[ale] find + ls commands: commentary [was: Bash script]

[Ron]

Bob Toxen via Ale wrote on 2025-04-14 18:59:

> WOW!
> 
> find . -exec something \+
>                         ^^
> 
> Never heard of it!

This is my favourite thing about LUGs - learning of some tool or option 
that's been there all along that I wasn't aware of. I love when that 
happens.


> Not in "man find" on any system of mine, except my
> newest,

That's odd, I've been using it for ages. I wonder when it was introduced?


Another new option discovery: `apt changelog findutils` shows it from 2005:

 > - find supports -exec ... {} +
 > findutils (4.2.14-1) experimental; urgency=low
 > -- Andreas Metzler <ametzler at debian.org>  Tue, 25 Jan 2005 11:40:21 +0100




The man page is kinda opaque, searching `man find` for "  -exec" gives:

 > -exec command ;
 > ...

Then, the NEXT hit gives:

 > -exec command {} +
 > ...

So, it's possible to overlook the second entry. (And, why doesn't the 
first entry include the {} ?)





Further along are these:

 > -execdir command ;
 >
 > -execdir command {} +

I was either unaware or had forgotten about these - they could be really 
handy for something like generating hashes meant to exist in same 
directory as the hashed file, etc.


I'll be looking for opportunities to try these.

New knowledge, awesome!