So on the basis of Joachim's last diff, i'm trying to put everything
together to get it off the table:
* I do think that -or in the last example makes sense. That example
is not just about precedence in general, but it also makes the point
that explicit final -print is different from implicit final -print:
the former needs explicit parentheses, which the latter doesn't.
* find -print is not only dangerous with rm, but with practically
all other programs, in particular the shell.
Perhaps this even shorter wording is clearer:
"Passing output of find to other programs requires some care."
* Display the example file names in CAVEATS as suggested by Jason.
Index: find.1
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/find/find.1,v
retrieving revision 1.78
diff -u -p -r1.78 find.1
--- find.1 15 Jul 2010 20:51:38 -0000 1.78
+++ find.1 14 Sep 2010 23:00:42 -0000
@@ -126,13 +126,9 @@ quotes, backslash
space, tab, and newline
.Pq Sq \en
characters.
-Alternatively, the
+Consider using
.Fl print0
-primary may be used in conjunction with the
-.Fl 0
-option to
-.Xr xargs 1 ,
-allowing all file names to be processed safely.
+instead.
.It Fl x
Prevents
.Nm
@@ -386,7 +382,10 @@ character.
.It Ic -print0
This primary always evaluates to true.
It prints the pathname of the current file to standard output, followed
-by a null character.
+by a null character, suitable for use with the
+.Fl 0
+option to
+.Xr xargs 1 .
.It Ic -prune
This primary always evaluates to true.
It causes
@@ -525,11 +524,13 @@ ending in a dot and single digit, but sk
.Pp
.Dl "$ find /usr/src -path /usr/src/gnu -prune -or -name \e*.[0-9]"
.Pp
-Find and remove all *.jpg files in the current working directory:
+Find and remove all *.jpg and *.gif files under the current working
+directory
+.Pq see also Sx CAVEATS :
.Pp
-.Dl "$ find . -name \e*.jpg -exec rm {} \e;"
+.Dl "$ find . \e( -name \e*.jpg -or -name \e*.gif \e) -exec rm {} \e;
or
-.Dl "$ find . -name \e*.jpg | xargs rm"
+.Dl "$ find . \e( -name \e*.jpg -or -name \e*.gif \e) -print0 | xargs -0r rm"
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr chflags 1 ,
.Xr chmod 1 ,
@@ -637,6 +638,26 @@ In particular, the characters
and
.Ql \&;
may have to be escaped from the shell.
+.Pp
+Passing output of
+.Nm
+to other programs requires some care:
+.Pp
+.Dl "$ find . -name \e*.jpg | xargs rm"
+or
+.Dl "$ rm `find . -name \e*.jpg`"
+.Pp
+would, given file names
+.Dq important\ .jpg
+and
+.Dq important ,
+remove
+.Dq important .
+Use the
+.Ic -print0
+or
+.Ic -exec
+primaries instead.
.Pp
As there is no delimiter separating options and file names or file
names and the
