

FIND                           03/03/78                          FIND 


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) 
       +      anchored closure (one 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 
       +         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 (@! @- @@ @]) 


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       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:
       
       @f        formfeed
       @l        linefeed
       @n        newline 
       @r        carriage return
       @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.

BUGS
       An expression may not start with a minus sign(-).
       
       A very complex escape scheme must be used  when  not  operating
       inside  the shell on BKY.  This is because BKY only accepts the
       CDC character set in command arguments (see /*/doc/guide).











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