[Chapter 17] 17.16 Searching by Owner and Group
Author: Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly & Mike Loukides
Date: 1998-08-04T21:38:30Z

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| Chapter 17 Finding Files with find |

## 17.16 Searching by Owner and Group

Often you need to look for a file belonging to a certain user or group. This is done with the -user and -group search operators. You often need to combine this with a search for particular permissions. To find all files that are set user ID (1.23) to root, use:

>     % find . -user root -perm -4000 -print

To find all files that are set group ID (1.23) to staff, use:

>     % find . -group staff -perm -2000 -print

Instead of using a name or group from /etc/passwd (36.3) or /etc/group (22.13), you can use the UID or GID number (38.3):

>     % find . -user 0 -perm -4000 -print
>     % find . -group 10 -perm -2000 -print

Often, when a user leaves a site, his account is deleted, but his files are still on the computer. Some versions of find have -nouser or -nogroup operators to find files with an unknown user or group ID.

- BB

17.15 Searching for Files by Permission |  | 17.17 Duplicating a Directory Tree (No Pathnames with find {} Operator)