Find (Windows)

Last updated
find
Developers Microsoft, IBM, DR, Datalight, Novell, Jim Hall, ReactOS Contributors
Initial releaseMarch 1983;42 years ago (1983-03)
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+

find is a shell command that searches for text in files and prints matching lines to standard output. [1] [2]

Contents

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

References

  1. Paterson, Tim (2013-12-19) [1983]. "Microsoft DOS V1.1 and V2.0: /msdos/v20source/FIND.ASM". Computer History Museum, Microsoft . Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  2. Shustek, Len (2014-03-24). "Microsoft MS-DOS early source code". Software Gems: The Computer History Museum Historical Source Code Series. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
  3. Jamsa, Kris A. (1993), DOS: The Complete Reference, Osborne McGraw-Hill, p. 206, ISBN   0078819040.
  4. "FlexOS User's Guide" (PDF). www.bitsavers.org. 1986. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-09-25. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  5. "Users guide". archive.org. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  6. "JaTomes Help - OS/2 Commands". Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  7. "Find". Archived from the original on 2017-08-26. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
  8. "reactos/reactos". GitHub. 3 January 2022.
  9. Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN   0-7356-1812-7.
  10. DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips
  11. "Datalight ROM-DOS User's Guide" (PDF). www.datalight.com.
  12. "ibiblio.org FreeDOS Package -- find (FreeDOS Base)". www.ibiblio.org.
  13. "Equivalent of UNIX Grep command in Dos/Windows". January 26, 2009.
  14. "Find - Search for text - Windows CMD - SS64.com". ss64.com.

Further reading