Hello Every one, am a new bie to linux.

I need an explanation on this:

file / --user harry -exec cp -rfp {} /mkdir/file \;

Thanks.

I think you put "file" where you should have put "find". And "--user" where you meant "-user".

Yes...sorry

It should be "find / -user harry -exec cp -rfp {} /mkdir/file \;

My question is i dont understand the exec option as well as the {} and the \ at the end,
and why is there ; to the end.

Thanks

Hi

exec option is an execute instruction

{} is a placeholder for the file that was found

\; is the end of the command

basically find a file when file is found copy the file

rgs

The breakdown of that command is:

Find all files in "/" (and all of its subdirectories, aka: the entire filesystem) that belong to the user "harry". Each file that is found should be "cp -rfp"d to /mkdir/file.

So if three files are found:
/path/to/file1
/path/to/file2
/path/to/file3

Then three commands will be executed:
cp -rfp /path/to/file1 /mkdir/file
cp -rfp /path/to/file2 /mkdir/file
cp -rfp /path/to/file3 /mkdir/file

"{}" is just a shortcut telling exec "put the matching filename here". "\;" is the end of the exec command.

/mkdir/file is a VERY weird name for a directory though, are you sure that's right?

There's a website where you can get an explanation of long and/or complex commands:

http://explainshell.com/