find (Windows)

In computing, find is a command in the command-line interpreters (shells) of a number of operating systems. It is used to search for a specific text string in a file or files. The command sends the specified lines to the standard output device.[1][2]

find
Developer(s)Microsoft, IBM, DR, Datalight, Novell, Jim Hall, ReactOS Contributors
Initial releaseMarch 1983 (1983-03)
Written inMS-DOS: x86 assembly language
FreeDOS, ReactOS: C
Operating systemMS-DOS, PC DOS, FlexOS, SISNE plus, DR DOS, ROM-DOS, FreeDOS, 4690 OS, Windows, OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS, ReactOS
PlatformCross-platform
TypeCommand
LicenseMS-DOS: MIT
FreeDOS, ReactOS: GPLv2+

Overview

The find command is a filter to find lines in the input data stream that contain or don't contain a specified string and send these to the output data stream. It does not support wildcard characters.[3]

The command is available in DOS,[4] Digital Research FlexOS,[5] IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS,[6] IBM OS/2,[7] Microsoft Windows,[8] and ReactOS.[9] On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 2 and later.[10] DR DOS 6.0[11] and Datalight ROM-DOS[12] include an implementation of the find command. The FreeDOS version was developed by Jim Hall and is licensed under the GPL.[13]

The Unix command find performs an entirely different function, analogous to forfiles on Windows. The rough equivalent to the Windows find is the Unix grep.[14]

Syntax

 
FIND [/V] [/C] [/N] [/I] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[...]]

Arguments:

  • "string" This command-line argument specifies the text string to find.
  • [drive:][path]filename Specifies a file or files in which to search the specified string.

Flags:

  • /V Displays all lines NOT containing the specified string.
  • /C Displays only the count of lines containing the string.
  • /N Displays line numbers with the displayed lines.
  • /I Ignores the case of characters when searching for the string.

Note: If a pathname is not specified, FIND searches the text typed at the prompt or piped from another command.

Examples

 
C:\>find "keyword" < inputfilename > outputfilename

C:\>find /V "any string" FileName

See also
  • Findstr, Windows and ReactOS command-line tool to search for patterns of text in files.
  • find (Unix), a Unix command that finds files by attribute, very different from Windows find
  • grep, a Unix command that finds text matching a pattern, similar to Windows find
  • forfiles, a Windows command that finds files by attribute, similar to Unix find
  • Regular expression
  • List of DOS commands

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. "Find - Search for text - Windows CMD - SS64.com". ss64.com.
  4. Jamsa, Kris A. (1993), DOS: The Complete Reference, Osborne McGraw-Hill, p. 206, ISBN 0078819040.
  5. "FlexOS User's Guide" (PDF). www.bitsavers.org. 1986. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-09-25. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  6. "Users guide". archive.org. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  7. "JaTomes Help - OS/2 Commands". Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
  8. "Find". Archived from the original on 2017-08-26. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
  9. "reactos/reactos". GitHub. 3 January 2022.
  10. Wolverton, Van (2003). Running MS-DOS Version 6.22 (20th Anniversary Edition), 6th Revised edition. Microsoft Press. ISBN 0-7356-1812-7.
  11. DR DOS 6.0 User Guide Optimisation and Configuration Tips
  12. "Datalight ROM-DOS User's Guide" (PDF). www.datalight.com.
  13. "ibiblio.org FreeDOS Package -- find (FreeDOS Base)". www.ibiblio.org.
  14. "Equivalent of UNIX Grep command in Dos/Windows". January 26, 2009.

Further reading
  • Cooper, Jim (2001). Special Edition Using MS-DOS 6.22, Third Edition. Que Publishing. ISBN 978-0789725738.
  • Kathy Ivens; Brian Proffit (1993). OS/2 Inside & Out. Osborne McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0078818714.
  • Frisch, Æleen (2001). Windows 2000 Commands Pocket Reference. O'Reilly. ISBN 978-0-596-00148-3.
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Guide to Windows Commands
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