Difference between revisions 507853 and 507854 on knwiki

{{otheruses}}
{{lowercase|title=find}} 
The <code>'''find'''</code> program is a [[directory (file systems)|directory]] [[Search_engine_(computing)|search utility]] on [[Unix-like]] platforms. It searches through one or more directory [[tree (computing)|trees]] of a [[filesystem]], locating [[Computer file|file]]s based on some user-specified criteria. By default, <code>find</code> returns all files below the current [[working directory]]. Further, <code>find</code> allows the user to specify an action to be taken on each matched file. Thus, it is an extremely powerful program for applying actions to many files. It also supports [[Regular expression|regex]] matching.

The <code>find</code> program is no longer preferred for searching for files by name in the entire filesystem. Instead, the <code>[[GNU_locate|locate]]</code> programs, which use a database of indexed files (obtained through <code>find</code>), are more efficient'''[[GNU_locate|locate]]'''</code> programs use a database of indexed files obtained through <code>find</code> (updated at regular intervals, typically by <code>'''[[cron]]'''</code> job) to provide a faster method of searching the entire filesystem for files by name.  This sacrifices overall efficiency (because filesystems are regularly interrogated even when no users needs information)and absolute accuracy (since the database is not updated in real time) for significant speed improvements (particularly on very large filesystems).  On fast systems with small drives <code>[[GNU_locate|locate]]</code> is not necessary or desirable.

== Find syntax ==
{{expand-section|date=August 2008}}
A single white space is needed to divide syntax elements when writing a find command. Otherwise, some usage error will come up...

⏎
also means to look for⏎
⏎
==Examples==

===From current directory===
 find . -name 'my*'
This searches in the current directory (represented by a period) and below it, for files and directories with names starting with ''my''. The quotes avoid the [[shell (computing)|shell]] expansion - without them the shell would replace ''my*'' with the list of files whose names begin with ''my'' in the current directory. In newer versions of the program, the directory may be o(contracted; show full)[[fr:Find]]
[[it:Find (Unix)]]
[[hu:Find]]
[[ja:Find]]
[[pl:Find]]
[[pt:Find]]
[[ru:Find]]
[[fi:Find (Unix)]]