Difference between revisions of "Find notes"
(New page: Category:Engineering You see some people pipe find output into xargs, but other people start a command using -exec. You wonder what the difference is. The difference is that xargs is f...) |
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arguments and feed batches to the subcommand, so it doesn't have to start a new instance of the subcommand for every argument. | arguments and feed batches to the subcommand, so it doesn't have to start a new instance of the subcommand for every argument. | ||
− | Generally I find -exec easier to use because you can easily repeat the found filename in the exec argument. | + | Generally I find -exec easier to use because you can easily repeat the found filename in the exec argument. It's easier for me to express exactly what I want to be executed. |
+ | Of course, some people think the find syntax is wacky. | ||
The xargs command comes in handy in other places such as a stream not generated by find, but when using | The xargs command comes in handy in other places such as a stream not generated by find, but when using | ||
find I stick with -exec unless I have a good reason not to. | find I stick with -exec unless I have a good reason not to. | ||
+ | |||
+ | You can always do it in a shell loop too: | ||
+ | for filename in *.png ; do convert $filename `basename $filename .png`.jpg; done |
Revision as of 18:51, 6 June 2007
You see some people pipe find output into xargs, but other people start a command using -exec. You wonder what the difference is. The difference is that xargs is faster. It will intelligently group arguments and feed batches to the subcommand, so it doesn't have to start a new instance of the subcommand for every argument.
Generally I find -exec easier to use because you can easily repeat the found filename in the exec argument. It's easier for me to express exactly what I want to be executed. Of course, some people think the find syntax is wacky. The xargs command comes in handy in other places such as a stream not generated by find, but when using find I stick with -exec unless I have a good reason not to.
You can always do it in a shell loop too:
for filename in *.png ; do convert $filename `basename $filename .png`.jpg; done