The following operands shall be supported:
The first operand and subsequent operands up to but not including
the first operand that starts with a '-', or is a '!' or a '(',
shall be interpreted as path operands. If the first operand
starts with a '-', or is a '!' or a '(', the behavior is
unspecified. Each path operand is a pathname of a starting point
in the file hierarchy.
The first operand that starts with a '-', or is a '!' or a '(',
and all subsequent arguments shall be interpreted as an
expression made up of the following primaries and operators. In
the descriptions, wherever n is used as a primary argument, it
shall be interpreted as a decimal integer optionally preceded by
a <plus-sign> ('+') or <hyphen-minus> ('-'), as follows:
+n More than n.
n Exactly n.
-n Less than n.
The following primaries shall be supported:
-name pattern
The primary shall evaluate as true if the basename of
the current pathname matches pattern using the pattern
matching notation described in Section 2.13, Pattern
Matching Notation. The additional rules in Section
2.13.3, Patterns Used for Filename Expansion do not
apply as this is a matching operation, not an
expansion.
-path pattern
The primary shall evaluate as true if the current
pathname matches pattern using the pattern matching
notation described in Section 2.13, Pattern Matching
Notation. The additional rules in Section 2.13.3,
Patterns Used for Filename Expansion do not apply as
this is a matching operation, not an expansion.
-nouser The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs
to a user ID for which the getpwuid() function defined
in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017 (or
equivalent) returns NULL.
-nogroup The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs
to a group ID for which the getgrgid() function defined
in the System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017 (or
equivalent) returns NULL.
-xdev The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall
cause find not to continue descending past directories
that have a different device ID (st_dev, see the stat()
function defined in the System Interfaces volume of
POSIX.1‐2017). If any -xdev primary is specified, it
shall apply to the entire expression even if the -xdev
primary would not normally be evaluated.
-prune The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall
cause find not to descend the current pathname if it is
a directory. If the -depth primary is specified, the
-prune primary shall have no effect.
-perm [-]mode
The mode argument is used to represent file mode bits.
It shall be identical in format to the symbolic_mode
operand described in chmod, and shall be interpreted as
follows. To start, a template shall be assumed with all
file mode bits cleared. An op symbol of '+' shall set
the appropriate mode bits in the template; '-' shall
clear the appropriate bits; '=' shall set the
appropriate mode bits, without regard to the contents
of the file mode creation mask of the process. The op
symbol of '-' cannot be the first character of mode;
this avoids ambiguity with the optional leading
<hyphen-minus>. Since the initial mode is all bits
off, there are not any symbolic modes that need to use
'-' as the first character.
If the <hyphen-minus> is omitted, the primary shall
evaluate as true when the file permission bits exactly
match the value of the resulting template.
Otherwise, if mode is prefixed by a <hyphen-minus>, the
primary shall evaluate as true if at least all the bits
in the resulting template are set in the file
permission bits.
-perm [-]onum
If the <hyphen-minus> is omitted, the primary shall
evaluate as true when the file mode bits exactly match
the value of the octal number onum (see the description
of the octal mode in chmod). Otherwise, if onum is
prefixed by a <hyphen-minus>, the primary shall
evaluate as true if at least all of the bits specified
in onum are set. In both cases, the behavior is
unspecified when onum exceeds 07777.
-type c The primary shall evaluate as true if the type of the
file is c, where c is 'b', 'c', 'd', 'l', 'p', 'f', or
's' for block special file, character special file,
directory, symbolic link, FIFO, regular file, or
socket, respectively.
-links n The primary shall evaluate as true if the file has n
links.
-user uname
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs
to the user uname. If uname is a decimal integer and
the getpwnam() (or equivalent) function does not return
a valid user name, uname shall be interpreted as a user
ID.
-group gname
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file belongs
to the group gname. If gname is a decimal integer and
the getgrnam() (or equivalent) function does not return
a valid group name, gname shall be interpreted as a
group ID.
-size n[c]
The primary shall evaluate as true if the file size in
bytes, divided by 512 and rounded up to the next
integer, is n. If n is followed by the character 'c',
the size shall be in bytes.
-atime n The primary shall evaluate as true if the file access
time subtracted from the initialization time, divided
by 86400 (with any remainder discarded), is n.
-ctime n The primary shall evaluate as true if the time of last
change of file status information subtracted from the
initialization time, divided by 86400 (with any
remainder discarded), is n.
-mtime n The primary shall evaluate as true if the file
modification time subtracted from the initialization
time, divided by 86400 (with any remainder discarded),
is n.
-exec utility_name [argument ...] ;
-exec utility_name [argument ...] {} +
The end of the primary expression shall be punctuated
by a <semicolon> or by a <plus-sign>. Only a <plus-
sign> that immediately follows an argument containing
only the two characters "{}" shall punctuate the end of
the primary expression. Other uses of the <plus-sign>
shall not be treated as special.
If the primary expression is punctuated by a
<semicolon>, the utility utility_name shall be invoked
once for each pathname and the primary shall evaluate
as true if the utility returns a zero value as exit
status. A utility_name or argument containing only the
two characters "{}" shall be replaced by the current
pathname. If a utility_name or argument string contains
the two characters "{}", but not just the two
characters "{}", it is implementation-defined whether
find replaces those two characters or uses the string
without change.
If the primary expression is punctuated by a <plus-
sign>, the primary shall always evaluate as true, and
the pathnames for which the primary is evaluated shall
be aggregated into sets. The utility utility_name shall
be invoked once for each set of aggregated pathnames.
Each invocation shall begin after the last pathname in
the set is aggregated, and shall be completed before
the find utility exits and before the first pathname in
the next set (if any) is aggregated for this primary,
but it is otherwise unspecified whether the invocation
occurs before, during, or after the evaluations of
other primaries. If any invocation returns a non-zero
value as exit status, the find utility shall return a
non-zero exit status. An argument containing only the
two characters "{}" shall be replaced by the set of
aggregated pathnames, with each pathname passed as a
separate argument to the invoked utility in the same
order that it was aggregated. The size of any set of
two or more pathnames shall be limited such that
execution of the utility does not cause the system's
{ARG_MAX} limit to be exceeded. If more than one
argument containing the two characters "{}" is present,
the behavior is unspecified.
The current directory for the invocation of
utility_name shall be the same as the current directory
when the find utility was started. If the utility_name
names any of the special built-in utilities (see
Section 2.14, Special Built-In Utilities), the results
are undefined.
-ok utility_name [argument ...] ;
The -ok primary shall be equivalent to -exec, except
that the use of a <plus-sign> to punctuate the end of
the primary expression need not be supported, and find
shall request affirmation of the invocation of
utility_name using the current file as an argument by
writing to standard error as described in the STDERR
section. If the response on standard input is
affirmative, the utility shall be invoked. Otherwise,
the command shall not be invoked and the value of the
-ok operand shall be false.
-print The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall
cause the current pathname to be written to standard
output.
-newer file
The primary shall evaluate as true if the modification
time of the current file is more recent than the
modification time of the file named by the pathname
file.
-depth The primary shall always evaluate as true; it shall
cause descent of the directory hierarchy to be done so
that all entries in a directory are acted on before the
directory itself. If a -depth primary is not specified,
all entries in a directory shall be acted on after the
directory itself. If any -depth primary is specified,
it shall apply to the entire expression even if the
-depth primary would not normally be evaluated.
The primaries can be combined using the following operators (in
order of decreasing precedence):
( expression )
True if expression is true.
! expression
Negation of a primary; the unary NOT operator.
expression [-a] expression
Conjunction of primaries; the AND operator is implied
by the juxtaposition of two primaries or made explicit
by the optional -a operator. The second expression
shall not be evaluated if the first expression is
false.
expression -o expression
Alternation of primaries; the OR operator. The second
expression shall not be evaluated if the first
expression is true.
If no expression is present, -print shall be used as the
expression. Otherwise, if the given expression does not contain
any of the primaries -exec, -ok, or -print, the given expression
shall be effectively replaced by:
( given_expression ) -print
The -user, -group, and -newer primaries each shall evaluate their
respective arguments only once.
When the file type evaluated for the current file is a symbolic
link, the results of evaluating the -perm primary are
implementation-defined.
