[SOLVED] what does paths must precede expression means?

sysmicuser · 04-22-2013, 07:25 AM

Code:

find . -type f -mmin +10 -print -not "crapfiles*" |grep SS

gives me an error

Code:

find: paths must precede expression
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path...] [expression]

What the heck is that !!!?

Well this stuff does works without any problem,

Code:

find . -type f -mmin +60 -print |grep SS

So Unix Gurus please tell me what is causing me the grief !!!

acid_kewpie · 04-22-2013, 07:35 AM

"crapfiles*" will be globbed by bash before execution. so the command will look somethign like:

find . -type f -mmin +10 -print -not crapfile1 crapfile2 crapfile3 |grep SS

so those file names get taken to be the path. change " to ' there.

sysmicuser · 04-22-2013, 07:44 AM

@acid_kewpie

sorry mate still it doesn't work. It still gives the same error. I know if I use grep it would certainly work but I do want to use -not clause only. I believe in innovation rather than repetition.

shivaa · 04-22-2013, 07:49 AM

Did you check manual of find (see here)? As per this manual:

Code:

! expr 
True if expr is false. This character will also usually need protection from interpretation by the shell. 

-not expr 
Same as ! expr, but not POSIX compliant.

So either try:

Code:

~$ find . -type f -mmin +10 -print | grep SS

OR

Code:

~$ find . -type f -mmin +10 -not "crapfiles*" | grep SS

sysmicuser · 04-22-2013, 07:56 AM

@shiva

The code you gave in "Or" is the exactly I am trying and having issues

did I missed something ?

linosaurusroot · 04-22-2013, 08:06 AM

"crapfiles*" is not preceded by "-name" as I think you intended. Because of this find is interpreting it as a pathname (to be considered along with ".") and should have come at the beginning of the arguments.

shivaa · 04-22-2013, 08:16 AM

I suppose you're getting error like:

Code:

find: path must procede expression:

The option -not is used to inverting the match, so there should come some expression after -not option like -name, -mtime etc. For example try:

Code:

~$ find . -type f -mmin +10 -not -name "crapfiles*" | grep SS

Which means find file/directories whose name doesn't contain "crapfiles".

sysmicuser · 04-22-2013, 04:29 PM

@shivaa

Thanks you ! I understood now. I gather my mistake was not having "-name" after "-not". AM i right?

sysmicuser · 04-22-2013, 04:33 PM

@shivaa

A quick question if I just want to print name of file without its full name any trick there?

say h1/h2/h3/abcd.txt I just want it to print abcd.txt -print is better but it print the whole path

chrism01 · 04-22-2013, 08:32 PM

AFAIK, 'find' doesn't have a built-in option for that, so pipe the results through basename http://linux.die.net/man/1/basename

sysmicuser · 04-22-2013, 09:32 PM

@chrism01

I could get that by using -printf "%f\n"

shivaa · 04-22-2013, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sysmicuser

I could get that by using -printf "%f\n"

As Chris said, basename is the command you need to truncate the file name only from it's absolute path. For example:

Code:

~$ basename /dirA/dirB/file1
file1

For more details, check it's manual page: http://linux.die.net/man/1/basename

sysmicuser · 04-22-2013, 10:42 PM

@shivaa basename can only work for a single file? i am having here multiple files but more than anything else if find has an inbuilt function why not to harness that?

Guys,

I am very close but still not that close

I have got all what I want except file's full path

I am doing a "cd" to a particular directory and then running a particular "find" command which is as follows:

Code:

find . -path \*/output/* -type f -not -name "A1*" -not -name "A2*" -not -name "A3*" -mmin +60 -print

Here i am getting the desired output but not getting the base directory where I did "cd" is there any quick and easy way to get that? else I am thinking of a for loop.

Please advise.

linosaurusroot · 04-22-2013, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sysmicuser

I have got all what I want except file's full path

I am doing a "cd" to a particular directory and then running a particular "find" command which is as follows:

Code:

find . -path \*/output/* -type f -not -name "A1*" -not -name "A2*" -not -name "A3*" -mmin +60 -print

Here i am getting the desired output but not getting the base directory where I did "cd"

Code:

find  /full/pathname/of/starting/directory  /or/multiple/directories  -path \*/output/* -type f -not -name "A1*" -not -name "A2*" -not -name "A3*" -mmin +60 -print

chrism01 · 04-22-2013, 11:20 PM

It appears you're right...

I did a quick(!) look through the man page, but missed that

In my defence, its a long page.
Mind you, I can't remember the last time I tried to get that anyway