Can find be restricted to the current directory

techie_san778 · 06-17-2016, 07:42 AM

Hello Friends,

The find searches recursively the required files.
But can it be made to search only the given path and not the sub-directories ?
For example, i want to search only in /home/san. I don't want to look up in the sub-directories under san.
Is there any workaround ?

TenTenths · 06-17-2016, 07:44 AM

Read the man page

Code:

man find

       -maxdepth levels
              Descend at most levels (a non-negative integer) levels of directories below the command line arguments.  -maxdepth 0
               means only apply the tests and actions to the command line arguments.

Habitual · 06-17-2016, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by techie_san778

Is there any workaround ?

"-maxdepth"? is not a "workaround".

Code:

find /home/san -maxdepth 1 -name <file>

Have a Great Day!

techie_san778 · 06-17-2016, 11:04 AM

Well guys, maxdepth is not POSIX compliant. I used the prune option but of no use :
$ find /home/san -name c++ -prune -ls
How should prune be used then ?

Habitual · 06-17-2016, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by techie_san778

Well guys, maxdepth is not POSIX compliant.

You really could save everyone their valuable time by posting your "requirements" up front.
http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
5 years now...

techie_san778 · 06-17-2016, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Habitual

You really could save everyone their valuable time by posting your "requirements" up front.

I have no intention to spoil anybody's time here, so called "busy" boy.
The fact is that i came to know that "maxdepth" is not POSIX compliant after i had posted here. And what was your reply ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Habitual

"-maxdepth"? is not a "workaround".

So what is the workaround ? Are you not spoiling time of others ?

Habitual · 06-17-2016, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by techie_san778

I have no intention to spoil anybody's time here, so called "busy" boy.
The fact is that i came to know that "maxdepth" is not POSIX compliant after i had posted here.

Our time is valuable.
Our experience invaluable.
The proper answer starts with "Thank you."

End Transmission.

keefaz · 06-17-2016, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by techie_san778

Well guys, maxdepth is not POSIX compliant. I used the prune option but of no use :
$ find /home/san -name c++ -prune -ls
How should prune be used then ?

Why not just: ls /home/san/c++

BCarey · 06-18-2016, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by techie_san778

Well guys, maxdepth is not POSIX compliant. I used the prune option but of no use :
$ find /home/san -name c++ -prune -ls
How should prune be used then ?

The position of prune is important because it applies to the preceding argument. Try:

find /home/san/* -prune -name blabla

Note the asterisk because otherwise -prune will also exclude the /home/san directory itself.

Brian

techie_san778 · 06-20-2016, 06:02 AM

Thanks Brian about that info about prune. But when i use it to list all the hidden files and directories under a directory (/home/san) :
[san@Desktop ~]$ find /home/san/* -prune -name ".*"
[san@Desktop ~]$

I am getting blank o/p. Please rectify me where i am going wrong.

Added : But when i am using find without prune, i am able to list all the hidden files and folders, though find behaves recursively :
[san@Desktop ~]$ find /home/san -name ".*"
/home/san/.local
/home/san/test1/.output
/home/san/.esd_auth
/home/san/.ed_cmdhist_script
/home/san/.gnome2_private
/home/san/.vimrc
/home/san/.thumbnails
/home/san/.viminfo
/home/san/.redhat
--------------------- // List is big. Truncating rest.

Sandy

pan64 · 06-20-2016, 06:23 AM

What are you looking for? Do you need only the list of entries, or something else too?
I would suggest you to use for example python or perl or similar to open a dir and get list of entries. That will be even faster than the command find. You can also try ls | awk or similar construct.

pingu_penguin · 06-20-2016, 07:06 AM

Hi,

Try -maxdepth 1 without the prune option but give it first , and the options later.

something like this :

# find /path/to/dir -maxdepth 1 -type f -name '*.c' -print

etc adding other options after maxdepth for filtering what you want.

Hope this helps.

techie_san778 · 06-20-2016, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

What are you looking for? Do you need only the list of entries, or something else too?

I wanted to know that whether find command can be made to search non-recursively, i.e.
within a directory only, not inside it's sub-directories.
That having said, i came to know that the "maxdepth" is not POSIX compliant. So, i was trying out the "prune" option, but i am unable to find the hidden files & directories.
Can you suggest a solution ?

pingu_penguin · 06-20-2016, 07:45 AM

did you try this ?

# find /path/to/dir -maxdepth 1 -name '.*'

I don't know what POSIX compliance has to do with it but , yes maxdepth 1 is used to find non-recursively, and it works too.

Additionally you could use " -type d -o -type f " if there are other types of files in there too (like socket , block , or symbolic link files) to filter to your needs.

techie_san778 · 06-20-2016, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pingu_penguin

did you try this ?
# find /path/to/dir -maxdepth 1 -name '.*'

Yes Pingu, it does the job. Thanks for the solution mate.