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I'm trying to find files from a list and copy them to another place. So I started my test loop like that:

# cat ~/my_filelist.txt | while read file ; do echo "$file" ; done

After I hit enter all filenames from my_filelist.txt are print to stdout, fine.

Now I replaced "echo" with "find" command like that:

# cat ~/my_filelist.txt | while read file ; do find . -name "$file" ; done

I thought that find will print the results to stdout, but nothing happens O_o

I can see that find is working but where is the ouput?

Could somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Many thanks in advance!

gonzo
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  • What is the purpose of . beetween find and -name? . is a substitute for a source. Try to use ./ or ~/ or /. – TheSAS Oct 30 '13 at 13:50
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    @TheSAS The first argument to find is always the directory for find to walk. Besides, arguments are (almost) never interpreted by the shell as program names. echo rm -rf / will print rm -rf /, not delete everything. – Blacklight Shining Oct 30 '13 at 13:55
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    Are the filenames in my_filelist.txt absolute or relative to .? They have to be basenames, without paths; -name only looks at the basename of each file it encounters. If you want to use paths, use -path instead. – Blacklight Shining Oct 30 '13 at 13:58
  • . is not a correct directory. Try to find . -name foo - error: paths must precede expression. – TheSAS Oct 30 '13 at 14:02
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    @TheSAS find . -name foo works perfectly fine for me on both Debian (GNU find 4.4.2) and on Mavericks (can't tell what version of find this is). – Blacklight Shining Oct 30 '13 at 14:05
  • @Blacklight This doesn't work in RHEL, find (version 4.2.27). So lets wait for a questionstarter. – TheSAS Oct 30 '13 at 14:08
  • In my_filelist.txt are only filenames like 001_FF_2013-02-02.TIF – gonzo Oct 30 '13 at 14:09
  • @TheSAS when I pick a filename from my and do a 'find . -name 012_DU_2012-01-01.TIF' in the current directory the file is found and the filname + the path is print to stdou like: – gonzo Oct 30 '13 at 14:14
  • /my_current_folder/DU_2012/012_DU_2012-01-01.TIF that path I want to use to copy the file to another place – gonzo Oct 30 '13 at 14:16
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    now tried this cat ~/my_filelist.txt | while read file ; do find . -name "$file" -exec cp{} /my/destination/folder \; done and it ends up with > like something is missen – gonzo Oct 30 '13 at 14:18
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    You need a semicolon after the find. The escaped semicolon lets find know that that's the end of the -exec part, then you need another semicolon before the done to mark the end of the find invocation for the shell: cat ~/my_filelist.txt | while read file ; do find . -name "$file" -exec cp {} $destination_dir \; ; done; – Blacklight Shining Oct 30 '13 at 14:30
  • @BlacklightShining thx for the semicolon tip. But unfortunately nothing is piped to cp{}. In htop I can see find working find . -name 152_TU_2011-05-09.TIF ? -exec cp{} /mnt/share/corrupt ;. But no files are copied :( – gonzo Oct 30 '13 at 14:57

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