CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
MsA
MsA

Reputation: 2979

Understanding bash find

I was trying to learn bash basics. I was trying out how */.* displays all invisible files in all subdirectories in folder notes-bash:

~/anir/repos/notes-bash$ find */.*
images/.
images/./bashrepl.png
images/..
images/../.git
images/../.git/COMMIT_EDITMSG
:
del/.
del/..
del/../.git
del/../.git/COMMIT_EDITMSG
del/../.git/HEAD
:

I am not getting why it is listing files as images/... Doesnt that mean same folder as notes-bash? I guess it is simply trying to find /. in all possible directories. Thus it recurs through all subdirectories (here images and del) to force form paths with /. as substring.

Q1. Am I correct with this?

So I next created subdirectory del/del1 and ran following command to check all paths formed passing through del1:

$ find */.* | grep del1
del/./del1
del/../del/del1
images/../del/del1

Q2. So, now I am guessing why it did not recur through del1, that is why it did not list paths such as del/del1/../../.git?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 210

Answers (1)

Ted Lyngmo
Ted Lyngmo

Reputation: 117298

I was trying out how /. displays all invisible files in all subdirectories in folder notes-bash

This will list all files starting with a . in the current directory and all subdirectories:

~/anir/repos/notes-bash$ find -name '.*'

I am not getting why it is listing files as images/..

It's because the first * in your find matches a directory named images inside notes-bash.

I next created subdirectory del\del1

No, you didn't. You created a subdirectory named del and possibly subdirectory of that named del1. del/del1 would be the appropriate reference to it.

Your guess regarding why del1 isn't showing up everywhere is a bit off. Just do

echo */.*

and see what it displays. Those are the files and directories that your find command will work with.

Upvotes: 1

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