-P

Never follow symbolic links.  This is the default behaviour.  When find examines or prints information a file, and the file is a symbolic link, the information used shall be taken from the properties of the symbolic link itself.  

-L

Follow symbolic links.  When find examines or prints information about files, the information used shall be taken from the properties of the file to which the link points, not from the link itself (unless it is a broken symbolic link or find is unable to examine the file to which the link points).  Use of this option implies -noleaf.  If you later use the -P option, -noleaf will still be in effect.  If -L is in effect and find discovers a symbolic link to a subdirectory during its search, the subdirectory pointed to by the symbolic link will be searched. When the -L option is in effect, the -type predicate will always match against the type of the file that a symbolic link points to rather than the link itself (unless the symbolic link is broken). Using -L causes the -lname and -ilname predicates always to return false.

-H

Do not follow symbolic links, except while processing the command line arguments.  When find examines or prints information about files, the information used shall be taken from the properties of the symbolic link itself.   The only exception to this behaviour is when a file specified on the command line is a symbolic link, and the link can be resolved.  For that situation, the information used is taken from whatever the link points to (that is, the link is followed).  The information about the link itself is used as a fallback if the file pointed to by the symbolic link cannot be examined.  If -H is in effect and one of the paths specified on the command line is a symbolic link to a directory, the contents of that directory will be examined (though of course -maxdepth 0 would prevent this). If more than one of -H, -L and -P is specified, each overrides the others; the last one appearing on the command line takes effect. Since it is the default, the -P option should be considered to be in effect unless either -H or -L is specified.
GNU find frequently stats files during the processing of the command line itself, before any searching has begun.  These options also affect how those arguments are processed.  Specifically, there are a number of tests that compare files listed on the command line against a file we are currently considering.  In each case, the file specified on the command line will have been examined and some of its properties will have been saved.  If the named file is in fact a symbolic link, and the -P option is in effect (or if neither -H nor -L were specified), the information used for the comparison will be taken from the properties of the symbolic link.  Otherwise, it will be taken from the properties of the file the link points to.  If find cannot follow the link (for example because it has insufficient privileges or the link points to a nonexistent file) the properties of the link itself will be used. When the -H or -L options are in effect, any symbolic links listed as the argument of -newer will be dereferenced, and the timestamp will be taken from the file to which the symbolic link points.  The same consideration applies to -anewer and -cnewer.
The -follow option has a similar effect to -L, though it takes effect at the point where it appears (that is, if -L is not used but -follow is, any symbolic links appearing after -follow on the command line will be dereferenced, and those before it will not).

-daystart

Measure times (for -amin, -atime, -cmin, -ctime, -mmin, and -mtime) from the beginning of today rather than from 24 hours ago.  This option only affects tests which appear later on the command line.

-depth

Process each directory's contents before the directory itself.

-d

A synonym for -depth, for compatibility with FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOS X and OpenBSD.

-follow

Deprecated; use the -L option instead.  Dereference symbolic links. Implies -noleaf.  Unless the -H or -L option has been specified, the position of the -follow option changes the behaviour of the -newer predicate; any files listed as the argument of -newer will be dereferenced if they are symbolic links.  The same consideration applies to -anewer and -cnewer.  Similarly, the -type predicate will always match against the type of the file that a symbolic link points to rather than the link itself.  Using -follow causes the -lname and -ilname predicates always to return false.

"-help,

Print a summary of the command-line usage of find and exit.

-ignore_readdir_race

Normally, find will emit an error message when it fails to stat a file. If you give this option and a file is deleted between the time find reads the name of the file from the directory and the time it tries to stat the file, no error message will be issued.    This also applies to files or directories whose names are given on the command line.  This option takes effect at the time the command line is read, which means that you cannot search one part of the filesystem with this option on and part of it with this option off (if you need to do that, you will need to issue two find commands instead, one with the option and one without it).

"-maxdepth

Descend at most levels (a non-negative integer) levels of directories below the command line arguments.  `-maxdepth 0' means only apply the tests and actions to the command line arguments.

"-mindepth

Do not apply any tests or actions at levels less than levels (a non-negative integer).  `-mindepth 1' means process all files except the command line arguments.

-mount

Don't descend directories on other filesystems.  An alternate name for -xdev, for compatibility with some other versions of find .

-noignore_readdir_race

Turns off the effect of -ignore_readdir_race.

"-noleaf"

Do not optimize by assuming that directories contain 2 fewer subdirectories than their hard link count.  This option is needed when searching filesystems that do not follow the Unix directory-link convention, such as CD-ROM or MS-DOS filesystems or AFS volume mount points.  Each directory on a normal Unix filesystem has at least 2 hard links: its name and its `.'  entry.  Additionally, its subdirectories (if any) each have a `..'  entry linked to that directory.  When find is examining a directory, after it has statted 2 fewer subdirectories than the directory's link count, it knows that the rest of the entries in the directory are non-directories (`leaf' files in the directory tree).  If only the files' names need to be examined, there is no need to stat them; this gives a significant increase in search speed.

"-version,

Print the find version number and exit.

"-warn,

Turn warning messages on or off.  These warnings apply only to the command line usage, not to any conditions that find might encounter when it searches directories.  The default behaviour corresponds to -warn if standard input is a tty, and to -nowarn otherwise.

-xdev

Don't descend directories on other filesystems.
TESTS Numeric arguments can be specified as

+n

for greater than n ,

-n

for less than n ,

n

for exactly n .

"-amin

File was last accessed n minutes ago.

"-anewer

File was last accessed more recently than file was modified.  If file is a symbolic link and the -H option or the -L option is in effect, the access time of the file it points to is always used.

"-atime

File was last accessed n*24 hours ago.   When find figures out how many 24-hour preiods ago the file was last accessed, any fractional part is ignored, so to match -atime +1 , a file has to have been modified at least two days ago.

"-cmin

File's status was last changed n minutes ago.

"-cnewer

File's status was last changed more recently than file was modified.  If file is a symbolic link and the -H option or the -L option is in effect, the status-change time of the file it points to is always used.

"-ctime

File's status was last changed n*24 hours ago. See the comments for -atime to understand how rounding affects the interpretation of file status change times.

-empty

File is empty and is either a regular file or a directory.

-false

Always false.

"-fstype

File is on a filesystem of type type.  The valid filesystem types vary among different versions of Unix; an incomplete list of filesystem types that are accepted on some version of Unix or another is: ufs, 4.2, 4.3, nfs, tmp, mfs, S51K, S52K.  You can use -printf with the %F directive to see the types of your filesystems.

"-gid

File's numeric group ID is n.

"-group

File belongs to group gname (numeric group ID allowed).

"-ilname

Like -lname, but the match is case insensitive. If the -L option or the -follow option is in effect, this test returns false unless the symbolic link is broken.

"-iname

Like -name, but the match is case insensitive.  For example, the patterns `fo*' and `F??' match the file names `Foo', `FOO', `foo', `fOo', etc.   In these patterns, unlike filename expansion by the shell, an initial '.' can be matched by '*'.  That is, find -name *bar will match the file `.foobar'.

"-inum

File has inode number n.  It is normally easier to use the -samefile test instead.

"-ipath

Behaves in the same way as -iwholename.  This option is deprecated, so please do not use it.

"-iregex

Like -regex, but the match is case insensitive.

"-iwholename

Like -wholename, but the match is case insensitive.

"-links

File has n links.

"-lname

File is a symbolic link whose contents match shell pattern pattern.  The metacharacters do not treat `/' or `.' specially. If the -L option or the -follow option is in effect, this test returns false unless the symbolic link is broken.

"-mmin

File's data was last modified n minutes ago.

"-mtime

File's data was last modified n*24 hours ago. See the comments for -atime to understand how rounding affects the interpretation of file modification times.

"-name

Base of file name (the path with the leading directories removed) matches shell pattern pattern.  The metacharacters (`*', `?', and `[]') match a `.' at the start of the base name (this is a change in findutils-4.2.2; see section STANDARDS CONFORMANCE below).  To ignore a directory and the files under it, use -prune; see an example in the description of -wholename.  Braces are not recognised as being special, despite the fact that some shells including Bash imbue braces with a special meaning in shell patterns.  The filename matching is performed with the use of the fnmatch(3) library function.

"-newer

File was modified more recently than file.  If file is a symbolic link and the -H option or the -L option is in effect, the modification time of the file it points to is always used.

-nouser

No user corresponds to file's numeric user ID.

-nogroup

No group corresponds to file's numeric group ID.

"-path

See -wholename.   The predicate -path is also supported by HP-UX find .

"-perm

File's permission bits are exactly mode (octal or symbolic). Since an exact match is required, if you want to use this form for symbolic modes, you may have to specify a rather complex mode string. For example '-perm g=w' will only match files which have mode 0020 (that is, ones for which group write permission is the only permission set).  It is more likely that you will want to use the '+' or '-' forms, for example '-perm -g=w', which matches any file with group write permission.  See the EXAMPLES section for some illustrative examples.

"-perm

All of the permission bits mode are set for the file. Symbolic modes are accepted in this form, and this is usually the way in which would want to use them.  You must specify 'u', 'g' or 'o' if you use a symbolic mode.   See the EXAMPLES section for some illustrative examples.

"-perm

Any of the permission bits mode are set for the file.  Symbolic modes are accepted in this form.  You must specify 'u', 'g' or 'o' if you use a symbolic mode.  See the EXAMPLES section for some illustrative examples.

"-regex

File name matches regular expression pattern.  This is a match on the whole path, not a search.  For example, to match a file named `./fubar3', you can use the regular expression `.*bar.' or `.*b.*3', but not `f.*r3'.  The regular expressions understood by find follow the conventions for the re_match system library function where this is present (i.e. on systems using the GNU C Library).  On other systems, the implementation within Gnulib is used; by default, Gnulib provides ``basic'' regular expressions.

"-samefile

File refers to the same inode as name.   When -L is in effect, this can include symbolic links.

"-size

File uses n units of space.  The following suffixes can be used:

-true

Always true.

"-type

File is of type c:

"-uid

File's numeric user ID is n.

"-used

File was last accessed n days after its status was last changed.

"-user

File is owned by user uname (numeric user ID allowed).

"-wholename

File name matches shell pattern pattern.  The metacharacters do not treat `/' or `.' specially; so, for example,
find . -wholename './sr*sc'
will print an entry for a directory called './src/misc' (if one exists).  To ignore a whole directory tree, use -prune rather than checking every file in the tree.  For example, to skip the directory `src/emacs' and all files and directories under it, and print the names of the other files found, do something like this:
find . -wholename './src/emacs' -prune -o -print

"-xtype

The same as -type unless the file is a symbolic link.  For symbolic links: if the -H or -P option was specified, true if the file is a link to a file of type c; if the -L option has been given, true if c is `l'.  In other words, for symbolic links, -xtype checks the type of the file that -type does not check.

"-context

"--context

(SELinux only) File has the security context scontext.
ACTIONS

"-delete"

Delete files; true if removal succeeded.  If the removal failed, an error message is issued.

"-exec

Execute command; true if 0 status is returned.  All following arguments to find are taken to be arguments to the command until an argument consisting of `;' is encountered.  The string `{}' is replaced by the current file name being processed everywhere it occurs in the arguments to the command, not just in arguments where it is alone, as in some versions of find . Both of these constructions might need to be escaped (with a `\') or quoted to protect them from expansion by the shell.  See the EXAMPLES section for examples of the use of the `-exec' option.  The specified command is run once for each matched file. The command is executed in the starting directory.   There are unavoidable security problems surrounding use of the -exec option; you should use the -execdir option instead.  

"-exec

This variant of the -exec option runs the specified command on the selected files, but the command line is built by appending each selected file name at the end; the total number of invocations of the command will be much less than the number of matched files.  The command line is built in much the same way that xargs builds its command lines.  Only one instance of '{}' is allowed within the command.  The command is executed in the starting directory.

"-execdir

"-execdir

Like -exec, but the specified command is run from the subdirectory containing the matched file, which is not normally the directory in which you started find . This a much more secure method for invoking commands, as it avoids race conditions during resolution of the paths to the matched files. As with the -exec option, the '+' form of -execdir will build a command line to process more than one matched file, but any given invocation of command will only list files that exist in the same subdirectory.  If you use this option, you must ensure that your $PATH environment variable does not reference the current directory; otherwise, an attacker can run any commands they like by leaving an appropriately-named file in a directory in which you will run -execdir.

"-fls

True; like -ls but write to file like -fprint. The output file is always created, even if the predicate is never matched.

"-fprint

True; print the full file name into file file.  If file does not exist when find is run, it is created; if it does exist, it is truncated.  The file names ``/dev/stdout'' and ``/dev/stderr'' are handled specially; they refer to the standard output and standard error output, respectively. The output file is always created, even if the predicate is never matched.

"-fprint0

True; like -print0 but write to file like -fprint. The output file is always created, even if the predicate is never matched.

"-fprintf

True; like -printf but write to file like -fprint. The output file is always created, even if the predicate is never matched.

"-ok

Like -exec but ask the user first (on the standard input); if the response does not start with `y' or `Y', do not run the command, and return false.

-print

True; print the full file name on the standard output, followed by a newline.   If you are piping the output of find into another program and there is the faintest possibility that the files which you are searching for might contain a newline, then you should seriously consider using the `-print0' option instead of `-print'.

"-okdir

Like -execdir but ask the user first (on the standard input); if the response does not start with `y' or `Y', do not run the command, and return false.

-print0

True; print the full file name on the standard output, followed by a null character (instead of the newline character that `-print' uses). This allows file names that contain newlines or other types of white space to be correctly interpreted by programs that process the find output.  This option corresponds to the `-0' option of xargs .

"-printf

True; print format on the standard output, interpreting `\' escapes and `%' directives.  Field widths and precisions can be specified as with the `printf' C function.  Please note that many of the fields are printed as %s rather than %d, and this may mean that flags don't work as you might expect.  This also means that the `-' flag does work (it forces fields to be left-aligned).  Unlike -print, -printf does not add a newline at the end of the string.  The escapes and directives are:

-prune

If -depth is not given, true; if the file is a directory, do not descend into it.
If -depth is given, false; no effect.

"-quit"

Exit immediately.  No child proceses will be left running, but no more paths specified on the command line will be processed.  For example, find /tmp/foo /tmp/bar -print -quit will print only /tmp/foo . Any command lines which have been built up with -execdir ... {} + will be invoked before find exits.   The exit status may or may not be zero, depending on whether an error has already occurred.  

-ls

True; list current file in `ls -dils' format on standard output. The block counts are of 1K blocks, unless the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, in which case 512-byte blocks are used.
OPERATORS Listed in order of decreasing precedence:

"(

Force precedence.

"!

True if expr is false.

"-not

Same as ! expr, but not POSIX compliant.

"expr1

Two expressions in a row are taken to be joined with an implied "and"; expr2 is not evaluated if expr1 is false.

"expr1

Same as expr1 expr2.

"expr1

Same as expr1 expr2, but not POSIX compliant.

"expr1

Or; expr2 is not evaluated if expr1 is true.

"expr1

Same as expr1 -o expr2, but not POSIX compliant.

"expr1

List; both expr1 and expr2 are always evaluated. The value of expr1 is discarded; the value of the list is the value of expr2. The comma operator can be useful for searching for several different types of thing, but traversing the filesystem hierarchy only once.   The -fprintf   action can be used to list the various matched items into several different output files.

"-H"

This option is supported.

"-L"

This option is supported.

"-name"

This option is supported, but POSIX conformance depends on the POSIX conformance of the system's fnmatch(3) library function.  As of findutils-4.2.2, shell metacharacters ('*'. '?' or '[]' for example) will match a leading '.', because IEEE PASC interpretation 126 requires this.   This is a change from previous versions of findutils.

"-type"

Supported.   POSIX specifies `b', `c', `d', `l', `p', `f' and `s'. GNU find also supports `D', representing a Door, where the OS provides these.

"-ok"

Supported.   Interpretation of the response is not locale-dependent (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES).

"-newer"

Supported.  If the file specified is a symbolic link, it is always dereferenced.  This is a change from previous behaviour, which used to take the relevant time from the symbolic link; see the HISTORY section below.

"Other

The predicates `-atime', `-ctime', `-depth', `-group', `-links', `-mtime', `-nogroup', `-nouser', `-perm', `-print', `-prune', `-size', `-user' and `-xdev', are all supported.
The POSIX standard specifies parentheses `(', `)', negation `!' and the `and' and `or' operators (`-a', `-o').    All other options, predicates, expressions and so forth are extensions beyond the POSIX standard.  Many of these extensions are not unique to GNU find, however. The POSIX standard requires that The find utility shall detect infinite loops; that is, entering a previously visited directory that is an ancestor of the last file encountered. When it detects an infinite loop, find shall write a diagnostic message to standard error and shall either recover its position in the hierarchy or terminate. The link count of directories which contain entries which are hard links to an ancestor will often be lower than they otherwise should be.  This can mean that GNU find will sometimes optimise away the visiting of a subdirectory which is actually a link to an ancestor. Since find does not actually enter such a subdirectory, it is allowed to avoid emitting a diagnostic message.  Although this behaviour may be somewhat confusing, it is unlikely that anybody actually depends on this behaviour.  If the leaf optimisation has been turned off with -noleaf , the directory entry will always be examined and the diagnostic message will be issued where it is appropriate.  Symbolic links cannot be used to create filesystem cycles as such, but if the -L option or the -follow option is in use, a diagnostic message is issued when find encounters a loop of symbolic links.  As with loops containing hard links, the leaf optimisation will often mean that find knows that it doesn't need to call stat() or chdir() on the symbolic link, so this diagnostic is frequently not necessary. The -d option is supported for comatibility with various BSD systems, but you should use the POSIX-compliant predicate -depth instead.

LANG

Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null.

LC_ALL

If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_COLLATE

The POSIX standard specifies that this variable affects the pattern matching to be used for the `-name' option.   GNU find uses the fnmatch(3) library function, and so support for `LC_COLLATE' depends on the system library.     POSIX also specifies that the `LC_COLLATE' environment variable affects the interpretation of the user's response to the query issued by `-ok', but this is not the case for GNU find.

LC_CTYPE

This variable affects the treatment of character classes used with the `-name' option, if the system's fnmatch(3) library function supports this.   It has no effect on the behaviour of the `-ok' expression.

LC_MESSAGES

Determines the locale to be used for internationalised messages.

NLSPATH

Determines the location of the internationalisation message catalogues.

PATH

Affects the directores which are searched to find the executables invoked by `-exec' and `-ok'.

POSIXLY_CORRECT

Determines the block size used by `-ls'.

TZ

Affects the time zone used for some of the time-related format directives of -printf and -fprintf.

 find /tmp -name core -type f -print | xargs /bin/rm -f

 find . -type f -exec file '{}' \;

 find /  t( -perm +4000 -fprintf /root/suid.txt '%#m %u %p\n' ) , \
         tt( -size +100M -fprintf /root/big.txt  '%-10s %p\n'  )

 find $HOME  -mtime 0

 find . -perm 664

 find . -perm -664

 find . -perm +222

 find . -perm +022
 find . -perm +g+w,o+w
 find . -perm +g=w,o=w

 find . -perm -022
 find . -perm -g+w,o+w