On Fri, Nov 02, 2007 at 12:56:49AM +0100, A. Pagaltzis wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 01, 2007 at 04:03:20PM -0700, Michael G Schwern wrote:
> > > $ find . -print0 -name '*.txt' | xargs -0 rm
> Except that's a red herring, because if he had but `-exec rm \;`
> where he put his `-print0`, the exact same thing would have
> happened.
This is what happened:
find
ok, I'm going to find something
.
in the current directory
-print0
I'll print its name (or exec rm, or ...)
-name '*.txt'
and see if it is called *.txt
the end
and then do nothing. i wonder why the user wanted to see what it's
name was and then not do anything about it. <shrug>
Perhaps the confusion comes from the use of -blah for keywords in the
find mini-language instead of just a plain unadorned blah, which makes
it look like you're giving a load of options instead of a sequence of
instructions. That it's a mini-language becomes obvious when you find
that there's AND, OR and NOT operators, (bracketing) for precedence, and
so on.
--
David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness
Godliness is next to Englishness
