Find command to search wildcard in path?

markdjones82 · 12-08-2009, 12:04 PM

All,
I need a command to search for any file in a directory like so:

/home/*/upload/* and then change permissions any file in that directory.

Find doesn't seem to match what I need. Any help?

rweaver · 12-08-2009, 12:16 PM

You sure find doesn't work...

Code:

find /home/*/upload/* -type f -exec chmod 700 {} \;

If that doesn't work perhaps explain why and I can revise it or find another solution.

markdjones82 · 12-08-2009, 12:18 PM

You can't put wild cards in find's path. I could probably do a bash script, but I am drawing a blank.

Even a while loop with something like echo /home/path/*/upload to a variable would work and then running chmod 755 $variable/*

Valery Reznic · 12-09-2009, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markdjones82

You can't put wild cards in find's path. I could probably do a bash script, but I am drawing a blank.

Even a while loop with something like echo /home/path/*/upload to a variable would work and then running chmod 755 $variable/*

What about

Code:

find /home -type d -name upload -exec chmod 700 \{\}/* \;

ghostdog74 · 12-09-2009, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markdjones82

You can't put wild cards in find's path.

yes you can. what OS platform are you on.

i92guboj · 12-10-2009, 05:35 AM

Completely ignore this post, I missed the point.

rweaver · 12-10-2009, 08:55 AM

Funny the find worked perfectly for me when I tested it against...

/home/*/Maildir/* (with a -print instead of -exec) *shrug*

Did you actually try it with the wildcards or are you assuming?

i92guboj · 12-10-2009, 09:13 AM

Interestingly enough, it works with paths but not files names (i.e. for -iname * or -name *). So you are right, I just got confused or so it seems.

Sorry for the disruption.

Valery Reznic · 12-10-2009, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by i92guboj

Interestingly enough, it works with paths but not files names (i.e. for -iname * or -name *). So you are right, I just got confused or so it seems.

Sorry for the disruption.

When you use it as -iname * (and your CURRENT DIRECTORY is not empty) shell will expand * to the list of all files in the directory, so you (most likely) get syntax error, like if you write

Code:

find ... -name a.c b.c c.o

But if no expansions happened or if multiple arguments correct from the find POV of view, it will work.

Talking about * expansions.
Some time ago I tried to move my c files to the other directory.
I intended to write

Code:

mv *.c some_dir

But by mistake typed only

Code:

mv *.c

And to my bad luck I had only two c files !
So after expansions command looked like

Code:

mv file1.c file2.c

And mv was happy to overwrite my file2.c

If I had more than two files, than command would be

Code:

[prompt]$ mv file1.c file.2 file.3c
mv: target `file3.c' is not a directory

But as I already said - bad luck.

catkin · 12-10-2009, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdog74

yes you can. what OS platform are you on.

The -path test provides that functionality but it may not be needed because the shell will expand /home/*/upload/* before calling find.

Surprisingly (I was surprised) the path [path ...] part of find's syntax does not have to comprise directories:

Code:

c:~/d$ cd /tmp
c:/tmp$ touch foo
c:/tmp$ find foo
foo

chrism01 · 12-10-2009, 06:32 PM

the -name option can have wildcards in single quotes eg

-name '*.dat'

so it (*) gets interpreted by the find cmd, not the current shell

catkin · 12-11-2009, 12:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrism01

the -name option can have wildcards in single quotes eg

-name '*.dat'

so it (*) gets interpreted by the find cmd, not the current shell

Thanks chrism01 but as I understand the OP (/home/*/upload/* and then change permissions any file in that directory) it is directories that are to be wildcarded.

chrism01 · 12-11-2009, 01:02 AM

Yeah, I should have pointed out that was a response to post #8