"Find" command

curious+cat · 12-02-2005, 08:05 AM

Hello all,
I'm trying to edit a script that is running on AIX 5.1, that goes below :

Code:

files=". .bashrc .bash_login .bash_logout .bash_profile .cshdirs .cshrc .custom.cshrc .custom.kshrc .custom.login .custom.profile .dmrc .first_start_kde .forward .gconf .gconfd .gnome .gnome_private .gnome2 .gnome2_private kde .kde .kde/Autostart .kderc .login .logout .nodes .profile .qt .qt/qtrc .tcsh
rc .vnc .vnc/passwd .vnc/xstartup .Xauthority .xdefaults .xresources .xstartup .x screensaver .xsession .zshenv .zshrc .zlogin .zlogout"

 illegal="`eval find $files -prune '\(' ! -user $user -a ! -user root '\)' \
                -o '\(' ! -group $group -a ! -group root -a -perm -020 '\)' \
                -o $perm 2>/dev/null`"
    if [ -n "$illegal" ]; then
        log "<warn> rule 2600: files with illegal owner or permission found for "
 \
            "user $user: "$illegal"."
        if [ "$enforce" = "1" ]; then
            for fi in $illegal; do
                debug "Change permissions file $fi to $mode."
                chmod "$mode" "$fi"
                debug "Mode change status: $?."
            done
        fi
    fi

The 'find' command unfortunately do not work in AIX, because it was trying to get output from 'files' and it was more than one filename in there. The error I got was :

find: 0652-009 There is a missing conjunction

Any idea how I can fix the scripts so the find command can work with multiple files?

Thanks in advance.

- Suze

MensaWater · 12-02-2005, 08:17 AM

I'd be really surprised if "find" didn't work in AIX. It is one of the basic tools of Unix/Linux.

Anyway usually "missing conjunction" is just a cute way to tell you to put your search pattern in quotes:

find / -name *suze* = Missing conjuntion (not just on AIX)

find / -name "*suze*" = Any file with suze embedded in its name.

I've never figured out exactly what makes find complain about missing conjunction but long ago figured out the quotes told it to shut up about it. It has to do with the metacharacters but on occasion find blithely does the search without the quotes so go figure.

Memories of Scholastic Rock:

Conjuntion junction what's your function....

curious+cat · 12-02-2005, 08:21 AM

Hi

Thanks for replying!

Yes, find does work in AIX but usually when I try to find a file (for example, .bashrc) , I do the following :

find /dir -name .bashrc - print

but since in the script it was taking the filename(s) from the variable $files (which has more than 1 filename in it, many files infact), it failed. Hopefully anyone out there might know a
way how I can get find to find multiple files at one go?

Sorry if I wasnt clear before!

Suze

MensaWater · 12-02-2005, 08:59 AM

Well you could use the "-o" flag for or:

find / -name .bashrc -o -name .bash (etc...)

But that would be fairly unwieldy. If it were me I'd just pipe find through egrep:

find / |egrep ".bash|.login|..." - In egrep the pipe sign (|) means "or" - you have to encapsulae the list in quotes. (You only need .bash - not .bashrc as .bash will match both.

If your list needs to be unique you can look at what find / gives you then insure the pattern you put in the quotes is unique e.g.
".bash$|.bashrc$|..."

The $ tells it to find those names at the end of a line so it won't mach anything that's just embedded in another file name.

Note that in the above the elipses (...) mean add more patterns - you don't actually type the elipses but rather the addtional patterns.

curious+cat · 12-05-2005, 07:48 AM

Thanks for your reply J! I find it very useful, that's a nice trick of 'find' command.

I was just wondering..I couldnt figure out yet if I can use the 'find' command to somehow get the filenames from the variable files in the script below :

Code:

files=". .bashrc .bash_login .bash_logout .bash_profile .cshdirs .cshrc .custom.cshrc .custom.kshrc .custom.login .custom.profile .dmrc .first_start_kde .forward .gconf .gconfd .gnome .gnome_private .gnome2 .gnome2_private kde .kde .kde/Autostart .kderc .login .logout .nodes .profile .qt .qt/qtrc .tcsh
rc .vnc .vnc/passwd .vnc/xstartup .Xauthority .xdefaults .xresources .xstartup .x screensaver .xsession .zshenv .zshrc .zlogin .zlogout"

 illegal="`eval find $files -prune '\(' ! -user $user -a ! -user root '\)' \
                -o '\(' ! -group $group -a ! -group root -a -perm -020 '\)' \
                -o $perm 2>/dev/null`"
    if [ -n "$illegal" ]; then
        log "<warn> rule 2600: files with illegal owner or permission found for "
 \
            "user $user: "$illegal"."
        if [ "$enforce" = "1" ]; then
            for fi in $illegal; do
                debug "Change permissions file $fi to $mode."
                chmod "$mode" "$fi"
                debug "Mode change status: $?."
            done
        fi
    fi

I tried using find / |egrep $files bla bla but it didnt work

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

MensaWater · 12-05-2005, 08:19 AM

curious+cat · 12-05-2005, 08:37 AM

Thanks for the reply! Much clearer now, you are very kind.

This works :

find . | egrep ".bashrc|.bash_login"

But I dont know how to use them with -prune

I tried this :

find . | egrep ".bashrc|.bash_login" -prune

But it says :

egrep: 0652-033 Cannot open -prune.

I am hopeless..help!

Thanks again.

MensaWater · 12-05-2005, 08:51 AM

-prune is an argument to find not to grep or egrep. Since you piped your find into egrep you can't put -prune at the end because it thinks you're giving it as an argument to egrep at that point.