If you are using the find command from the root directory and your system is mounting services from remote servers, like a customer database or applications server, these remote servers will be searched for your requested file. Therefore, the search can take a very long time. Errors may also be returned as well for every file on the remote system. In order to reduce the search, you can restrict the search to directories that are local to your system or to one directory at a time.

To avoid searching remote mounted directories, use the -mount option.

Note: A remote mounted directory is a directory on another machine on the network that is available for use locally.

The first search finds the following :

$ find / -name dist
find: cannot read dir /var/spool / lp: Permission denied
find: cannot read dir /usr/ase: Permission denied
/usr/dist
find: cannot read dir /usr/dist/lost + found: Permission denied
find: cannot read dir /usr/dist/nsr/cores: Permission denied
Some files were found that matched the criteria.

The following search uses the -mount option. It does not locate dist this time because dist is in a mounted directory and the -mount option blocked the search from the mounted file system.

$ find / -name dist -mount
find: cannot read dir /var/spool / lp: Permission denied
find: cannot read dir /usr/ase: Permission denied
find: cannot read dir /opt/ENSsa: Permission denied
find: cannot read dir /export/home/chuck/ .fm: Permission denied