Question

So I am in a Linux course and having trouble figuring out this question. I need to come up with a command that a user can execute to display word counts for all readable files in a folder, without displaying any error messages. I’m sure this is simple but I can find it anywhere.

Answer 1

find /home/jon/ -maxdepth 1 -readable -type f -exec wc -w {} \;

You can use find with -type f for files only, -maxdepth 1 so that find doesn’t search in sub-directories, -readable so it only searches readable files and wc -w to count the words in the files:

[ 08:36 jon@host ~ ]$ find /home/jon/ -maxdepth 1 -readable -type f -exec wc -w {} \;
6 /home/jon/.screenrc
27 /home/jon/.bash_profile
418 /home/jon/.xsession-errors
105 /home/jon/.lesshst
3 /home/jon/.bash_logout
49 /home/jon/.toprc
102 /home/jon/.zshrc
1916 /home/jon/.viminfo
2661 /home/jon/.bash_history
17 /home/jon/.bashrc

To show that the wc -w is correct:

[ 08:37 jon@host ~ ]$ cat .screenrc
multiuser on
acladd root
altscreen on

[ 08:40 jon@host ~ ]$ cat .bash_profile
# .bash_profile
# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
        . ~/.bashrc
fi
# User specific environment and startup programs
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
export PATH

[ 08:40 jon@host ~ ]$ cat .bash_logout
# ~/.bash_logout
/usr/bin/clear

[ 08:40 jon@host ~ ]$ cat .bashrc
# .bashrc
# User specific aliases and functions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
        . /etc/bashrc
fi

From man find:

   -maxdepth levels
          Descend  at  most levels (a non-negative integer) levels of directories below the command line
          arguments.  -maxdepth 0
           means only apply the tests and actions to the command line arguments.


   -readable
          Matches files which are readable.  This takes into account access control lists and other per-
          missions artefacts which the -perm test ignores.  This test makes use of the access(2)  system
          call, and so can be fooled by NFS servers which do UID mapping (or root-squashing), since many
          systems implement access(2) in the client's kernel and so cannot make use of the  UID  mapping
          information held on the server.

   -type c
          File is of type c:

          b      block (buffered) special

          c      character (unbuffered) special

          d      directory

          p      named pipe (FIFO)

          f      regular file

          l      symbolic link; this is never true if the -L option or the -follow option is in  effect,
                 unless  the  symbolic link is broken.  If you want to search for symbolic links when -L
                 is in effect, use -xtype.

          s      socket

          D      door (Solaris)