Difference between revisions 507990 and 507991 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 /tmp -exec grep -H 'search string' '{}' ';' -print

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

 grep -r 'search string' /tmp

Example of search for "LOG" in jsmith's home directory

<source lang="bash" highlight="1">⏎
 find ~jsmith -exec grep LOG '{}' /dev/null \; -print
 /home/jsmith/scripts/errpt.sh:cp $LOG $FIXEDLOGNAME
 /home/jsmith/scripts/errpt.sh:cat $LOG
 /home/jsmith/scripts/title:USER=$LOGNAME
</source>
Example of search for the string "ERROR" in all XML files in the current directory and all sub-directories
 find . -name "*.xml" -exec grep "ERROR" '{}' \; -print

The double quotes (" ") surrounding the search string and single quotes (<nowiki>' '</nowiki>) surrounding the braces are optional in this example, but needed to allow spaces and some other special characters in the string.  Note with more complex text (notably in most popular shells descended from `sh` and `csh`) single quotes are often the easier choice, since '''double quotes do not prevent all special interpretation'''. Quoting filenames which have English contractions demonstrates how this can get rather complicated, since a string with an apostrophe in it is easier to protect with double quotes.  Example:
 find . -name "file-containing-can't" -exec grep "can't" '{}' \; -print
⏎
⏎
===Search for all files owned by a user===
 find . -user <userid>

===Search in case insensitive mode===
 find . -iname 'MyFile*'

-iname, not to be confused with -inum( find based on inode value)

(contracted; show full)*[http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/calish-find-087766.html Guide to Linux Find Command Mastery]
*[http://www.shell-fu.org/lister.php?tag=find Top 'find' commands - interesting usage]

{{Unix commands}}

[[Category:Searching]]
[[Category:Standard Unix programs]]
[[Category:Unix SUS2008 utilities]]