Editing Find (Unix) (section)

{{Short description|Command-line utility}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2016}}
{{lowercase title|title=find}}
{{Infobox software
| name                   = find
| logo                   = 
| screenshot             = 
| screenshot size        = 
| caption                = 
| author                 = Dick Haight
| developer              = [[AT&T Bell Laboratories]]
| released               = 
| latest release version = 
| latest release date    = 
| operating system       = [[Unix]], [[Unix-like]], [[Plan 9 from Bell Labs|Plan 9]], [[IBM i]]
| platform               = [[Cross-platform]]
| genre                  = [[Command (computing)|Command]]
| website                = 
}}
In [[Unix-like]] [[operating system]]s, <code>'''find'''</code> is a [[command-line utility]] that locates [[Computer file|files]] based on some [[User (computing)|user]]-specified criteria and either prints the pathname of each matched object or, if another action is requested, performs that action on each matched object.

It initiates a search from a desired starting location and then recursively traverses the [[Node (computer science)|nodes]] (directories) of a hierarchical structure (typically a [[Tree (data structure)|tree]]). '''find''' can traverse and search through different file systems of partitions belonging to one or more storage devices mounted under the starting directory.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/find.1.html|title=find(1) – Linux manual page|website=man7.org|access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref>

The possible search criteria include a [[pattern matching|pattern]] to match against the [[filename]] or a time range to match against the modification time or access time of the file. By default, <code>find</code> returns a list of all files below the current [[working directory]], although users can limit the search to any desired maximum number of levels under the starting directory.

The related <code>[[locate (Unix)|locate]]</code> programs use a database of indexed files obtained through <code>find</code> (updated at regular intervals, typically by <code>[[cron]]</code> job) to provide a faster method of searching the entire file system for files by name.