bash - find: missing argument to `-exec' error

Question

I am trying to clean some files with the help of find command but getting a strange error in the below scenario.

#!/bin/bash
find . -type f -newermt 2011-01-01 ! -newermt 2012-01-01 -exec truncate -s 0 {} \;

Works fine without any error. But when i put a simple completion message throws the below error.See the code below

#!/bin/bash
find . -type f -newermt 2011-01-01 ! -newermt 2012-01-01 -exec truncate -s 0 {} \;
echo "completed"

Is there any syntax error i am making.

You could combine statements like find . -type f -newermt 2011-01-01 ! -newermt 2012-01-01 -exec truncate -s 0 {} \; ; echo "Hello" (or) find . -type f -newermt 2011-01-01 ! -newermt 2012-01-01 -exec truncate -s 0 {} \; && echo "Hello" — Inian
– Inian, Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 11:41
The second piece of code in the question where there is a echo after the find command gives error.Strange thing id if i remove the echo command at last it works fine. — Sam
– Sam, Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 11:41
You wan to know if the truncate has happened and log a message for each file? Is that right? — Inian
– Inian, Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 11:43
find . -type f -newermt 2011-01-01 ! -newermt 2012-01-01 -exec truncate -s 0 {} \; ; echo "Hello" ===> This worked for me.Thanks a lot for the help.It was eating my head for about 1 hr. — Sam
– Sam, Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 11:46

Inian · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-06 12:26:36Z

1

Use find command's exit-code and print the error message based on that.

find . -type f -newermt 2011-01-01 ! -newermt 2012-01-01 -exec truncate -s 0 {} \; && echo "File truncation done"

(or) just run the commands sequentially as

find . -type f -newermt 2011-01-01 ! -newermt 2012-01-01 -exec truncate -s 0 {} \; ; echo "File truncation done"

(or) you can use an echo message after truncation of each file as

find . -type f -newermt 2011-01-01 ! -newermt 2012-01-01 -exec bash -c 'file="{}"; truncate -s 0 "$file"; echo "$file" is truncated' \;

answered Dec 6, 2016 at 11:49

Inian

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