Execute a command on a list of strings in Bash

Question

I'm trying to find all C# interfaces from a given directory. I tried doing this command:

find . -type f | xargs basename | grep ^I

but basename is giving back an error since I'm sending it a list of strings, not a string itself. How do I get the output of basename executed over all the strings piped to it?

@higuaro Thanks! (You might want to put that as the answer, by the way.) — James Ko
– James Ko, Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 2:50
Is there some problem with echo I*? (Perhaps you really need a recursive listing, or maybe you have folders whose names start with I?) — rici
– rici, Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 2:51

rici · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-22 02:52:54Z

2

You don't need to use xargs for this. You can use:

find . -type f -name 'I*' -exec basename '{}' ';'

If you are using GNU find, you don't need basename either:

find . -type f -name 'I*' -printf %f\\n

Here, %f is the GNU find printf format for "filename with all but the last component removed". There are many other possible format codes; see man find for details.

answered Jun 22, 2015 at 2:52

rici

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2 Comments

James Ko Over a year ago

Nice; these ran pretty fast compared to piping it through xargs.

rici Over a year ago

@JamesKo: The second one should be fastest, if your find supports it, since it doesn't require firing up any new process.

dinox0r · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-22 02:51:26Z

1

Using xargs -i should solve the problem:

find . -type f | xargs -i basename "{}" | grep ^I

answered Jun 22, 2015 at 2:51

dinox0r

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