Find (Windows)
Shell command that finds text in files
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
find is a shell command that searches for text in files and prints matching lines to standard output.[1][2]
FreeDOS, ReactOS: C
| find | |
|---|---|
The ReactOS find command | |
| Developers | Microsoft, IBM, DR, Datalight, Novell, Jim Hall, ReactOS Contributors |
| Initial release | March 1983 |
| Written in | MS-DOS: x86 assembly language FreeDOS, ReactOS: C |
| Operating system | MS-DOS, PC DOS, FlexOS, SISNE plus, DR DOS, ROM-DOS, FreeDOS, 4690 OS, Windows, OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS, ReactOS |
| Platform | Cross-platform |
| Type | Command |
| License | MS-DOS: MIT FreeDOS, ReactOS: GPLv2+ |
The command is available in DOS,[3] Digital Research FlexOS,[4] IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS,[5] IBM OS/2,[6] Windows,[7] and ReactOS.[8] On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 2 and later.[9] DR DOS 6.0[10] and Datalight ROM-DOS[11] include an implementation of the find command. The FreeDOS version was developed by Jim Hall and is licensed under the GPL.[12]
Notably, the same-named Unix-based command performs an entirely different function – searching the file system for matching files. This functionality is provided by the forfiles command in an environment with the command of this article. The Unix-based grep command provides a function similar to the command of this article.[13]
Use
The command syntax can be described as:
find [/v] [/c] [/n] [/i] "TEXT" [PATH...]
"TEXT"- Text to find. Must be enclosed in quotes. Notably, matching does not support wildcard characters.[14]
PATH- File system path to a file. If none specified, the command searches the text from standard input.
/v- Display lines not containing the text.
/c- Display only the count of matching lines.
/n- Display line numbers with matching lines.
/i- Ignore the case of characters when searching.
Examples
The following command searches file "Foo" for lines that contain "Important" and prints results to standard output.
C:\>find "Important" Foo
See also
- List of DOS commands
- Regular expression – Sequence of characters that forms a search pattern
