In Unix-like and some other operating systems, find is a command-line utility that searches through one or more directory trees of a file system, locates files based on some user-specified criteria and applies a user-specified action on each matched file. The possible search criteria include a pattern to match against the file name or a time range to match against the modification time or access time of the file. By default, find returns a list of all files below the current working directory.
The related locate programs use a database of indexed files obtained through find (updated at regular intervals, typically by cron job) to provide a faster method of searching the entire filesystem for files by name.
Read more about Find: Find Syntax, POSIX Protection From Infinite Output
Famous quotes containing the word find:
“A woman preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“You have observed a skilful man reading Virgil. Well, that author is a thousand books to a thousand persons. Take the book into your two hands, and read your eyes out; you will never find what I find.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“O that ‘twere possible,
After long grief and pain,
To find the arms of my true-love
Round me once again! . . .”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)