Process each directory's contents before the directory itself. Also implied by -delete.

Synonym for -depth, for compatibility with FreeBSD, NetBSD, macOS, and OpenBSD.

Ignore files on other filesystems/devices.

Don't descend into directories on other devices.

Disable the hard-link-count optimisation. Required for CD-ROM, MS-DOS, and AFS filesystems.

Suppress errors when a file disappears between readdir(3) and stat(2).

Turn off -ignore_readdir_race.

Read NUL-separated starting points from a file instead of the command line. Use '-' for stdin.

Follow symlinks only for command-line arguments; otherwise use link properties. Must appear before the search path.

Always follow symbolic links. Implies -noleaf. Must appear before the search path.

Never follow symbolic links (default). Must appear before the search path.

Measure times from the beginning of today rather than 24 h ago. Affects -amin, -atime, -cmin, -ctime, -mmin, -mtime.

Sets the regex dialect for -regex and -iregex tests that follow on the command line.

Deprecated — use -L instead. Dereferences symbolic links from the point it appears onward. Implies -noleaf.

Enable command-line usage warnings (default when stdin is a tty).

Suppress command-line usage warnings.

Base filename matches the shell pattern. Wrap in quotes to prevent shell globbing.

Like -name but case-insensitive.

Full file path matches a shell pattern. '/' and '.' are not treated specially.

Like -path but case-insensitive.

Alias for -path. Less portable.

Alias for -ipath. Less portable.

Full path matches a regular expression. Uses Emacs-style regex by default; change with -regextype.

Like -regex but case-insensitive.

Multiple types can be combined as a comma-separated list (GNU extension), e.g. f,l.

Like -type but checks through symlinks (or the link itself when -L is active).

Units: b=512-byte blocks (default), c=bytes, w=2-byte words, k=KiB, M=MiB, G=GiB. Prefix + = greater than, - = less than.

True if the file is empty and is either a regular file or a directory.

Data modified less than (-n), more than (+n), or exactly (n) n×24 hours ago.

Data last modified less than, more than, or exactly n minutes ago.

Last accessed less than, more than, or exactly n×24 hours ago.

Last accessed less than, more than, or exactly n minutes ago.

Inode status last changed less than, more than, or exactly n×24 hours ago.

Inode status last changed less than, more than, or exactly n minutes ago.

True if this file's modification time is more recent than the reference file's.

True if this file's access time is more recent than the reference file's modification time.

True if this file's inode-change time is more recent than the reference file's modification time.

Compare timestamp X of current file against timestamp Y of reference. Replace XY with letter pairs: a=access, B=birth, c=inode-change, m=modification, t=interpret reference as a time string. E.g. '-newermt 2024-01-01'.

File was last accessed less than, more than, or exactly n days after its inode status was last changed.

File is owned by the named user (name or numeric UID).

File's numeric user ID is less than (+n), more than (-n), or exactly n.

True if no user in /etc/passwd corresponds to the file's numeric UID.

File belongs to the named group (name or numeric GID).

File's numeric group ID is less than, more than, or exactly n.

True if no group in /etc/group corresponds to the file's numeric GID.

Mode can be exact octal (644), exact symbolic (g=w), minimum-bits (-664 or -g+w), or any-bits (/222 or /u+w).

Matches files readable by the current user (honours ACLs; uses access(2)).

Matches files writable by the current user (honours ACLs; uses access(2)).

Matches executable files or searchable directories for the current user (honours ACLs; uses access(2)).

File has fewer, more, or exactly n hard links.

File has this inode number. Prefer -samefile when possible.

True if the file refers to the same inode as the named file.

True if the file is a symlink whose contents match the shell pattern.

Like -lname but case-insensitive.

File is on a filesystem of this type. Use -printf %F to discover type names.

Always evaluates to true. Useful for side-effect-only expressions.

Always evaluates to false.

(SELinux only) Security context of the file matches the glob pattern.

Print the full file name followed by a newline. This is the default action.

Print the full file name followed by a NUL character. Safe for filenames with spaces or newlines. Pair with xargs -0.

Print a format string to stdout. Supports %-directives (%p=path, %f=basename, %s=size, %m=mode octal, %M=mode symbolic, %u=user, %g=group, %t=mtime, %y=type…) and \-escapes. No trailing newline added.

List matched files in ls -dils format on stdout (1 KiB blocks unless POSIXLY_CORRECT is set).

Like -print but write to the named file (created or truncated). File is always created even if no match.

Like -print0 but write to the named file.

Like -printf but write to a file. First argument is the file path, second is the format string.

Like -ls but write to the named file.

Run on every result. {} is the file placeholder. Terminate with \; (once per file) or {} + (batch, like xargs). Runs from the starting directory.

Like -exec but the command runs from the file's own directory. Much more secure; avoids path-resolution races.

Like -exec but prompts the user before each invocation. Responds to yes/no.

Like -execdir but prompts the user before each invocation.

Deletes matched files or empty directories. Implies -depth. Cannot usefully combine with -prune. Use with extreme care.

If the matched file is a directory, don't descend into it. Has no effect when -depth is in use.

Exit immediately with status 0 after the first match (pending -exec … {} + lines are still flushed first).