Find
Internal
Usage
Numeric Arguments
All numeric arguments are interpreted as follows:
- +n for greater than n
- n for exactly n
- -n for less than n
Target Type
find . -type <type-identifier>
where the type identifier can be:
- f regular file
- d directory
- l symbolic link
- b block special
- c character special
- p FIFO
- s socket
Case Insensitive Search
find . -iname ...
Control Descend Depth
The upper and lower limit of the descend depth can be controlled with -mindepth and -maxdepth, as follows:
find . -mindepth n
Configure find to apply tests and action at levels equal or deeper than n. -mindepth 1 processes the content of the directory specified as argument and recursively the content of its sub-directories.
find . -maxdepth n
Configure find to descend at most n directory levels below the command line arguments. -maxdepth 0 limits the whole search to the command line arguments.
In order to access directory between an upper and lower depth limit, both -mindepth and -maxdepth should be used.
Time Constraints
For interpretation of numeric arguments (+-n), see:
- [[|{{{2}}}]]
Time flags:
- -amin n - file was accessed n minutes ago.
- -anewer file - file was accessed more recently than file was modified.
- -atime n - file was accessed n * 24 hours ago. When find figures out how many 24-hour periods ago the file was last accessed, the fractional part is ignored, so to match -atime + 1, a file has to have been accessed at least two days ago.
- -cmin
- -cnewer file
- -ctime
- -mmin n -
- -mtime
Find all files modified less that 2 days ago
find . -mtime -2
-name Patterns
A pattern for file names with specific characters on specific positions can be specified with [...]:
find . -name *.[jw]ar
looks for *.jar and *.war.
Mac Detail
On Mac, the pattern must be specified between quotes:
find . -name "*.something"