Difference between revisions 507933 and 507934 on knwiki

{{other uses}}
{{lowercase|title=find}} 
In [[Unix-like]] and some other [[operating system]]s, <code>'''find'''</code> is a [[command-line utility]] that [[Search engine (computing)|searches]] through one or more [[directory tree]]s of a [[file system]], locates [[Computer file|file]]s based on some [[user (computing)|user]]-specified criteria and applies a user-specified action on each matched file. The possible search criteria include a [[pattern matching|pattern(contracted; show full) find . -print0 | xargs -0 COMMAND

The list of files generated by <code>find</code> (whilst it is being generated) is simultaneously [[Pipe (Unix)|piped]] to xargs, which then executes COMMAND with the files as arguments.  See [[xargs]] for more examples and options.

===Search for a string===
This command will search for a string in all files from the /tmp directory and below:

 find /tmp -exec grep "search str
ing" '{}' /dev/null \; -print  - + - = +

The <tt>[[/dev/null]]</tt> argument is used to show the name of the file before the text that is found. Without it, only the text found is printed.  An equivalent mechanism is to use the "-H" or "--with-filename" option to grep:

 find /tmp -exec grep -H "search string" '{}' \; -print

GNU grep can be used on its own to perform this task:

(contracted; show full)[[hu:Find]]
[[ja:Find]]
[[pl:Find]]
[[pt:Find]]
[[ro:Find]]
[[ru:Find]]
[[fi:Find (Unix)]]
[[uk:Find]]