UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

What we need is anybody who is still running DYNIX or DRS/NX just to prove a point.

ok, found (not very common) one. The fish shell requires quotes.

Code:

~> touch testfile
~> find . -type f -name testfile -exec echo . {} . \;
.  .
~>  find . -type f -name testfile -exec echo . "{}" . \;
. ./testfile .

Hopefully you have access to Sunos 4.1.1 with Berkeley shell. I cited this O/S earlier because I had created a comment line in an old script about fixing the "{}" problem.[COLOR="#738fbf"]

---------- Post updated at 12:33 AM ---------- Previous update was at 12:29 AM ----------

I have never heard if the "fish" shell. Must have led a sheltered life in deep water under the rocks. Pound-to-a-penny it's a Berkeley derivative.

Unix commands generally do not have problems with space characters in file names. The main exceptions are the commands that both parse their input and expand meta-characters in it. That includes mainly shell interpreters. So yes, there are a lot of issues with shell scripts and space characters in filenames. One way to overcome them has always been to use find and {}.
The only reasonable explanation is you have been fooled by something else, didn't double check and stayed with that believing.
Older shells were all based on the original Bourne shell. Then came the C-shell, the Korn shell and later their open source clones and more or less innovative variants. I never heard of any of them handling {} a specific way.
As I wrote a couple of time, the find command itself has nothing to do with it as it does receive the very same parameter whether you quote {} or not.

Point taken I understand what is supposed to happen but it would be interesting to know why it sometimes does not work.


Looks like I am not the only one who quotes '{}' .
See this recent post.

https://www.unix.com/shell-programmin...directory.html

This is still unproved (and unprovable IMHO).
Sure, you aren't alone doing this. These extra quotes are harmless and not at all scripting error however, technically, they serve no purpose.

thanks for sharing ur knowledge

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