UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

find $HOME \ ( \( -name ´*.bak´ -ctime +20 \) -o \ \( -size 0 -user kurs00 \) \) -exec rm -i {} \; -print

this is the syntax, i know what -name, -ctime and so on means, but i don't know what the -o or the \\ or the () or the {} mean.

Can someone please explain?

I searched the internet, I just couldn't find a good explanation....
This is for a school assignment, I don't want a answer that i can copy and paste, i really want to understand this stuff...

-o is 'or', ()s group the expressions for the or, and {} is a placeholder for the filename(s) found.

https://www.unix.com/man-page/POSIX/0/find/

It's a conditional find command
-o means logical or
which is
expr1 -o expr2
Or; expr2 is not evaluated if expr1 is true.

\\ A literal backslash ('\').

() Force precedence of the expression between parentheses


-exec command {}
This variant of the -exec option runs the specified command on the selected files.

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