How to apply a complex selection of files (-o and -a).

find /usr/src -not \( -name "*,v" -o -name ".*,v" \) '{}' \; -print

This command will search in the /usr/src directory and all sub directories. All files that are of the form '*,v' and '.*,v' are excluded. Important arguments to note are:

* -not means the negation of the expression that follows
* \( means the start of a complex expression.
* \) means the end of a complex expression.
* -o means a logical or of a complex expression.
In this case the complex expression is all files like '*,v' or '.*,v'


How to search for a string in a selection of files (-exec grep ...).
find . -exec grep "www.athabasca" '{}' \; -print