NAME

find - search a file for text patterns


SYNOPSIS


find
[-acx] expr [expr ...]


DESCRIPTION


find
searches the standard input file for lines matching the text patterns
"expr" (up to 9 patterns may be specified) according to the matching
criterion specified by the switches.  (A text pattern is a subset of a
"regular expression"--see the writeup on "ed" for a complete description
of regular expressions.)  Unless the -c option is specified, each matching
line is copied to the standard output.

By default, any line which matches any one of the expressions is considered
a matching line.  If the -a flag is specified, only lines which match all
expressions in any order are considered to match.  If the -x flag is
specified, all lines which don't satisfy the above criteria are considered
matching lines.  And finally, if the -c option is specified, matching
lines are counted instead of being copied to the standard output, and the
final count is written to the standard output.

A text pattern consists of the following elements:


c         literal character
?         any character except newline
%         beginning of line
$         end of line (null string before newline)
[...]     character class (any one of these characters)
[!...]    negated character class (all but these characters)
*         closure (zero or more occurrences of previous pattern)
@c        escaped character (e.g., @%, @[, @*)


Any special meaning of characters in a text pattern is lost when
escaped, inside [...], or for:


%         not at beginning
$         not at end
*         at beginning


A character class consists of zero or more of the following
elements, surrounded by [ and ]:


c         literal character, including [
a-b       range of characters (digits, lower or upper case)
!         negated character class if at beginning
@c        escaped character (@! @- @@ @])


Special meaning of characters in a character class is lost when
escaped or for


!         not at beginning
-         at beginning or end


An escape sequence consists of the character @ followed by a single
character:


@n        newline
@t        tab
@c        c (including @@)


For a complete description, see "Software Tools" pages 135-154.
Care should be taken when using the characters % $ [ ] ! * @ and
any shell characters
in the text pattern. It is often necessary to enclose the
entire substitution pattern in quotes.


FILES

None


SEE ALSO

tr, ed, ch and the UNIX grep command.


DIAGNOSTICS

An error message is printed if one of the patterns given is illegal.


AUTHORS

Originally from Kernighan & Plauger's "Software Tools", with major
modifications by Joe Sventek (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory)