FIND2PERL(1)

📦
version 1.005 · 3 versions
, in fedora 43

💖 FIND2PERL — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because we're talking about find2perl from the User Contributed Perl Documentation section (that's section 1, the user commands one, iykyk) 💅

✨ NAME ✨

find2perl — the girl who translates your find command lines into straight-up Perl code 🔥

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

find2perl [paths] [predicates] | perl

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so find2perl is literally just a tiny little translator, no cap 💖 It takes find command lines and turns them into equivalent Perl code. And the tea? The code it spits out is typically faster than running find itself. periodt. 🏃♀️💨

paths are a set of paths where find2perl will start its searches, and predicates are taken from the following list 👇

  • ! PREDICATE — negates the vibe of the predicate that comes next. The ! must be passed as a distinct argument, so you may need to surround it with whitespace and/or quote it from interpretation by the shell using a backslash (just as with using find(1)). 🙈
  • ( PREDICATES ) — groups the given PREDICATES together, like a little friendship circle 🫶 The parentheses must be passed as distinct arguments, so they may need to be surrounded by whitespace and/or quoted from interpretation by the shell using a backslash (just as with using find(1)).
  • PREDICATE1 PREDICATE2 — true if both PREDICATE1 and PREDICATE2 are true; PREDICATE2 is not evaluated if PREDICATE1 is false. it's giving "if you can't come through on the first one, don't even bother with the second" 💀
  • PREDICATE1 -o PREDICATE2 — true if either one of PREDICATE1 or PREDICATE2 is true; PREDICATE2 is not evaluated if PREDICATE1 is true. main character gets there first, second one doesn't even get screen time 👑
  • -follow — follow (dereference) symlinks. 🧚 The checking of file attributes depends on the position of the -follow option. If it precedes the file check option, an stat is done, which means the file check applies to the file the symbolic link is pointing to. If -follow follows the file check option, this now applies to the symbolic link itself, i.e. an lstat is done. order matters bestie, don't play with it ⚠️
  • -depth — change directory traversal algorithm from breadth-first to depth-first. 🌊 going deep instead of going wide, we love a vibe shift
  • -prune — do not descend into the directory currently matched. it said "not today", and it meant it ✋
  • -xdev — do not traverse mount points (prunes search at mount-point directories). staying in your own lane fr fr 🚧
  • -name GLOB — file name matches the specified GLOB wildcard pattern. GLOB may need to be quoted to avoid interpretation by the shell (just as with using find(1)). 🌸
  • -iname GLOB — like -name, but the match is case insensitive. lowercase, uppercase, idc, we're matching either way 💅
  • -path GLOB — path name matches the specified GLOB wildcard pattern. 🛤️
  • -ipath GLOB — like -path, but the match is case insensitive. 🦋
  • -perm PERM — low-order 9 bits of permission match octal value PERM. 🔐
  • -perm -PERM — the bits specified in PERM are all set in the file's permissions. every single one, no exceptions, we're thorough 💖
  • -type X — the file's type matches perl's -X operator. 🎯
  • -fstype TYPE — filesystem of current path is of type TYPE (only NFS/non-NFS distinction is implemented). that's the whole menu, bestie, just those two 🍓
  • -user USER — true if USER is the owner of the file. 👤
  • -group GROUP — true if the file's group is GROUP. 👥
  • -nouser — true if the file's owner is not in the password database. ghost owner energy 👻
  • -nogroup — true if the file's group is not in the group database. 👻
  • -inum INUM — true if the file's inode number is INUM. 🔢
  • -links N — true if the (hard) link count of the file matches N (see below). 🔗
  • -size N — true if the file's size matches N (see below). N is normally counted in 512-byte blocks, but a suffix of c specifies that size should be counted in characters (bytes) and a suffix of k specifies that size should be counted in 1024-byte blocks. 📏
  • -atime N — true if the last-access time of the file matches N (measured in days) (see below). ⏰
  • -ctime N — true if the last-changed time of the file's inode matches N (measured in days, see below). 🕰️
  • -mtime N — true if the last-modified time of the file matches N (measured in days, see below). 📆
  • -newer FILE — true if the last-modified time of the file matches N. 🆕
  • -print — print out the path of the file (always true). 💬 If none of -exec, -ls, -print0, or -ok is specified, then -print will be added implicitly. it's the default bestie, it just shows up 🫶
  • -print0 — like -print, but terminates with \0 instead of \n. null-terminated, because newlines in filenames are a menace 😭
  • -exec OPTIONS ; — exec() the arguments in OPTIONS in a subprocess; any occurrence of {} in OPTIONS will first be substituted with the path of the current file. Note that the command rm has been special-cased to use perl's unlink() function instead (as an optimization). The ; must be passed as a distinct argument, so it may need to be surrounded by whitespace and/or quoted from interpretation by the shell using a backslash (just as with using find(1)). 🏃♀️
  • -ok OPTIONS ; — like -exec, but first prompts the user; if the user's response does not begin with a y, skip the exec. consent first, always 🫶 The ; must be passed as a distinct argument, so it may need to be surrounded by whitespace and/or quoted from interpretation by the shell using a backslash (just as with using find(1)).
  • -eval EXPR — has the perl script eval() the EXPR. 🪄
  • -ls — simulates -exec ls -dils {} ;. 📋
  • -tar FILE — adds current output to tar-format FILE. 📦
  • -cpio FILE — adds current output to old-style cpio-format FILE. 🗃️
  • -ncpio FILE — adds current output to "new"-style cpio-format FILE. 🗂️

🔢 the N forms, because numbers have three moods 🔢

Predicates which take a numeric argument N can come in three forms:

  • N is prefixed with a +: match values greater than N 📈
  • N is prefixed with a -: match values less than N 📉
  • N is not prefixed with either + or -: match only values equal to N 🎯

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

find, File::Find. go read those too, they're iconic 💜

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was documented for perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-07-25, and honestly? slay. 💅✨ stay hydrated, quote your globs, and never let the shell eat your semicolons 🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from