What is the “-o” argument in find command?

I am currently running this command:

find . \( -type d -name .git -prune \) -o -type f -name "*"` on my macos shell.

I found the command in a Stack Overflow thread for another problem. I do not understand what -o argument is for.

I have looked into find’s man page and searched the web but could not find what is the argument for.

1 Answer

That `-o` means “or”.

As explained in the find man page:

The POSIX standard specifies parentheses '(', ')', negation '!' and the 'and' and 'or' operators ( -a, -o).

So -o is “or” and -a is and. Simple as that!

And FWIW, this ExplainShell page breaks down the whole command (somewhat) clearly.