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Full Discussion: Using "find" and "-exec rm" ... Just no luck :(
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Using "find" and "-exec rm" ... Just no luck :( Post 302348770 by reborg on Saturday 29th of August 2009 03:58:01 PM
Old 08-29-2009
I would have to to agree in general with Jlliagre, and I believe that methyl's observations show a possible behavior but that the interpretation of why this happens is incorrect.

The {} in find is a substitution for the found string, with or without spaces. It is should not require quoting, and should be passed directly as a single element to the array of arguments for the exec() irrespective of how many times it occurs in the command.

I would also agree that any version of find that requires quotes to handle multi-word strings is very odd, given that the executed command is not interpreted by the shell but just used as a substitution internally in the find command prior to exec() of the specified command.

That being said however the shell being used could easily affect the outcome. If the shell interprets the {} and makes a substitution or expansion prior to running the find command then all bets are off. I can't think of an example off hand, but similar things happen with the '!' character. Using ksh I could use a veritas command with a disk layout like:
Code:
disk1 disk2 !disk3 !disk4

However if I do the same thing in bash, it would have to be:
Code:
disk1 disk2 \!disk3 \!disk4

because the '!' would be interpreted as history expansion.

In summary then: depending on the the shell being used, the quotes may protect from expansion by the parent shell in which find is running but they should not have any effect in preserving multi-word filenames.

---------- Post updated at 08:58 PM ---------- Previous update was at 08:56 PM ----------

For reference, the quotes are not needed on Ubuntu for any of the well known shells. I can only conclude that Dean Rotherham has something non standard because his observations of the behavior of Ubuntu are not correct ( nor would they be correct for any Linux based OS I know of, past or present ).
 

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LEARN ABOUT DEBIAN

caca-config

caca-config(1)						      General Commands Manual						    caca-config(1)

NAME

       caca-config - script to get information about the installed version of libcaca

SYNOPSIS

       caca-config [ --prefix= DIR] [ --exec-prefix= DIR] [ --version ] [ --libs ] [ --cflags ]

DESCRIPTION

       caca-config  is	a  tool  that  is  used  to  configure and determine the compiler and linker flags that should be used to compile and link
       progams, libraries, and plugins that use libcaca.

       The use of caca-config is deprecated. The more generic tool pkg-config should be used instead.

OPTIONS

       --cflags
	      Print the compiler flags that are necessary to compile a program or library that uses libcaca.

       --exec-prefix=DIR
	      If specified, use DIR instead of the installation exec prefix that libcaca was build with when computing the output for the --cflags
	      and --libs options.  This option must be specified before any of the --cflags and --libs options.

       --libs Print the linker flags that are necessary to link a program or library that uses libcaca.

       --prefix=DIR
	      If  specified,  use PREFIX instead of the installation prefix that libcaca was built with when computing the output for the --cflags
	      and --libs options.  This option is also used for the exec prefix if --exec-prefix was not specified.  This option must be specified
	      before any of the --cflags and --libs options.

       --version
	      Prints the currently installed version of libcaca on standard output.

EXAMPLES

       gcc -o main.o $(caca-config --cflags) -c main.c
	      is how you might use caca-config to compile a C source file for an executable program.

       gcc -o my_app $(caca-config --libs) main.o util.o
	      is how you might use caca-config to link compiled objects into an executable program.

SEE ALSO

       pkg-config(1)

AUTHOR

       The libcaca library was written by Sam Hocevar <sam@hocevar.net>.

       This manual page was written for sdl-config by Branden Robinson, originally for Progeny Linux Systems, Inc., and the Debian Project. It was
       adapted to libcaca by Sam Hocevar.

libcaca 							    2003-11-22							    caca-config(1)
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