Editing Solaris 10 Associate (section)

==== find command ====

use <code>find</code> command to locate files or directories in the directory hierarchy

<code>find</code> command recursively descends the directory tree in the path name list, looking for files that match search criteria

as <code>find</code> command matches files matching search criteria the absolute path for each file is displayed on screen

syntax:

<code>find pathname expression action</code>

<code>find</code> command arguments:
* pathname = absolute or relative path where the search originates
* expression = search criteria specified by one or more options. specifying multiple options causes the find command to use the boolean operator <code>and</code>, so all listed expressions must be verified as true
* action = action required after the files have been located. the default print action is to print all path names matching the criteria to the screen

===== find expressions =====

some expressions for <code>find</code> command

<table style="text-align: left; width: 50%;" border="1"
 cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
    <tr>
      <td>expression</td>
      <td>definition</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>-name filename</td>
      <td>finds files matching the specified filename, metacharacters are acceptable if placed inside quote marks " " or ' '</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>-inum [integer]</td>
      <td>finds files by inode #</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>-size [+|-]n</td>
      <td>finds files that are > +n or < -n or = n. n is 512-byte blocks</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>-atime [+|-]n</td>
      <td>finds files that have been accessed > +n or < -n or = n. n is days</td>
    </tr>
<tr>
      <td>-mtime [+|-]n</td>
      <td>find files that have been modified > +n or < -n or = n. n is days</td>
    </tr>
<tr>
      <td>-user userID</td>
      <td>finds all files that are owned by the userID</td>
    </tr>
<tr>
      <td>-type</td>
      <td>finds a file type, for example f = file and d = directory</td>
    </tr>
<tr>
      <td>-perm</td>
      <td>finds files that have certain access permission bits</td>
    </tr>
</table>

===== find actions =====

<table style="text-align: left; width: 50%;" border="1"
 cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
    <tr>
      <td>action</td>
      <td>definition</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>-exec command {}  \;</td>
      <td>runs the specified command on each file located. a set of braces { } delimits where the file name is passed to the command from the preceding expressions. a space, backslash, and semicolon (\;) delimits the end of the command. There must be a space before the backslash (\)</td>
    </tr>
<tr>
      <td>-ok command {} \;</td>
      <td>requires confirmation before find command applies the command to each file located. this is the interactive form of the -exec command</td>
    </tr>
<tr>
      <td>-print</td>
      <td>instructs the find command to print the current path name to terminal session. this is the default</td>
    </tr>
<tr>
      <td>-ls</td>
      <td>displays the current path name and associated statistics, such as the inode number, the size in kilobytes, protection mode, the number of hard links, and the user</td>
    </tr>
</table>

===== find examples =====

<insert examples>

search home directory looking for files or directories called deleteme and asking before deleting any matches perform this command:

<code>$ find ~ -name deleteme -ok rm {} \;</code>

to look for all files that have not been modified in the last two days starting in current directory perform this command:

<code>$ find . -mtime +2</code>

remove files without confirmation that have been modified greater than 30 days in current working directory

<code>find . -mtime +30 -exec rm -f {} \;</code>

to find files larger than 10 blocks (512-byte blocks X 10 = 5,120 bytes) starting in your home directory perform this command:

<code>$ find ~ -size +10</code>