find

FIND(1)                      General Commands Manual                     FIND(1)

NAME
     find – walk a file hierarchy

SYNOPSIS
     find [-H | -L | -P] [-EXdsx] [-f path] path ... [expression]
     find [-H | -L | -P] [-EXdsx] -f path [path ...] [expression]

DESCRIPTION
     The find utility recursively descends the directory tree for each path
     listed, evaluating an expression (composed of the “primaries” and
     “operands” listed below) in terms of each file in the tree.

     The options are as follows:

     -E      Interpret regular expressions followed by -regex and -iregex
             primaries as extended (modern) regular expressions rather than
             basic regular expressions (BRE's).  The re_format(7) manual page
             fully describes both formats.

     -H      Cause the file information and file type (see stat(2)) returned for
             each symbolic link specified on the command line to be those of the
             file referenced by the link, not the link itself.  If the
             referenced file does not exist, the file information and type will
             be for the link itself.  File information of all symbolic links not
             on the command line is that of the link itself.

     -L      Cause the file information and file type (see stat(2)) returned for
             each symbolic link to be those of the file referenced by the link,
             not the link itself.  If the referenced file does not exist, the
             file information and type will be for the link itself.

             This option is equivalent to the deprecated -follow primary.

     -P      Cause the file information and file type (see stat(2)) returned for
             each symbolic link to be those of the link itself.  This is the
             default.

     -X      Permit find to be safely used in conjunction with xargs(1).  If a
             file name contains any of the delimiting characters used by
             xargs(1), a diagnostic message is displayed on standard error, and
             the file is skipped.  The delimiting characters include single (“ '
             ”) and double (“ " ”) quotes, backslash (“\”), space, tab and
             newline characters.

             However, you may wish to consider the -print0 primary in
             conjunction with “xargs -0” as an effective alternative.

     -d      Cause find to perform a depth-first traversal.

             This option is a BSD-specific equivalent of the -depth primary
             specified by IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”).  Refer to its
             description under PRIMARIES for more information.

     -s      Cause find to traverse the file hierarchies in lexicographical
             order, i.e., alphabetical order within each directory.  Note: ‘find
             -s’ and ‘find | sort’ may give different results.

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

             This option is equivalent to the deprecated -xdev primary.

PRIMARIES
     All primaries which take a numeric argument allow the number to be preceded
     by a plus sign (“+”) or a minus sign (“-”).  A preceding plus sign means
     “more than n”, a preceding minus sign means “less than n” and neither means
     “exactly n”.

     -Bmin n
             True if the difference between the time of a file's inode creation
             and the time find was started, rounded up to the next full minute,
             is n minutes.

     -Bnewer file
             Same as -newerBm.

     -Btime n[smhdw]
             If no units are specified, this primary evaluates to true if the
             difference between the time of a file's inode creation and the time
             find was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is n
             24-hour periods.

             If units are specified, this primary evaluates to true if the
             difference between the time of a file's inode creation and the time
             find was started is exactly n units.  Please refer to the -atime
             primary description for information on supported time units.

     -acl    May be used in conjunction with other primaries to locate files
             with extended ACLs.  See acl(3) for more information.

     -amin [-|+]n
             True if the difference between the file last access time and the
             time find was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is more
             than n (+n), less than n (-n), or exactly n minutes ago.

     -anewer file
             Same as -neweram.

     -atime n[smhdw]
             If no units are specified, this primary evaluates to true if the
             difference between the file last access time and the time find was
             started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is n 24-hour
             periods.

             If units are specified, this primary evaluates to true if the
             difference between the file last access time and the time find was
             started is exactly n units.  Possible time units are as follows:

             s       second
             m       minute (60 seconds)
             h       hour (60 minutes)
             d       day (24 hours)
             w       week (7 days)

             Any number of units may be combined in one -atime argument, for
             example, “-atime -1h30m”.  Units are probably only useful when used
             in conjunction with the + or - modifier.

     -cmin [-|+]n
             True if the difference between the time of last change of file
             status information and the time find was started, rounded up to the
             next full minute, is more than n (+n), less than n (-n), or exactly
             n minutes ago.

     -cnewer file
             Same as -newercm.

     -ctime n[smhdw]
             If no units are specified, this primary evaluates to true if the
             difference between the time of last change of file status
             information and the time find was started, rounded up to the next
             full 24-hour period, is n 24-hour periods.

             If units are specified, this primary evaluates to true if the
             difference between the time of last change of file status
             information and the time find was started is exactly n units.
             Please refer to the -atime primary description for information on
             supported time units.

     -d      Non-portable, BSD-specific version of depth.  GNU find implements
             this as a primary in mistaken emulation of FreeBSD find.

     -delete
             Delete found files and/or directories.  Always returns true.  This
             executes from the current working directory as find recurses down
             the tree.  It will not attempt to delete a filename with a “/”
             character in its pathname relative to “.” for security reasons.
             Depth-first traversal processing is implied by this option.  The
             -delete primary will fail to delete a directory if it is not empty.
             Following symlinks is incompatible with this option.

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

             The -depth primary can be useful when find is used with cpio(1) to
             process files that are contained in directories with unusual
             permissions.  It ensures that you have write permission while you
             are placing files in a directory, then sets the directory's
             permissions as the last thing.

     -depth n
             True if the depth of the file relative to the starting point of the
             traversal is n.

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

     -exec utility [argument ...] ;
             True if the program named utility returns a zero value as its exit
             status.  Optional arguments may be passed to the utility.  The
             expression must be terminated by a semicolon (“;”).  If you invoke
             find from a shell you may need to quote the semicolon if the shell
             would otherwise treat it as a control operator.  If the string “{}”
             appears anywhere in the utility name or the arguments it is
             replaced by the pathname of the current file.  Utility will be
             executed from the directory from which find was executed.  Utility
             and arguments are not subject to the further expansion of shell
             patterns and constructs.

     -exec utility [argument ...] {} +
             Same as -exec, except that “{}” is replaced with as many pathnames
             as possible for each invocation of utility.  This behaviour is
             similar to that of xargs(1).  The primary always returns true; if
             at least one invocation of utility returns a non-zero exit status,
             find will return a non-zero exit status.

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

     -execdir utility [argument ...] {} +
             Same as -execdir, except that “{}” is replaced with as many
             pathnames as possible for each invocation of utility.  This
             behaviour is similar to that of xargs(1).  The primary always
             returns true; if at least one invocation of utility returns a non-
             zero exit status, find will return a non-zero exit status.

     -flags [-|+]flags,notflags
             The flags are specified using symbolic names (see chflags(1)).
             Those with the "no" prefix (except "nodump") are said to be
             notflags.  Flags in flags are checked to be set, and flags in
             notflags are checked to be not set.  Note that this is different
             from -perm, which only allows the user to specify mode bits that
             are set.

             If flags are preceded by a dash (“-”), this primary evaluates to
             true if at least all of the bits in flags and none of the bits in
             notflags are set in the file's flags bits.  If flags are preceded
             by a plus (“+”), this primary evaluates to true if any of the bits
             in flags is set in the file's flags bits, or any of the bits in
             notflags is not set in the file's flags bits.  Otherwise, this
             primary evaluates to true if the bits in flags exactly match the
             file's flags bits, and none of the flags bits match those of
             notflags.

     -fstype type
             True if the file is contained in a file system of type type.  The
             lsvfs(1) command can be used to find out the types of file systems
             that are available on the system.  In addition, there are two
             pseudo-types, “local” and “rdonly”.  The former matches any file
             system physically mounted on the system where the find is being
             executed and the latter matches any file system which is mounted
             read-only.

     -gid gname
             The same thing as -group gname for compatibility with GNU find.
             GNU find imposes a restriction that gname is numeric, while find
             does not.

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

     -ignore_readdir_race
             Ignore errors because a file or a directory is deleted after
             reading the name from a directory.  This option does not affect
             errors occurring on starting points.

     -ilname pattern
             Like -lname, but the match is case insensitive.  This is a GNU find
             extension.

     -iname pattern
             Like -name, but the match is case insensitive.

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

     -ipath pattern
             Like -path, but the match is case insensitive.

     -iregex pattern
             Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.

     -iwholename pattern
             The same thing as -ipath, for GNU find compatibility.

     -links n
             True if the file has n links.

     -lname pattern
             Like -name, but the contents of the symbolic link are matched
             instead of the file name.  Note that this only matches broken
             symbolic links if symbolic links are being followed.  This is a GNU
             find extension.

     -ls     This primary always evaluates to true.  The following information
             for the current file is written to standard output: its inode
             number, size in 512-byte blocks, file permissions, number of hard
             links, owner, group, size in bytes, last modification time, and
             pathname.  If the file is a block or character special file, the
             device number will be displayed instead of the size in bytes.  If
             the file is a symbolic link, the pathname of the linked-to file
             will be displayed preceded by “->”.  The format is identical to
             that produced by “ls -dgils”.

     -maxdepth n
             Always true; descend at most n directory levels below the command
             line arguments.  If any -maxdepth primary is specified, it applies
             to the entire expression even if it would not normally be
             evaluated.  “-maxdepth 0” limits the whole search to the command
             line arguments.

     -mindepth n
             Always true; do not apply any tests or actions at levels less than
             n.  If any -mindepth primary is specified, it applies to the entire
             expression even if it would not normally be evaluated.  “-mindepth
             1” processes all but the command line arguments.

     -mmin [-|+]n
             True if the difference between the file last modification time and
             the time find was started, rounded up to the next full minute, is
             more than n (+n), less than n (-n), or exactly n minutes ago.

     -mnewer file
             Same as -newer.

     -mount  The same thing as -xdev, for GNU find compatibility.

     -mtime n[smhdw]
             If no units are specified, this primary evaluates to true if the
             difference between the file last modification time and the time
             find was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is n
             24-hour periods.

             If units are specified, this primary evaluates to true if the
             difference between the file last modification time and the time
             find was started is exactly n units.  Please refer to the -atime
             primary description for information on supported time units.

     -name pattern
             True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
             pattern.  Special shell pattern matching characters (“[”, “]”, “*”,
             and “?”) may be used as part of pattern.  These characters may be
             matched explicitly by escaping them with a backslash (“\”).

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

     -newerXY file
             True if the current file has a more recent last access time (X=a),
             inode creation time (X=B), change time (X=c), or modification time
             (X=m) than the last access time (Y=a), inode creation time (Y=B),
             change time (Y=c), or modification time (Y=m) of file.  In
             addition, if Y=t, then file is instead interpreted as a direct date
             specification of the form understood by cvs(1).  Note that -newermm
             is equivalent to -newer.

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

     -noignore_readdir_race
             Turn off the effect of -ignore_readdir_race.  This is default
             behaviour.

     -noleaf
             This option is for GNU find compatibility.  In GNU find it disables
             an optimization not relevant to find, so it is ignored.

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

     -ok utility [argument ...] ;
             The -ok primary is identical to the -exec primary with the
             exception that find requests user affirmation for the execution of
             the utility by printing a message to the terminal and reading a
             response.  If the response is not affirmative (‘y’ in the “POSIX”
             locale), the command is not executed and the value of the -ok
             expression is false.

     -okdir utility [argument ...] ;
             The -okdir primary is identical to the -execdir primary with the
             same exception as described for the -ok primary.

     -path pattern
             True if the pathname being examined matches pattern.  Special shell
             pattern matching characters (“[”, “]”, “*”, and “?”) may be used as
             part of pattern.  These characters may be matched explicitly by
             escaping them with a backslash (“\”).  Slashes (“/”) are treated as
             normal characters and do not have to be matched explicitly.

     -perm [-|+]mode
             The mode may be either symbolic (see chmod(1)) or an octal number.
             If the mode is symbolic, a starting value of zero is assumed and
             the mode sets or clears permissions without regard to the process'
             file mode creation mask.  If the mode is octal, only bits 07777
             (S_ISUID | S_ISGID | S_ISTXT | S_IRWXU | S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO) of the
             file's mode bits participate in the comparison.  If the mode is
             preceded by a dash (“-”), this primary evaluates to true if at
             least all of the bits in the mode are set in the file's mode bits.
             If the mode is preceded by a plus (“+”), this primary evaluates to
             true if any of the bits in the mode are set in the file's mode
             bits.  Otherwise, this primary evaluates to true if the bits in the
             mode exactly match the file's mode bits.  Note, the first character
             of a symbolic mode may not be a dash (“-”).

     -print  This primary always evaluates to true.  It prints the pathname of
             the current file to standard output.  If none of -exec, -ls,
             -print, -print0, or -ok is specified, the given expression shall be
             effectively replaced by ( given expression ) -print.

     -print0
             This primary always evaluates to true.  It prints the pathname of
             the current file to standard output, followed by an ASCII NUL
             character (character code 0).

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

     -quit   Causes find to terminate immediately.

     -regex pattern
             True if the whole path of the file matches pattern using regular
             expression.  To match a file named “./foo/xyzzy”, you can use the
             regular expression “.*/[xyz]*” or “.*/foo/.*”, but not “xyzzy” or
             “/foo/”.

     -samefile name
             True if the file is a hard link to name.  If the command option -L
             is specified, it is also true if the file is a symbolic link and
             points to name.

     -size n[ckMGTP]
             True if the file's size, rounded up, in 512-byte blocks is n.  If n
             is followed by a c, then the primary is true if the file's size is
             n bytes (characters).  Similarly if n is followed by a scale
             indicator then the file's size is compared to n scaled as:

             k       kilobytes (1024 bytes)
             M       megabytes (1024 kilobytes)
             G       gigabytes (1024 megabytes)
             T       terabytes (1024 gigabytes)
             P       petabytes (1024 terabytes)

     -sparse
             True if the current file is sparse, i.e. has fewer blocks allocated
             than expected based on its size in bytes.  This might also match
             files that have been compressed by the filesystem.

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

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

     -uid uname
             The same thing as -user uname for compatibility with GNU find.  GNU
             find imposes a restriction that uname is numeric, while find does
             not.

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

     -wholename pattern
             The same thing as -path, for GNU find compatibility.

     -xattr  True if the file has any extended attributes.

     -xattrname name
             True if the file has an extended attribute with the specified name.

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

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

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

     -false  Always false.
     -true   Always true.

     expression -and expression
     expression expression
             The -and operator is the logical AND operator.  As it is implied by
             the juxtaposition of two expressions it does not have to be
             specified.  The expression evaluates to true if both expressions
             are true.  The second expression is not evaluated if the first
             expression is false.

     expression -or expression
             The -or operator is the logical OR operator.  The expression
             evaluates to true if either the first or the second expression is
             true.  The second expression is not evaluated if the first
             expression is true.

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

ENVIRONMENT
     The LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES and LC_TIME environment
     variables affect the execution of the find utility as described in
     environ(7).

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

     find / \! -name "*.c" -print
             Print out a list of all the files whose names do not end in .c.

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

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

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

     find / -newerct '1 minute ago' -print
             Print out a list of all the files whose inode change time is more
             recent than the current time minus one minute.

     find / -type f -exec echo {} \;
             Use the echo(1) command to print out a list of all the files.

     find -L /usr/ports/packages -type l -exec rm -- {} +
             Delete all broken symbolic links in /usr/ports/packages.

     find /usr/src -name CVS -prune -o -depth +6 -print
             Find files and directories that are at least seven levels deep in
             the working directory /usr/src.

     find /usr/src -name CVS -prune -o -mindepth 7 -print
             Is not equivalent to the previous example, since -prune is not
             evaluated below level seven.

COMPATIBILITY
     The -follow primary is deprecated; the -L option should be used instead.
     See the STANDARDS section below for details.

SEE ALSO
     chflags(1), chmod(1), cvs(1), locate(1), lsvfs(1), whereis(1), which(1),
     xargs(1), stat(2), acl(3), fts(3), getgrent(3), getpwent(3), strmode(3),
     re_format(7), symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The find utility syntax is a superset of the syntax specified by the IEEE
     Std 1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”) standard.

     All the single character options except -H and -L as well as -amin,
     -anewer, -cmin, -cnewer, -delete, -empty, -fstype, -iname, -inum, -iregex,
     -ls, -maxdepth, -mindepth, -mmin, -not, -path, -print0, -regex, -sparse and
     all of the -B* birthtime related primaries are extensions to IEEE Std
     1003.1-2001 (“POSIX.1”).

     Historically, the -d, -L and -x options were implemented using the
     primaries -depth, -follow, and -xdev.  These primaries always evaluated to
     true.  As they were really global variables that took effect before the
     traversal began, some legal expressions could have unexpected results.  An
     example is the expression -print -o -depth.  As -print always evaluates to
     true, the standard order of evaluation implies that -depth would never be
     evaluated.  This is not the case.

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

     Historic implementations of the -exec and -ok primaries did not replace the
     string “{}” in the utility name or the utility arguments if it had
     preceding or following non-whitespace characters.  This version replaces it
     no matter where in the utility name or arguments it appears.

     The -E option was inspired by the equivalent grep(1) and sed(1) options.

HISTORY
     A simple find command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX and was removed in
     Version 3 AT&T UNIX.  It was rewritten for Version 5 AT&T UNIX and later be
     enhanced for the Programmer's Workbench (PWB).  These changes were later
     incorporated in AT&T UNIX v7.

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

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

     The -delete primary does not interact well with other options that cause
     the file system tree traversal options to be changed.

     The -mindepth and -maxdepth primaries are actually global options (as
     documented above).  They should probably be replaced by options which look
     like options.

macOS 12.1                       March 13, 2021                       macOS 12.1