regex/linux find command not working as expected

Question

Background: I'm trying to get a total line count of all of the code files (.html|.htm|.php|.js|.css) in my root web dir (recursively) by piping the output of this into xargs wc -l | grep total.

$ find . -regex '.+\.php'
./inc/db.php
./inc/userauth.php
./index.php
.......... etc.

$ find . -regex '.+\.js'
./inc/jquery-1.7.1.js
./inc/script.js

$ find . -regex '.+\.(php|js)'
(returns nothing)

According to this,

abc(def|xyz) matches abcdef or abcxyz

So shouldn't .+\.(php|js) match all .php files and .js files?

You need to escape certain characters that interpreted by the bash shell. You can find a list of those characters here: grymoire.com/Unix/Quote.html — Nick Garvey
– Nick Garvey, Commented Feb 23, 2012 at 20:51
@NickGarvey: I thought those characters would not have any special meaning when used in single quotes. — Tikhon Jelvis
– Tikhon Jelvis, Commented Feb 23, 2012 at 20:55
The do not have any special meaning when in single quotes. The issue as explained in the answers is that escaping is required for certain characters when not using ERE. By default GNU find uses emacs regex, which requires the escaping. — jordanm
– jordanm, Commented Feb 23, 2012 at 22:10
Ah you are right, it is regex syntax as mentioned in the answers. My mistake. — Nick Garvey
– Nick Garvey, Commented Feb 23, 2012 at 22:10

Tikhon Jelvis · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-23 20:57:45Z

6

find uses a different style of regex, so you have to write \(js\|php\) instead of just (js|php).

edited Feb 23, 2012 at 20:57

answered Feb 23, 2012 at 20:51

Tikhon Jelvis

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2 Comments

ruakh Over a year ago

+1. Alternatively, you can instruct find to use EREs (which are more like the regexes the OP has in mind) by writing find . -regextype posix-extended -regex '.+\.(php|js)'.

commonpike Over a year ago

.. and mac needed the option -E for EREs

Borealid · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-23 20:50:31Z

4

find . -regex '.+\.\(php\|js\)'

Escape characters which are special, although it does depend on your shell (so I've been zealous here).

answered Feb 23, 2012 at 20:50

Borealid

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