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GNU Info (find.info)find Expressions`find' Expressions ================== The expression that `find' uses to select files consists of one or more "primaries", each of which is a separate command line argument to `find'. `find' evaluates the expression each time it processes a file. An expression can contain any of the following types of primaries: "options" affect overall operation rather than the processing of a specific file; "tests" return a true or false value, depending on the file's attributes; "actions" have side effects and return a true or false value; and "operators" connect the other arguments and affect when and whether they are evaluated. You can omit the operator between two primaries; it defaults to `-and'. Note: Combining Primaries With Operators, for ways to connect primaries into more complex expressions. If the expression contains no actions other than `-prune', `-print' is performed on all files for which the entire expression is true (Note: Print File Name). Options take effect immediately, rather than being evaluated for each file when their place in the expression is reached. Therefore, for clarity, it is best to place them at the beginning of the expression. Many of the primaries take arguments, which immediately follow them in the next command line argument to `find'. Some arguments are file names, patterns, or other strings; others are numbers. Numeric arguments can be specified as `+N' for greater than N, `-N' for less than N, `N' for exactly N. automatically generated by info2www version 1.2.2.9 |