Using `find` for multiple file extensions

I am using the following command for counting the lines of text in JAVA files:

find . -name '*.java' | xargs wc -l

How can I modify the find command parameters to match more than one file extension? For example, I would like use the above operation for CPP, C, and H files.

Xavier

Posted 2012-04-24T22:24:27.210

Reputation: 285

This question is actually about the find command, since that is where you are searching for matching files. – iglvzx – 2012-04-24T23:48:18.807

1Also, use either the find -print0 | xargs -0 construct or even better and simpler: find . -name '*.cpp' -o -name '*.c' -o -name '*.h' -exec wc -l {} +. This will avoid any file name issues (blank spaces, new lines and so on) and is (very) good custom. – Daniel Andersson – 2012-04-25T06:39:08.830

Answers

Use the -o option for an OR. For example, this would list .cpp, .c and .h files:

find . -name \*.cpp -o -name \*.c -o -name \*.h

JOTN

Posted 2012-04-24T22:24:27.210

Reputation: 531

2This didn't work for me on OSX (only matched the last -name *.ext) -- I had to use parentheses as suggested by @smokinguns below. – Gilead – 2015-05-08T11:37:20.440

Ah. The * no longer needs to be escaped if formatted as code. Totally overlooked that. :) – iglvzx – 2012-04-25T00:44:19.237

Yep, it took three edits by two people but we got it. – JOTN – 2012-04-25T01:06:19.820

You will need to use the -o option. For example the statement below finds all png, jpg and gif files in a folder.

find . \( -iname \*.png -o -iname \*.jpg -o -iname \*.gif \)

I use the -iname option so that the match is case insensitive.

smokinguns

Posted 2012-04-24T22:24:27.210

Reputation: 1 188

1iname isn't available on all versions of find. – JOTN – 2012-04-25T01:07:33.733

$ find /path/ -name '*.cpp' -or -name '*.c' -or -name '*.h'

The “-or” says I’m looking for either/both of two sets.

I recently wrote a quick guide to using find with boolean operators here: http://jamesfishwick.com/2012/linux-find-and-boolean-operators

two7s_clash

Posted 2012-04-24T22:24:27.210

Reputation: 194

While all answers are more or less the same, I don't find them readable with multiple name and Boolean operators in-between.

I think this may be more elegant solution:

$ find . -type f | grep -E "\.java$|\.cpp$|\.c$"

Let's break this up

find . finds all files recursively in current path (change to some other path if you need)
-type fnarrows the search only to files (not too much of a speed gain, but still...)
| grep -E I used this to get grep recognize or (|) operator in Mac OS X which uses FreeBSD grep, GNU grep does not need that (check in your man file).
"\.java$|\.cpp$|\.c$" regular expression which includes files whose name ends with .java, .cpp, and .c (add ones you need)

You can then pipe the resulting list for further processing, e.g.

$ find . -type f | grep -E "\.java$|\.cpp$|\.c$" | xargs sed -i '' $'/s/\r$//'

This example removes DOS/Windows CRLF line ending for OS X/Linux LF (this is also OS X sed syntax, check for your version specifics).

MacMladen

Posted 2012-04-24T22:24:27.210

Reputation: 11

I wanted to find all video file types using 25 different extension matching parameters. This was the only approach that worked for me. (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS) – Elder Geek – 2016-11-02T14:35:59.703

Use

find path/to/dir -name "*.ext1" -o -name "*.ext2"

Explanation

The first parameter is the directory you want to search.
By default find does recursion.
The -o stands for -or. So above means search for this wildcard OR this one. If you have only one pattern then no need for -o.
The quotes around the wildcard pattern are required.

Shital Shah

Posted 2012-04-24T22:24:27.210

Reputation: 159