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:
“Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes. Here we find nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I must beg you to indulge me in the matter of hyphens.... You will find that I have marked out a great many in the proofs. We are in danger of Germanizing our printing by using them so much, and I have a very decided preference in the matter.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“I don’t even want to own anything until I can find a place where me and things go together. I’m not sure where that is. But I know what it’s like. It’s like Tiffany’s.”
—George Axelrod (b. 1922)