Unix Find Tutorial/Summary

Part 11: Summary

Clearly, your use of the UNIX find command is limited only by your knowledge and creativity.

The find command has a lot of options, and to get the full power out of find, xargs, and grep, you need to experiment.

Among other things you can specify:

where to search (pathname). Find understands multiple start points like in
find /usr /bin /sbin /opt -name sar

Matching criteria, for example:

name of the file(s) (-name). Can be a simple regex.
-type what type of file to search for ( d -- directories, f -- files, l -- links)
-atime n File was accessed "n" 24-hour periods (days) ago
-mtime n File was modified "n" 24-hour periods (days) ago
-size n File is "n" 512-byte blocks big
-fstype typ Specifies filesystem type: 4.2 or nfs
-name nam The filename is "nam"
-user usr The file's owner is "usr"
-group grp The file's group owner is "grp"
-perm p The file's access mode is "p" (integer or symbolic expression)

Actions

-print display pathname (default)
-exec how to process the files found ( {} expands to current found file )

Combine matching criteria (predicated) into complex expressions using logical operations -o and -a (default binding) of predicates specified.

Selected Examples

Option	Meaning	Example
-atime n -atime +n -atime -n -size	True if file was accessed n 24-hour periods (days) ago (n), accessed more then n 24-hour periods (days) ago(+n) or less than n 24-hour periods (days) ago (-n)	-mtime +7 Matches files modified more than 7 24-hour periods (days) ago -atime -2 Matches files accessed less than 2 24-hour periods (days) ago -size +100 Matches files larger than 100 blocks (50K)
-ctime n	True if the file was created n 24-hour periods (days) ago.	find . -ctime +30 -type f -exec rm {} ';'
-exec command	Execute command.	find . -mtime -2 -type f -exec mv {} ../Spam_collector \;
-mtime n	True if file was modified n 24-hour periods (days) ago.	find . -mtime -2 -type f -exec mv {} ../Spam_collector \;
-name pattern	True if filename matches pattern.
-print	Print names of files found.
-type c	True if file is of type c	find . -mtime -2 -type f -exec mv {} ../Spam_collector \;
-user name	True if file is owned by user name.

Multiple options are joined by AND by default. OR may be specified with the -o flag and the use of grouped parentheses. For example, to match all files modified more than 90 24-hour periods (days) ago or accessed more than 30 24-hour periods (days) ago, use

\( -mtime +90 -o -atime +30 \)

NOT should be specified with a backslash before exclamation point. For example, to match all files ending in .txt except the file starting with "a-z", use:

\! -name "[a-z]*" -name "*.txt"

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Created: May 16, 1997; Last modified: August 25, 2009

Unix find tutorial

Part 11: Summary

Selected Examples