9
2
How can I search through directories starting with a certain letter with the Linux find command.
For example I want to search all directories starting with the letter a
for a file or directory starting with b
.
9
2
How can I search through directories starting with a certain letter with the Linux find command.
For example I want to search all directories starting with the letter a
for a file or directory starting with b
.
12
Try a find in a find:
find . -type d -name "a*" -exec find {} -name "b" \;
Starting at the current directory (.
), find will look for all directories starting with the letter a recursively. For each directory it finds, it will look inside it for a file named b.
If you only want it to look in the folders starting with a, and no directories in those a* folders, use maxdepth:
find . -type d -name "a*" -exec find {} -maxdepth 1 -name "b" \;
to get rid of errors:
find . -type d -name "a*" 2> /dev/null -exec find {} -maxdepth 1 -name "b" \;
1
Just a quick update for people who might end up on this question.
In addition to the solution John T provided, I have also found that you can exclude directories by using the prune switch (should have read the man pages sooner I guess, hehe.)
So for example if I want to search all directories for file or directory "b" except directories starting with an "a" I can do this
find . -path 'a*' -prune -o -name "b" -print
bing
1
you can also use find -regex...
find -regex .*/a.*/b
nix the
-type f
on the interiorfind
-- OP's question indicates "b" could be file or directory. – quack quixote – 2009-12-08T02:34:36.817Yeah I had that part in mind so I just did a file example. If I take off the type it will also show symbolic links among other things he doesn't want -- if there happens to be one named "b". – John T – 2009-12-08T04:05:50.927
well, he doesn't specify not wanting symlinks, so i'd make the opposite assumption -- but we've pointed out the limitations now, so he can make up his own mind. :) – quack quixote – 2009-12-08T15:35:20.310
True enough, that way my command wont wrap either. – John T – 2009-12-08T19:18:49.330