Find command in linux bash shell

Question

the find command is:

find ./ \( -path dir_a -o -path dir_b \) -prune

I want to convert to:

./find.sh dir_a dir_b

so my code (is doesn't work):

function myfind() {
   num=1
   tmp=""
   for i in $@
   do
       tmp="$tmp -path './$i' "
       if [ $((num++)) -ne $# ]
       then
           tmp="${tmp} -o"
       fi
   done
   echo $tmp # this is ok!!
   find ./ \( $tmp \) -prune # is doesn't work, why???
}

Don't use single variable tmp Use array instead. Check last code snippetunder quoting in this link — anishsane
– anishsane, Commented Mar 25, 2015 at 6:46
Your use of $@ unquoted is clearly wrong. It needs to be in double quotes to have its special meaning, distinct from $* (quoted or unquoted). — tripleee
– tripleee, Commented Mar 25, 2015 at 6:52

tripleee · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-25 07:57:29Z

1

What you are attempting cannot be solved in the general case with "classic sh" because you need your script to work correctly with directories named * or '"[ ]"', and plain old flat strings simply don't allow that to be properly quoted (easily, or even with a fair amount of complexity). Fortunately, as suggested in a comment, Bash arrays allow you to do this with all the necessary level of control. Just make sure to always use quotes around anything which could contain a file name.

#!/bin/bash
dir_args=()
oh=
for i; do
    dir_args+=($oh '-path' "$i")
    oh='-o'
done
find . \( "${dir_args[@]}" \) -prune

answered Mar 25, 2015 at 7:57

tripleee

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3 Comments

gniourf_gniourf Over a year ago

It's not that difficult to do it in POSIX shell: something like

[ "$#" -eq 0 ] && exit; i=$#; set -- "$@" -false; while [ "$i" -gt 0 ]; do s=$1; shift; set -- "$@" -o -path "$s"; i=$((i-1)); done; find . \( "$@" \) -prune

.

tripleee Over a year ago

@gniourf_gniourf Hey, you should post that as an answer.

gniourf_gniourf Over a year ago

No… there's nothing conceptually different from your answer (which is the correct answer and that I upvoted). You may include it in yours, or leave it as a comment for future reference.

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