find: Introduction

1 
1 1 Introduction
1 **************
1 
1 This manual shows how to find files that meet criteria you specify, and
1 how to perform various actions on the files that you find.  The
1 principal programs that you use to perform these tasks are 'find',
1 'locate', and 'xargs'.  Some of the examples in this manual use
1 capabilities specific to the GNU versions of those programs.
1 
1    GNU 'find' was originally written by Eric Decker, with enhancements
1 by David MacKenzie, Jay Plett, and Tim Wood.  GNU 'xargs' was originally
1 written by Mike Rendell, with enhancements by David MacKenzie.  GNU
1 'locate' and its associated utilities were originally written by James
1 Woods, with enhancements by David MacKenzie.  The idea for 'find
1 -print0' and 'xargs -0' came from Dan Bernstein.  The current maintainer
1 of GNU findutils (and this manual) is James Youngman.  Many other people
1 have contributed bug fixes, small improvements, and helpful suggestions.
1 Thanks!
1 
1    To report a bug in GNU findutils, please use the form on the Savannah
1 web site at 'http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils'.  Reporting
1 bugs this way means that you will then be able to track progress in
1 fixing the problem.
1 
1    If you don't have web access, you can also just send mail to the
1 mailing list.  The mailing list <bug-findutils@gnu.org> carries
1 discussion of bugs in findutils, questions and answers about the
1 software and discussion of the development of the programs.  To join the
1 list, send email to <bug-findutils-request@gnu.org>.
1 
1    Please read any relevant sections of this manual before asking for
1 help on the mailing list.  You may also find it helpful to read the
1 NON-BUGS section of the 'find' manual page.
1 
1    If you ask for help on the mailing list, people will be able to help
1 you much more effectively if you include the following things:
1 
1    * The version of the software you are running.  You can find this out
1      by running 'locate --version'.
1    * What you were trying to do
1    * The _exact_ command line you used
1    * The _exact_ output you got (if this is very long, try to find a
1      smaller example which exhibits the same problem)
1    * The output you expected to get
1 
1    It may also be the case that the bug you are describing has already
1 been fixed, if it is a bug.  Please check the most recent findutils
1 releases at <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/findutils> and, if possible, the
1 development branch at <ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/findutils>.  If you take
1 the time to check that your bug still exists in current releases, this
1 will greatly help people who want to help you solve your problem.
1 Please also be aware that if you obtained findutils as part of the
1 GNU/Linux 'distribution', the distributions often lag seriously behind
1 findutils releases, even the stable release.  Please check the GNU FTP
1 site.
1 

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