Hence the -maxdepth 3 param: # time find / -maxdepth 3 -perm -7 -type d -print /tmp /var/tmp real 0m0.034s user 0m0.005s sys 0m0.028s T

Hence the -maxdepth 3 param: # time find / -maxdepth 3 -perm -7 -type d -print /tmp /var/tmp real 0m0.034s user 0m0.005s sys 0m0.028s This was run on a pretty anemic VPS. Might have to up the depth to 4 if it doesn't return anything, but IMO that's pretty unlikely.