How to use command line arguments with find in bash script?

Question

I have a hard time writing simple script using find command. I want to delete files with given size in some directory. I want to be able to specify names of files (like Efficiency_*) and size of files to delete. I tried following script:

#!/bin/bash
CD=($pwd)
find $CD -name $1 -size $2 -delete

I am running it from the correct directory as follows:

/path/to/directory/script.sh 'Efficiency_*' '-500c'

but it does not work.

What is the correct way to do it?

I think the problem is your assignment to CD. Why are you using an array there? — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Dec 19, 2017 at 22:17
To debug shell scripts, put set -x at the beginning so you see each command as it's being executed. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Dec 19, 2017 at 22:17
Why do you even need that variable? If you want to start in the current directory, use find . instead of find $CD. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Dec 19, 2017 at 22:18
find . -name "$1"... will work just fine :) or if you insist: CD=$(pwd); find "$CD" -name "$1"... — PesaThe
– PesaThe, Commented Dec 19, 2017 at 22:19

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-19 22:20:10Z

5

You don't need the CD variable, just use . to refer to the current directory.

And the other variables need to be quoted. Otherwise, the shell will expand the wildcard instead of passing it to find.

#!/bin/bash
find . -name "$1" -size "$2" -delete

In general, you should always quote variables unless you have a specific reason not to.

answered Dec 19, 2017 at 22:20

Barmar

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4 Comments

Suzie Over a year ago

How to run this script? How to write arguments in the command line?

Suzie Over a year ago

Does it matter if I run it with single quotes or double qoutes? ./script.sh "Efficiency_" "-500c" or ./script.sh 'Efficiency_' '-500c' ?

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

@Suzie, the script itself literally can't tell what quotes were used when starting it. The interpreter that the command is typed into is responsible for breaking the arguments into an array of C strings, so by the time the script is started, it gets an argv that (in C syntax) is something like string[][]{"./script.sh", "Efficiency_", "-500c", NULL} -- thing is, it looks exactly like that no matter if it's Efficiency_ or 'Efficiency_' or "Efficiency_" that was originally entered by the user (or, say, a glob pattern like Eff* when a file named Efficiency_ exists).

Barmar Over a year ago

@Suzie It doesn't matter. Read stackoverflow.com/questions/6697753/…

OkieOth · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-19 22:23:10Z

1

The problem is the value you give to the CD-variable. In Bash scripts you have two different ways to assign the output of a program call to a variable ...

# method 1
CD=`pwd`

# method 2
CD=$(pwd)

answered Dec 19, 2017 at 22:23

OkieOth

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3 Comments

Charles Duffy Over a year ago

...though none of these is particularly good practice in the context at hand. cd=$PWD is much more efficient than running a subshell (thus, fork()ing off a whole separate copy of the shell) just to find the current directory.

tripleee Over a year ago

And find . is usually better than find "$PWD" unless you specifically need find to output the full path.

OkieOth Over a year ago

@tripleee in this case me too, but it's in general good to know - for more complicated scripts

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