Macintosh Terminal Pocket Guide

Name

find — stdin  stdout  - file  -- opt  --help  --version

Synopsis

find [directories] [expression]

The find command searches one or more directories (and their subdirectories recursively) for files matching certain criteria. It is very powerful, with over 50 options and, unfortunately, a rather unusual syntax. Here are some simple examples that search the entire filesystem from the root directory:

Find a particular file named myfile:

➜ find / -type f -name myfile -print

Print all directory names:

➜ find / -type d -print

Print filenames ending in “.txt” (notice how the wildcard is escaped so the shell ignores it):

➜ find / -type f -name \*.txt -print

Useful options

-name pattern -path pattern -lname pattern	The name (-name), pathname (-path), or symbolic link target (-lname) of the desired file must match this shell pattern, which may include shell wildcards *, ?, and []. (You must escape the wildcards, however, so they are ignored by the shell and passed literally to find.) Paths are relative to the directory tree being searched.
-iname pattern -ipath pattern -ilname pattern	The -iname, -ipath and -ilname options are the same as -name, -path, and -lname, respectively, but are case-insensitive. (Even though the OS X filesystem is case-insensitive, the find command is case-sensitive when it matches filenames.)
-regex regexp	The path (relative to the directory tree being searched) must match the given regular expression.
-type t	Locate only files of type t. This includes plain files (f), directories ...