Home/ Questions/Q 7033533
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-28T01:04:38+00:00

In the code below I would expect to see find_examples_out/.t1, find_examples_out/.t2 and find_examples_out/.s1 files

  • 0

In the code below I would expect to see find_examples_out/.t1, find_examples_out/.t2 and find_examples_out/.s1 files printed by the find command but they are excluded for some reason. They show up in the sub directories just fine.

Test script:

#!/bin/csh 
# GNU find version 4.1.20

find -version
mkdir find_examples_out
cd find_examples_out
set FILES = (t1 .t1 t2 .t2 s1 .s1)
set DIRS  = (.hidden normal notnormal another)

foreach f ( $FILES )
   touch $f
end

foreach i ( $DIRS )
   mkdir $i
   cd $i
   foreach f ( $FILES )
      touch $f
   end
   cd ..
end
echo "Files present:"
ls -AR

echo
echo "Give me all files but exclude some paths:"
find .                     \
   \(                      \
      -path "\.?.*"        \
      -o -path "*normal*"  \
   \)                      \
   -prune                  \
   -o                      \
                           \
   \(                      \
      -type f              \
   \)                      \
   -print

cd ..
rm -rf find_examples_out

Here is the output:

GNU find version 4.1.20
 Files present:
.:
another  .hidden  normal  notnormal  s1  .s1  t1  .t1  t2  .t2

./another:
s1  .s1  t1  .t1  t2  .t2

./.hidden:
s1  .s1  t1  .t1  t2  .t2

./normal:
s1  .s1  t1  .t1  t2  .t2

./notnormal:
s1  .s1  t1  .t1  t2  .t2

Give me all files but exclude some paths:
./t1
./t2
./s1
./another/t1
./another/.t1
./another/t2
./another/.t2
./another/s1
./another/.s1

What am I missing here?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Unless I’ve overlooked something, the -path switch to find compares the pattern given to the path including the filename.

    Ergo, your -path “\.?.*” switch will match the hidden files “.t1” etc.

    FWIW: in the version of find that I have (v4.4.2), the argument to -path is a shell pattern, not a regex. However, I use bash and have never used csh, so perhaps that makes a difference too.

    EDIT: I tried to add this as a comment, but it keeps destroying the formatting.

    You could use this to achieve what (I think) you are trying to achieve:

    find . \( \( -path "\.?.*" -type d \) -o -path "*normal*" \) -prune -o \( -type f \) -print
    • 0