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Re: -exec on find(1) broken


Those ideas don't work either....

   /i/mp3.$ find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo '\;' | more
   find: missing argument to `-exec'

while

   /i/mp3.$ find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo ';' | more
   /i/mp3.$ find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo \; | more

both produces many empty lines as if there is NO argument being passed. The main purpose is to replace /bin/echo with /bin/rm when I get the argument figured out. I think -exec is really broken. If you can get a working example, let me know.

-paul




Gary Johnson wrote:
On 2007-10-09, Paul McFerrin wrote:
I think I'm going nuts. What am I doing wrong? Can't seem to get -exec to work.

/i/mp3.$ find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo \{\;\} | more
find: missing argument to `-exec'
/i/mp3.$ find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo \{\} | more find: missing argument to `-exec'
/i/mp3.$ find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo '\;' | more
find: missing argument to `-exec'
/i/mp3.$ find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo \{;\} | more
find: missing argument to `-exec'
/i/mp3.$ find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec echo '\;' | more
find: missing argument to `-exec'


There is NO missing argument to -exec. What gives? Is it really broken or do I not understand the manual page correctly?

You're putting too many quotes around the semicolon. Use


\;

or

';'

but not both. For example,

find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo \; | more

If you want to echo the name of each file found, use {} like this:

find . -type f -mtime +18 -exec /bin/echo {} \; | more

However, if that's all you want to do, the -exec isn't necessary--just use -print:

find . -type f -mtime +18 -print | more

In modern implementations of find, such as Cygwin's, the -print usually isn't necessary either, so you could get by with just this:

find . -type f -mtime +18 | more

Also, please don't start new threads by replying to other posts--it messes up threading. Send mail directly to the list instead.

Regards,
Gary

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