Find

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 discussion than this manual page, so you may find it a more useful source of informa‐

tion.

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 direc‐

tories 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 -- could theo‐

retically be used to signal that any remaining arguments are not options, but this does not really work due to the way find determines the end of

the following path arguments: it does that by reading until an expression argument comes (which also starts with a `-'). Now, if a path argument

would start with a `-', then find would treat it as expression argument instead. Thus, to ensure that all start points are taken as such, and espe‐

cially to prevent that wildcard patterns expanded by the calling shell are not mistakenly treated as expression arguments, it is generally safer to

prefix wildcards or dubious path names with either `./' or to use absolute path names starting with '/'.

-P Never follow symbolic links. This is the default behaviour. When find examines or prints information about files, and the file is a sym‐

bolic 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 broken while find is executing

(for example -delete) can give rise to confusing behaviour. Using -L causes the -lname and -ilname predicates always to return false.

-H Do not follow symbolic links, except while processing the command line arguments. When find examines or prints information about files, the

information used shall be taken from the properties of the symbolic link itself. The only exception to this behaviour is when a file speci‐

fied 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 direc‐

tory, 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 cur‐

rently 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 debugopts

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 guaranteed between releases of findutils. For a complete list of valid

debug options, see the output of find -D help. Valid debug options include

exec Show diagnostic information relating to -exec, -execdir, -ok and -okdir

opt Prints diagnostic information relating to the optimisation of the expression tree; see the -O option.

rates Prints a summary indicating how often each predicate succeeded or failed.

search Navigate the directory tree verbosely.

stat Print messages as files are examined with the stat and lstat system calls. The find program tries to minimise such calls.

tree Show the expression tree in its original and optimised form.

all Enable all of the other debug options (but help).

help Explain the debugging options.

-Olevel

Enables query optimisation. The find program reorders tests to speed up execution while preserving the overall effect; that is, predicates

with side effects are not reordered relative to each other. The optimisations performed at each optimisation level are as follows. 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