On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 10:42 AM, James Youngman <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 5:29 AM, Reza Roboubi <[email protected]> wrote:
>> find . -wholename './src/emacs/' -prune -o -print (extra slash)
>>
>> and that wasn't working. Why is that?
>
> Because path names examined by find never include a trailing slash.
>
> Similarly "find -name a/b" will never find anything, since -name only
> works with files' base names (i.e. with the directory part removed)
> and so they never include a slash.
>
> The manpage should probably point out both facts.
The manpage already points this out for -path (and hence -wholename):
Find compares the -path argument with the concatenation of a
directory name and the base name of the file it’s examining.
Since the concatenation will never end with a slash, -path argu‐
ments ending in a slash will match nothing (except perhaps a
start point specified on the command line).
I just pushed the attached patch to deal with -name better.
James.
From d4f2e4453e06920f1d14804c1cfa9b3f81d8dd39 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: James Youngman <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:06:53 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Explain the problems with "-name a/b" and "-path foo/".
To: [email protected]
* find/find.1 (-iname): We already refer to -name, so duplicate
less text.
(-name): Explain that -name a/b will never match anything.
* doc/find.texi (Base Name Patterns): Explain that -name a/b will
never match anything.
(Full Name Patterns): Fix typo.
Signed-off-by: James Youngman <[email protected]>
---
ChangeLog | 10 ++++++++++
doc/find.texi | 9 +++++++--
find/find.1 | 16 +++++++++-------
3 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 50df6c1..03fffbc 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+2010-02-25 James Youngman <[email protected]>
+
+ Explain the problems with "-name a/b" and "-path foo/".
+ * find/find.1 (-iname): We already refer to -name, so duplicate
+ less text.
+ (-name): Explain that -name a/b will never match anything.
+ * doc/find.texi (Base Name Patterns): Explain that -name a/b will
+ never match anything.
+ (Full Name Patterns): Fix typo.
+
2010-02-22 James Youngman <[email protected]>
* xargs/xargs.1: Simplify the wording in the description of "xargs
diff --git a/doc/find.texi b/doc/find.texi
index 7820c43..c2c2c03 100644
--- a/doc/find.texi
+++ b/doc/find.texi
@@ -404,6 +404,11 @@ example the command @samp{find /tmp -name \*bar} will match the file
considered to be special (that is, @code{find . -name 'f...@{1,2...@}'}
matches a file named @file{...@{1,2...@}}, not the files @file{foo1} and
@file{foo2}.
+
+Because the leading directories are removed, the file names considered
+for a match with @samp{-name} will never include a slash, so
+...@samp{-name a/b} will never match anything (you probably need to use
+...@samp{-path} instead).
@end deffn
@@ -428,8 +433,8 @@ arguments ending in @samp{/} will match nothing (except perhaps a
start point specified on the command line).
The name @samp{-wholename} is GNU-specific, but @samp{-path} is more
-portable; it is supported by HP-UX @code{find} and is of the POSIX
-2008 standard.
+portable; it is supported by HP-UX @code{find} and is part of the
+POSIX 2008 standard.
@end deffn
diff --git a/find/find.1 b/find/find.1
index b27311a..e17b21e 100644
--- a/find/find.1
+++ b/find/find.1
@@ -584,12 +584,8 @@ Like
.BR \-name ,
but the match is case insensitive. For example, the
patterns `fo*' and `F??' match the file names `Foo', `FOO', `foo',
-`fOo', etc. In these patterns, unlike filename expansion by the
-shell, an initial `.' can be matched by `*'. That is,
-.B find \-name *bar
-will match the file `.foobar'. Please note that you should quote
-patterns as a matter of course, otherwise the shell will expand any
-wildcard characters in them.
+`fOo', etc. The pattern `*foo*` will also match a file
+called '.foobar'.
.IP "\-inum \fIn\fR"
File has inode number \fIn\fR. It is normally easier to use the
@@ -635,7 +631,13 @@ modification times.
.IP "\-name \fIpattern\fR"
Base of file name (the path with the leading directories removed)
-matches shell pattern \fIpattern\fR. The metacharacters (`*', `?',
+matches shell pattern \fIpattern\fR. Because the leading directories
+are removed, the file names considered for a match with
+.B \-name
+will never include a slash, so `-name a/b' will never match anything
+(you probably need to use
+.B \-path
+instead). The metacharacters (`*', `?',
and `[]') match a `.' at the start of the base name (this is a change
in findutils-4.2.2; see section STANDARDS CONFORMANCE below). To ignore a
directory and the files under it, use
--
1.5.6.5
