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I have a find command that finds files with name matching multiple patterns mentioned against the -name parameter

find -L . \( -name "SystemOut*.log" -o -name "*.out" -o -name "*.log" -o -name "javacore*.*" \)

This finds required files successfully at the command line. What I am looking for is to use this command in a shell script and join this with a tar command to create a tar of all log files. So, in a script I do the following:

LIST="-name \"SystemOut*.log\" -o -name \"*.out\" -o -name \"*.log\" -o -name \"javacore*.*\" "
find -L . \( ${LIST} \)

This does not print files that I am looking for.

First - why this script is not functioning like the command? Once it does, can I club it with cpio or similar to create a tar in one shot?

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5 Answers 5

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7

Looks like find fails to match * in patterns from unquoted variables. This syntax works for me (using bash arrays):

LIST=( -name \*.tar.gz )
find . "${LIST[@]}"

Your example would become the following:

LIST=( -name SystemOut\*.log -o -name \*.out -o -name \*.log -o -name javacore\*.\* )
find -L . \( "${LIST[@]}" \)
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1 
eval "find -L . \( ${LIST} \)"
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3 Comments

But eval is evil!!
evil is as evil does
Comming late to this SO thread. Have a look at my answer !
1

You could use an eval and xargs,

eval "find -L . \( $LIST \) " | xargs tar cf 1.tar
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When you have a long list of file names you use, you may want to try the following syntax instead:

# List of file patterns
Pat=( "SystemOut*.log"
"*.out"
"*.log"
"javacore*.*" )

# Loop through each file pattern and build a 'find' string
find $startdir \( -name $(printf -- $'\'%s\'' "${Pat[0]}") $(printf -- $'-o -name \'%s\' ' "${Pat[@]:1}") \)

That method constructs the argument sequentially using elements from a list, which tends to work better (at least in my recent experiences).

You can use find's -exec option to pass the results to an archiving program:

find -L . \( .. \) -exec tar -Af archive.tar {} \;
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+1 for the construct, this does not get results from with in a script, though.
@ringbearer- Can you explain what you mean by "does not get results from within a script"? I use that particular code snippet in several different scripts.
Following error:"find: paths must precede expression" - Using the following: GNU find version 4.2.27 Features enabled: D_TYPE O_NOFOLLOW(enabled) LEAF_OPTIMISATION SELINUX and here is the find construct printed via echo : find /opt/appserver \( -name *.out -o -name "*.log core*.*" -o -name "javacore*.*" -o -name "heapdump*.*" -name "server.log_*" \)
Oops, it looks like I quoted the wildcard expressions incorrectly (I should have used single-quotes instead of double-quotes). See my updated answer for a correctly-quoted version.
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LIST="-name SystemOut*.log -o -name *.out -o -name *.log -o -name javacore*.*"

The wildcards are already quoted and you don't need to quote them again. Moreover, here

LIST="-name \"SystemOut*.log\""

the inner quotes are preserved and find will get them as a part of the argument.

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