabled. The order of tests is mod‐
ified 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 ear‐
lier, 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 prob‐
ability 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, optimisations that prove to be reli‐
able, robust and effective may be enabled at lower optimisation levels over time. However, the default behav‐
iour (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.
EXPRESSIONS
The expression is made up of options (which affect overall operation rather than the processing of a specific file,
and always return true), tests (which return a true or false value), and actions (which have side effects and return
a true or false value), all separated by operators. -and is assumed where the operator is omitted.
If the expression contains no actions other than -prune, -print is performed on all files for which the expression is
true.
OPTIONS
All options always return true. Except for -daystart, -follow and -regextype, the options affect all tests, includ‐
ing tests specified before the option. This is because the options are processed when the command line is parsed,
while the tests don't do anything until files are examined. The -daystart, -follow and -regextype options are dif‐
ferent in this respect, and have an effect only on tests which appear later in the command line. Therefore, for
clarity, it is best to place them at the beginning of the expression. A warning is issued if you don't do this.
-d A synonym for -depth, for compatibility with FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOS X and OpenBSD.
-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.
-depth Process each directory's contents before the directory itself. The -delete action also implies -depth.
-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 spec‐
ified, 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 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 pred‐
icates always to return false.
-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 command line arguments.
-maxdepth 0
means only apply the tests and actions to the command line arguments.
-mindepth levels
Do not apply any tests or actions at levels less than levels (a non-negative integer). -mindepth 1 means
process all files except the command line arguments.
-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 examined, there is no need to stat
them; this gives a significant increase in search speed.
-regextype type
Changes the regular expression syntax understood by -regex and -iregex tests which occur later on the command
line. Currently-implemented types are emacs (this is the default), posix-awk, posix-basic, posix-egrep and
posix-extended.
-version, --version
Print the find version number and exit.
-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 stan‐
dard input is a tty, and to -nowarn otherwise.
-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 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 guarantee 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 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 example, the patterns `fo*' and `F??' match the file names
`Foo', `FOO', `foo', `fOo', etc. In these patterns, unlike filename expansion by the shell, an initial '.'
can be matched by `*'. That is, find -name *bar will match the file `.foobar'. Please note that you should
quote patterns as a matter of course, otherwise the shell will expand any wildcard characters in them.
-inum n
File has inode number n. It is normally easier to use the -samefile test instead.
-ipath pattern
Behaves in the same way as -iwholename. This option is deprecated, so please do not use it.
-iregex pattern
Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.
-iwholename pattern
Like -wholename, but the match is case insensitive.
-links n
File has n links.
-lname pattern
File is a symbolic link whose contents match shell pattern pattern. The metacharacters do not treat `/' or
`.' specially. If the -L option or the -follow option is in effect, this test returns false unless the sym‐
bolic 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. 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; 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 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 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
Compares the timestamp of the current file with reference. The reference argument is normally the name of a
file (and one of its timestamps is used for the comparison) but it may also be a string describing an absolute
time. X and Y are placeholders for other letters, and these letters select which time belonging to how refer‐
ence is used for the comparison.
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 imple‐
mented on all systems; for example B is not supported on all systems. If an invalid or unsupported combina‐
tion 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 exam‐
ple,
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
The predicate -path is also supported by HP-UX find and will be in a forthcoming version of the POSIX stan‐
dard.
-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 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 permis‐
sion 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 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
behaviour of -perm -000).
-perm +mode
Deprecated, old way of searching for files with any of the permission bits in mode set. You should use -perm
/mode instead. Trying to use the `+' syntax with symbolic modes will yield surprising results. For example,
`+u+x' is a valid symbolic mode (equivalent to +u,+x, i.e. 0111) and will therefore not be evaluated as -perm
+mode but instead as the exact mode specifier -perm mode and so it matches files with exact permissions 0111
instead of files with any execute bit set. If you found this paragraph confusing, you're not alone - just use
-perm /mode. This form of the -perm test is deprecated because the POSIX specification requires the interpre‐
tation of a leading `+' as being part of a symbolic mode, and so we switched to using `/' instead.
-readable
Matches files which are readable. This takes into account access control lists and other permissions arte‐
facts 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 regular 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. 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 allo‐
cated. Bear in mind that the `%k' and `%b' format specifiers 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.
-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)
-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 arte‐
facts 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 speci‐
fied, 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.
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 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 encountered. The string `{}' is replaced by the current
file name being processed everywhere 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 start‐
ing 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.
-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 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 invocation 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 directory names.
-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 char‐
acters 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 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 FILE‐
NAMES 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 affirma‐
tive or negative response. This regular expression is obtained from the system if the `POSIXLY_CORRECT' envi‐
ronment 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' (charac‐
ter 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, 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 filenames 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 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 pre‐
cisions 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 fractional part.
T time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)
+ 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)
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 multi‐
ples 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' function.
%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 command line argument.
%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 specifier expands to ".".
%H Command line argument 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' numbers which most Unix imple‐
mentations 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 command line argument 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 sparse‐
ness 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 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
A `%' character followed by any other character is discarded, 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 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 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.
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 terminal.
-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 direc‐
tive 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.
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 hierarchy only once. The -fprintf action can be used to list the various matched
items into several different output files.
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, 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 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.
-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_CORRECT' 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_langinfo(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 previ‐
ous 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 arguments (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 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 visited directory that is an
ancestor of the last file encountered. When it detects an infinite loop, find shall write a diagnostic message
to standard error and shall either recover its position in the hierarchy or terminate.
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 opti‐
mise 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 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 con‐
taining 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 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 interpreta‐
tion 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 characters are considered to be unprint‐
able 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 vari‐
able 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 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 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 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 exe‐
cute 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 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 clarity. 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 -o -d {}/.git -o -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 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 deliber‐
ately a very broad description, but if the return value is non-zero, you should not rely on the correctness of the
results of find.
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), Finding Files (on-line in Info, or printed).
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.
The syntax -perm +MODE was deprecated in findutils-4.2.21, in favour of -perm /MODE. 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
NON-BUGS
$ find . -name *.c -print
find: paths must precede expression
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-Olevel] [-D help|tree|search|stat|rates|opt|exec] [path...] [expression]
This happens because *.c has been expanded by the shell resulting in find actually receiving a command line like
this:
find . -name bigram.c code.c frcode.c locate.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
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 http://savannah.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.
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