HPUX find[1]
find(1) find(1)
NAME
find - find files
SYNOPSIS
find path-name-list [expression]
DESCRIPTION
find recursively descends the directory hierarchy for each path name
in the path-name-list (that is, one or more path names) seeking files
that match a Boolean expression written in the primaries given below.
By default, find does not follow symbolic links.
The Boolean expression is evaluated using short-circuit evaluation.
This means that whenever the result of a Boolean operation (AND or OR)
is known from evaluating the left-hand argument, the right-hand
argument is not evaluated.
In the descriptions of the primaries, the argument n is used as a
decimal integer; +n means more than n, -n means less than n, and n
means exactly n.
The following primaries are recognized:
-depth A position-independent term which causes descent of
the directory hierarchy to be done so that all entries
in a directory are acted on before the directory
itself. This can be useful when find is used with
cpio(1) to transfer files that are contained in
directories without write permission. It is also
useful when using cpio(1) and the modification dates
of directories must be preserved. Always true.
-follow A position-independent term which causes find to
follow symbolic links. Always true.
-hidden A position-independent term which causes find to
include hidden subdirectories (context-dependent
files) in the directory hierarchy of each path name in
the path-name-list. In addition, the normally hidden
components of the path name become visible as when
using the -print primary (see cdf(4)). Always true.
-fsonly type A position-independent term which causes find to stop
descending any directory whose file system is not of
the type specified by type, where type is one of nfs,
cdfs, or hfs. In this context, mount points inherit
the fstype of their parent directory. This means that
when -fsonly hfs has been specified and find
encounters an NFS mount point that is mounted on an
HFS file system, the mount point will be visited but
entries below that mount point will not. It is
Hewlett-Packard Company - 1 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992
find(1) find(1)
important to note that when -fsonly nfs has been
specified, any HFS file systems that are beneath the
mount point of an NFS file system are not traversed.
Always true.
-xdev A position-independent term that causes find to avoid
crossing any file system mount points that exist below
starting points enumerated in path-name-list. The
mount point itself is visited, but entries below the
mount point are not. Always true.
-mountstop Identical to -xdev. This primary is provided for
backwards compatibility only. Use of -xdev is
preferred over -mountstop.
-name file True if file matches the last component of the current
file name. The matching is performed as specified by
Pattern Matching Notation (see regexp(5)).
-path file Same as -name except the full path (as would be output
by -print) is used instead of just the basename. Note
that / characters are not treated as a special case.
For example, */.profile would match
./users/fred/.profile.
-perm [ - ]mode In this primary, the argument mode is used to
represent file mode bits. The argument is identical
in format to the mode operand as described in
chmod(1), with the exception that the first character
must not be the - operator. When using the symbolic
form of mode, the starting template is assumed to have
all file mode bits cleared.
If the leading minus is omitted, this primary is true
when the file permission bits exactly match the value
of mode. Bits associated with the symbolic attributes
s (setuid, setgid) and t (sticky-bit) are ignored when
the minus is omitted.
If mode is preceded by a minus, this primary is true
if all of the bits that are set in mode are also set
in the file permission bits. In this case, the bits
associated with the symbolic attributes s and t are
significant.
-fstype type True if the file system to which the file belongs is
of type type, where type is one of hfs, cdfs, or nfs.
-type c True if the type of the file is c, where c is:
f regular file
Hewlett-Packard Company - 2 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992
find(1) find(1)
d directory
b block special file
c character special file
p FIFO (named pipe)
l symbolic link
s socket
n network special file
M mount point
H hidden directory (see cdf(4))
The use of -type H implies the -hidden primary (see
above).
-links n True if the file has n links.
-user uname True if the file belongs to the user uname. If uname
is numeric and does not appear as a login name in the
/etc/passwd file, it is taken as a user ID. The uname
operand can be preceded by a + or - to modify the
comparison operation as described previously.
-group gname True if the file belongs to the group gname. If gname
is numeric and does not appear in the /etc/group file,
it is taken as a group ID. The gname operand can be
preceded by a + or - to modify the comparison
operation as described previously.
-devcid cname True if the file is a block or character special file
whose st_rcnode value is equal to the cnode id of the
cnode cname. If cname is numeric and does not appear
as a cnode name in the /etc/clusterconf file, it is
taken as a cnode ID . See mknod(2)) for a description
of cnode-specific device files. The cname operand can
be preceded by a + or - to modify the comparison
operation as described previously.
-nouser True if the file belongs to a user ID that is not
listed in the password database. See passwd(4).
-nogroup True if the file belongs to a group ID that is not
listed in the group database. See group(4).
-nodevcid True if the file is a block or character special file
whose st_rcnode value is not listed in the
/etc/clusterconf file. See mknod(2).
-size n[c] True if the file is n blocks long. If n is followed
by a c, the size is in bytes.
-atime n True if the file has been accessed in n days. The
access time of directories in path-name-list is
Hewlett-Packard Company - 3 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992
find(1) find(1)
changed by find itself.
-mtime n True if the file has been modified in n days.
-ctime n True if the file inode has been changed in n days.
-newer file True if the current file has been modified more
recently than the argument file.
-newer[acm[acm]] file
True if the indicated time value of the current file
is newer than the indicated time of file. The time
values are indicated from the set of characters a, c,
and m, where:
a The time the file was last accessed
c The time the inode of the file was last
modified
m The time the file was last modified
The first [acm] specifies the time of the current file, the
second [acm] specifies the time of file. If only one [acm] is
specified, the second time specifier defaults to m.
-inum n
True if the file serial number (inode number) is n. Note that
file serial numbers are unique only within a given file system.
Therefore, matching file serial numbers does not guarantee that
the referenced files are the same unless you restrict the search
to a single file system.
-linkedto path
True if the file is the same physical file as the file specified
by path (i.e. linked to path). This primary is similar to -inum,
but correctly detects when a file is hard-linked to path, even
when multiple file systems are searched.
-print
Causes the current path name to be printed. Always true.
-exec cmd
True if the executed cmd returns a zero value as exit status.
The end of cmd must be punctuated by a semicolon (semicolon is
special to the shell and must be escaped). Any command argument
{} is replaced by the current path name.
-ok cmd
Same as -exec except that the generated command line is printed
with a question mark first, and is executed only if the user
responds by typing y.
Hewlett-Packard Company - 4 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992
find(1) find(1)
-cpio device
Write the current file on device in cpio(4) format (5120-byte
records). The use of -cpio implies -depth. Always true.
-ncpio
Same as -cpio but adds the -c option to cpio. The use of -ncpio
implies -depth. Always true.
-prune
If the current entry is a directory, cause find to skip that
directory. This can be useful to avoid walking certain
directories, or to avoid recursive loops when using cpio -p.
Note, however, that -prune is useless if the -depth option has
also been given. See the description of -only and the EXAMPLES
section, below, for more information. Always true.
-only
This is a positive-logic version of -prune. A -prune is performed
after every directory, unless -only is successfully evaluated for
that directory. As an example, the following three commands are
equivalent:
find . -fsonly hfs -print
find . -print -fstype hfs -only
find . -print ! -fstype hfs -prune
Note, however, that -only is useless if the -depth option has
also been given. Always true.
( expression )
True if the parenthesized expression is true (parentheses are
special to the shell and must be escaped).
Primaries can be combined by using the following operators (in order
of decreasing precedence):
! expression
Logical NOT operator. True if expression is not true.
expression -a expression
Logical AND operator. True if both of the expressions are
true.
expression -o expression
Logical OR operator. True if either or both of the
expressions are true.
If expression is omitted, or if none of -print, -ok, -exec, -cpio, or
-ncpio are specified, -print is assumed.
Hewlett-Packard Company - 5 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992
find(1) find(1)
Access Control Lists
The following primary enables the user to search for access control
list entries:
-acl aclpatt True if the file's access control list matches an
access control list pattern or contains optional access
control list entries (see acl(5)). The -acl primary
has three forms:
-acl aclpatt Match all files whose access control
list includes all (zero or more) pattern
entries specified by the aclpatt
pattern.
-acl =aclpatt Match a file only if its access control
list includes all (zero or more) pattern
entries specified by the aclpatt
pattern, and every entry in its access
control list is matched by at least one
pattern entry specified in the aclpatt
pattern.
-acl opt Match all files containing optional
access control list entries.
The aclpatt string of the -acl primary can be given as an operator or
short form pattern; see acl(5).
By default, -acl is true for files whose access control lists include
all the (zero or more) access control list patterns in aclpatt. A
file's access control list can also contain unmatched entries.
If aclpatt begins with =, the remainder of the string must match all
entries in a file's access control list.
The aclpatt string (by default, or the part following =) can be either
an access control list or an access control list pattern. However, if
it is an access control list, aclpatt must include at least the three
base entries ((u.%, mode), (%.g, mode), and (%.%, mode)).
As a special case, if aclpatt is the word opt, the primary is true for
files with access control list entries.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Environment Variables
LC_COLLATE determines the collating sequence used in evaluating
pattern matching notation for file name matching.
LC_CTYPE determines the interpretation of text as single and/or
multi-byte characters, and the characters matched by character class
expressions in pattern matching notation.
Hewlett-Packard Company - 6 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992
find(1) find(1)
LANG determines the language in which messages are displayed.
If LC_COLLATE or LC_CTYPE is not specified in the environment or is
set to the empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for
each unspecified or empty variable. If LANG is not specified or is
set to the empty string, a default of "C" (see lang(5)) is used
instead of LANG. If any internationalization variable contains an
invalid setting, find behaves as if all internationalization variables
are set to "C". See environ(5).
International Code Set Support
Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.
EXAMPLES
Search the two directories /example and /new/example for files
containing the string Where are you and print the names of the files:
find /example /new/example -exec grep -l 'Where are you' {} \;
Remove all files named a.out or *.o that have not been accessed for a
week:
find / \( -name a.out -o -name '*.o' \) -atime +7 -exec rm {} \;
Note that the spaces delimiting the escaped parentheses are
required.
Print the names of all files in /bin that are context-dependent; that
is, hidden directories:
find /bin -type H -print
Print the names of all files on this machine. Avoid walking nfs
directories while still printing the nfs mount points:
find / -fsonly hfs -print
Copy the entire file system to a disk mounted on /Disk, avoiding the
recursive copy problem. Both commands are equivalent (note the use of
-path instead of -name):
cd /; find . ! -path ./Disk -only -print | cpio -pdxm /Disk
cd /; find . -path ./Disk -prune -o -print | cpio -pdxm /Disk
Copy the root disk to a disk mounted on /Disk, skipping all mounted
file systems below /. Note that -xdev does not cause / to be skipped,
even though it is a mount point. This is because / is the starting
point and -xdev only affects entries below starting points.
Hewlett-Packard Company - 7 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992
find(1) find(1)
cd /; find . -xdev -print | cpio -pdm /Disk
Change permissions on all regular files in a directory subtree to mode
444, and permissions on all directories to 555:
find <pathname> -type f -print | xargs chmod 444
find <pathname> -type d -print | xargs chmod 555
Note that output from find was piped to xargs(1) instead of using
the -exec primary. This is because when a large number of files
or directories are to be processed by a single command, the -exec
primary spawns a separate process for each file or directory,
whereas xargs collects filenames or directory names into multiple
arguments to a single chmod command, resulting in fewer processes
and greater system efficiency.
Access Control List Examples
Find all files not owned by user ``karl'' that have access control
lists with at least one entry associated with ``karl'', and one entry
for no specific user in group ``bin'' with the read bit on and the
write bit off:
find / ! -user karl -acl 'karl.*, %.bin+r-w' -print
Find all files that have a read bit set in any access control list
entry:
find / -acl '*.*+r' -print
Find all files that have the write bit unset and execute bit set in
every access control list entry:
find / -acl '=*.*-w+x' -print
Find all files that have optional access control list entries:
find / -acl opt -print
WARNINGS
Access Control Lists
Access control list descriptions in this entry apply only to standard
HP-UX operating systems. If HP_UX BLS software has been installed,
access control lists are handled differently. Refer to HP-UX BLS
documentation for information about access control lists in the HP-UX
BLS environment.
DEPENDENCIES
NFS The -acl primary is always false for NFS files.
AUTHOR
find was developed by AT&T and HP.
Hewlett-Packard Company - 8 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992
find(1) find(1)
FILES
/etc/clusterconf cnode names
/etc/group group names
/etc/passwd user names
/etc/mnttab mount points
SEE ALSO
chacl(1), chmod(1), cpio(1), sh(1), test(1), xargs(1) mknod(2),
stat(2), cpio(4), fs(4), group(4), passwd(4), cdf(4), acl(5),
environ(5), lang(5), regexp(5).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
find: SVID2, XPG2, XPG3, proposed POSIX.2 FIPS (June 1990)
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
find: SVID2, XPG2, XPG3, POSIX.2
Hewlett-Packard Company - 9 - HP-UX Release 9.0: August 1992