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| Chapter 17 Finding Files with find |

## 17.7 The Times that find Finds

The times that go with the find operators -mtime, -atime, and -ctime (17.4) aren't documented very well. The times are in days:

- A number with no sign, for example, `3` (as in -mtime 3 or -atime 3), means the 24-hour period that ended exactly three days ago (in other words, between 96 and 72 hours ago).

- A number with a minus sign (`-`) refers to the period since that time. For example, `-3` (as in -mtime -3) is any time between now and three days ago (in other words, between 0 and 72 hours ago).

- Naturally, a number with a plus sign (`+`) refers to the 24-hour period before that time. For example, `+3` (as in -mtime +3) is any time more than three days ago (in other words, more than 96 hours ago).

Got that? Then you should see that -atime -2 and -atime 1 are both true on files that have been accessed between 48 and 24 hours ago. (-atime -2 is also true on files accessed 24 hours or less ago.)

For more exact comparisons, use find -newer with touch (17.8).

- JP

17.6 Be an Expert on find Search Operators |  | 17.8 Exact File Time Comparisons