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How does find -name work?

Rename All Files with a Certain NameUsing sed to find and replace complex string (preferrably with regex)Trouble getting regex to work with findWhat types of regex DO support (e.g.) negative lookbehind?Filename Expansion: Find Utility Pattern Matching vs Bash Shell Pattern Matchingfind and md5sum not yielding any output (find -o limit?)How do the {} and + get expanded inside find with the -execdir optionExtended Regular Expressions (EREs): How do I include pattern but exclude specific superset of pattern in matches?Why does “find / -name '*.txt' | cp /junk” not work?Can someone explain bash substring matching to me?

.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty{ margin-bottom:0;
}

0

I can't for the life of me figure out how find with the test -name works.

I run find / -name *in and returns a bunch of results:

/sbin

/sbin/sulogin

/dev/stdin

to name a few.

It's as if it performed filename expansion, but that happens before the shell runs the command, so that can't be it. Also because I don't have any files in the current directory that match *in. Plus, single quoting *in yields the same results, which further supports that this can't be filename expansion.

The documentation leads me to believe that find with -name uses regular expressions, but the regex pattern *in doesn't match the results I showed above.

Can someone enlighten me?

find regular-expression

share|improve this question

edited 35 mins ago

Find

asked 58 mins ago

FindFind

133

New contributor

Find is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  "It's as if it performed filename expansion, but that happens before the shell runs the command, so that can't be it." But that's exactly what it is! Only that instead of matching the *in pattern against the files from the cwd, it matches it against the the files from the directories it's walking through.
  
  – mosvy
  41 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  "The documentation kind of suggests that find with -name uses regular expressions" the documentation does not suggest such thing.
  
  – mosvy
  36 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @mosvy I edited my question.
  
  – Find
  34 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  If you need regular expressions, you can use -regex pattern which is used to match the whole path (including slashes), while -name pattern operates on the filename and uses shell patterns.
  
  – Freddy
  30 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

0

I can't for the life of me figure out how find with the test -name works.

I run find / -name *in and returns a bunch of results:

/sbin

/sbin/sulogin

/dev/stdin

to name a few.

It's as if it performed filename expansion, but that happens before the shell runs the command, so that can't be it. Also because I don't have any files in the current directory that match *in. Plus, single quoting *in yields the same results, which further supports that this can't be filename expansion.

The documentation leads me to believe that find with -name uses regular expressions, but the regex pattern *in doesn't match the results I showed above.

Can someone enlighten me?

find regular-expression

share|improve this question

edited 35 mins ago

Find

asked 58 mins ago

FindFind

133

New contributor

Find is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  "It's as if it performed filename expansion, but that happens before the shell runs the command, so that can't be it." But that's exactly what it is! Only that instead of matching the *in pattern against the files from the cwd, it matches it against the the files from the directories it's walking through.
  
  – mosvy
  41 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  "The documentation kind of suggests that find with -name uses regular expressions" the documentation does not suggest such thing.
  
  – mosvy
  36 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @mosvy I edited my question.
  
  – Find
  34 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  If you need regular expressions, you can use -regex pattern which is used to match the whole path (including slashes), while -name pattern operates on the filename and uses shell patterns.
  
  – Freddy
  30 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

I can't for the life of me figure out how find with the test -name works.

I run find / -name *in and returns a bunch of results:

/sbin

/sbin/sulogin

/dev/stdin

to name a few.

It's as if it performed filename expansion, but that happens before the shell runs the command, so that can't be it. Also because I don't have any files in the current directory that match *in. Plus, single quoting *in yields the same results, which further supports that this can't be filename expansion.

The documentation leads me to believe that find with -name uses regular expressions, but the regex pattern *in doesn't match the results I showed above.

Can someone enlighten me?

find regular-expression

share|improve this question

edited 35 mins ago

Find

asked 58 mins ago

FindFind

133

New contributor

Find is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

/sbin

/sbin/sulogin

/dev/stdin

share|improve this question

edited 35 mins ago

Find

asked 58 mins ago

FindFind

133

New contributor

Find is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

share|improve this question

edited 35 mins ago

Find

asked 58 mins ago

FindFind

133

New contributor

Find is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 58 mins ago

FindFind

133

New contributor

Find is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.

asked 58 mins ago

FindFind

133

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

2

The parameter passed to -name is a filesystem glob pattern, the same as the you'd enter for other commands, such as ls -l *in.

For each file it finds it compares the basename of the file to the pattern you passed. So when it finds /bin/foobar it compares foobar to *in, doesn't match, skips; but with /bin/login it compares login to *in and this does match, and so prints.

Now you need to be careful because *in might be matched on the command line depending on files in the current directory.

So, for example:

$ find /bin -name *in

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

$ 

Notice the same find command returned two different results.

We can see why if we set the shell to debug mode:

$ rm foobarin 



$ set -x



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin     

+ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name foobarin



$ 

The lines starting with a + are what the shell interpreted the command entered. We can see that the second find command expanded the *in to match the existing filename.

Because of this it's recommended to quote names

$ find /bin -name '*in'

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login

share|improve this answer

answered 45 mins ago

Stephen HarrisStephen Harris

28.3k35585

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Thank you, that's helpful. When you say that we should quote names. Should it be, more precisely, single quote them?
  
  – Find
  41 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The quote will depend on how you want the command line to interpret your input, same as everywhere else. So if you're looking for a file called $foo then you may use '$foo' but if you want to expand the variable then you may use "$foo". This isn't specific to the find command, but is how the command line works.
  
  – Stephen Harris
  38 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  But won't the variable be expanded just like * was when you used single quotes? EDIT: I understand this expansion occurs after the command is ran, contrarily to "regular expansion".
  
  – Find
  36 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  No; command line globs don't follow variable expansion. eg if we set $ foo='*in' then the command $ find /bin -name "$foo" will give the debug output + find /bin -name '*in' which is exactly what we want.
  
  – Stephen Harris
  34 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

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2

The parameter passed to -name is a filesystem glob pattern, the same as the you'd enter for other commands, such as ls -l *in.

For each file it finds it compares the basename of the file to the pattern you passed. So when it finds /bin/foobar it compares foobar to *in, doesn't match, skips; but with /bin/login it compares login to *in and this does match, and so prints.

Now you need to be careful because *in might be matched on the command line depending on files in the current directory.

So, for example:

$ find /bin -name *in

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

$ 

Notice the same find command returned two different results.

We can see why if we set the shell to debug mode:

$ rm foobarin 



$ set -x



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin     

+ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name foobarin



$ 

The lines starting with a + are what the shell interpreted the command entered. We can see that the second find command expanded the *in to match the existing filename.

Because of this it's recommended to quote names

$ find /bin -name '*in'

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login

share|improve this answer

answered 45 mins ago

Stephen HarrisStephen Harris

28.3k35585

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Thank you, that's helpful. When you say that we should quote names. Should it be, more precisely, single quote them?
  
  – Find
  41 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The quote will depend on how you want the command line to interpret your input, same as everywhere else. So if you're looking for a file called $foo then you may use '$foo' but if you want to expand the variable then you may use "$foo". This isn't specific to the find command, but is how the command line works.
  
  – Stephen Harris
  38 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  But won't the variable be expanded just like * was when you used single quotes? EDIT: I understand this expansion occurs after the command is ran, contrarily to "regular expansion".
  
  – Find
  36 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  No; command line globs don't follow variable expansion. eg if we set $ foo='*in' then the command $ find /bin -name "$foo" will give the debug output + find /bin -name '*in' which is exactly what we want.
  
  – Stephen Harris
  34 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

2

The parameter passed to -name is a filesystem glob pattern, the same as the you'd enter for other commands, such as ls -l *in.

For each file it finds it compares the basename of the file to the pattern you passed. So when it finds /bin/foobar it compares foobar to *in, doesn't match, skips; but with /bin/login it compares login to *in and this does match, and so prints.

Now you need to be careful because *in might be matched on the command line depending on files in the current directory.

So, for example:

$ find /bin -name *in

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

$ 

Notice the same find command returned two different results.

We can see why if we set the shell to debug mode:

$ rm foobarin 



$ set -x



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin     

+ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name foobarin



$ 

The lines starting with a + are what the shell interpreted the command entered. We can see that the second find command expanded the *in to match the existing filename.

Because of this it's recommended to quote names

$ find /bin -name '*in'

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login

share|improve this answer

answered 45 mins ago

Stephen HarrisStephen Harris

28.3k35585

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Thank you, that's helpful. When you say that we should quote names. Should it be, more precisely, single quote them?
  
  – Find
  41 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  The quote will depend on how you want the command line to interpret your input, same as everywhere else. So if you're looking for a file called $foo then you may use '$foo' but if you want to expand the variable then you may use "$foo". This isn't specific to the find command, but is how the command line works.
  
  – Stephen Harris
  38 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  But won't the variable be expanded just like * was when you used single quotes? EDIT: I understand this expansion occurs after the command is ran, contrarily to "regular expansion".
  
  – Find
  36 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  No; command line globs don't follow variable expansion. eg if we set $ foo='*in' then the command $ find /bin -name "$foo" will give the debug output + find /bin -name '*in' which is exactly what we want.
  
  – Stephen Harris
  34 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

The parameter passed to -name is a filesystem glob pattern, the same as the you'd enter for other commands, such as ls -l *in.

For each file it finds it compares the basename of the file to the pattern you passed. So when it finds /bin/foobar it compares foobar to *in, doesn't match, skips; but with /bin/login it compares login to *in and this does match, and so prints.

Now you need to be careful because *in might be matched on the command line depending on files in the current directory.

So, for example:

$ find /bin -name *in

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

$ 

Notice the same find command returned two different results.

We can see why if we set the shell to debug mode:

$ rm foobarin 



$ set -x



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin     

+ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name foobarin



$ 

The lines starting with a + are what the shell interpreted the command entered. We can see that the second find command expanded the *in to match the existing filename.

Because of this it's recommended to quote names

$ find /bin -name '*in'

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login

share|improve this answer

answered 45 mins ago

Stephen HarrisStephen Harris

28.3k35585

$ find /bin -name *in

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

$ 

$ rm foobarin 



$ set -x



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login



$ touch foobarin     

+ touch foobarin



$ find /bin -name *in

+ find /bin -name foobarin



$ 

$ find /bin -name '*in'

+ find /bin -name '*in'

/bin

/bin/login

share|improve this answer

answered 45 mins ago

Stephen HarrisStephen Harris

28.3k35585

answered 45 mins ago

Stephen HarrisStephen Harris

28.3k35585

answered 45 mins ago

Stephen HarrisStephen Harris

28.3k35585