Linux Script Question

bashhh · 03-20-2006, 01:48 PM

I need to know the difference between the two commands bellow and what exactly they doing.

find ~ -type f -exec grep -l $1 {} \;

find $HOME -type f -exec grep -l $1 {} \;

Thank you very much

ckoniecny · 03-20-2006, 01:51 PM

Well $HOME is a variable, it can be changed where "~" cannot be changed. I would use the "~" command over the $HOME because $HOME can be changed and cause problems in the future.

bashhh · 03-20-2006, 01:52 PM

What is the purpose of -l.
Can u explain the whole function of the command step by step?
Thank you.-

ckoniecny · 03-20-2006, 01:58 PM

If you do a "man grep" you will see what the options for "grep" does. The "l" option lists found items like below.

"-type f" = regular file
"-exec grep -l cpp {} \;" = this basically says, if find finds any files, look inside of the file for the string "cpp" and list them.

(%:~)- find ~ -type f -exec grep -l cpp {} \;
/home/test/C++/Makefile
/home/test/C++/pointer

If you have a question on what a option does for a command, just type "man command".