[SOLVED] find command is not working

postiwala · 09-11-2006, 03:49 AM

Hi all,
I am trying to run a commnd

find ./ -name *.xml

sometimes this command works fine and sometimes it gives error and says
find: paths must precede expression
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path...] [expression]

I am not able to understand the inconsitent behaviour.

my sole purpose is to run this commnad is to search *.xml in subdirectories and display it.

Thanks.

w3bd3vil · 09-11-2006, 03:50 AM

either use a .(dot) or a slash, why do you want to use both

find / -name *.xml

find . -name *.xml

pwc101 · 09-11-2006, 03:51 AM

try

find ./ -name "*.xml"

the quotes seem to make it work for me.

pwc101 · 09-11-2006, 03:56 AM

as an aside, w3bd3vil, ./ and . are synonymous, whereas / is the root directory. doing

Code:

find ./ -name some_file

and

Code:

file . -name some_file

will, as far as I know, generate the same results. so . and ./ are both the current directory.

zulfilee · 09-11-2006, 04:00 AM

For wildcard and case insensitive search use iname

fine . -iname "*.xml"

Tinkster · 09-11-2006, 05:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwc101

try

find ./ -name "*.xml"

the quotes seem to make it work for me.

And it's worth elaborating on that!

The reason is that *.xml (w/o quotes) gets globbed
by the shell before find gets the string. Therefore,
if there's a file with that extension in that directory
find will search for this one file (which is quite unlikely
to be the intention).

So, if there's ONE file with that extension, find will find
that one file. If there's more than one, find will fail, because
only the first returned glob will be used as a name -
the others are garbage to find:

Code:

find: paths must precede expression
Usage: find [path...] [expression]

is what you'll see.

Cheers,
Tink

pwc101 · 09-11-2006, 05:42 AM

i did wonder why it needed the quotes; every day's a school day!

Tinkster · 09-11-2006, 01:25 PM

Indeed. Using Unix-like Operating Systems is much like brain-gym. I still
learn new things every day :} ... one of the reasons that I love it so much ;}

Cheers,
Tink