Find and Execute

Using Find with Command Execution

There are two main ways to execute commands on files found by the find command:

Method 1: Using -exec with find

find . -exec cmd -option1 -option2 {} \;

Or for better performance with multiple files:

find . -exec cmd -option1 -option2 {} +

Method 2: Using xargs

find . -print0 | xargs -0 cmd -option1 -option2

Example

Find all backup files and list their details:

find . -name "*.bkp" -exec ls -l {} +

Notes

• The {} is replaced by the filename found by find
• Using + at the end groups multiple files into a single command execution
• The -print0 and -0 options handle filenames with spaces correctly
• For complex commands, the xargs method is often more flexible

Rule the world!