UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi everyone,

I'm using a recursive find (you know the type, find . -name qwert*) to find a set of files. However, because I'm new to the system and there is not much documentation about these particular files I'm trying to find them using this recursive find.

I started off at the location where the documentation said they would be, they weren't there. So I started off using the 'find' command from the directory above, and carrying from there.

One of the problems, is that I'm getting messages telling me when the find command comes across a directory which I don't have permission to enter. The message written to the screen takes up space, pushing the previous results up a line. If you have a lot of these messages any particular results that are important to me get shoved off the screen, and even if you set the screen buffer very high, there is still a chance that they won't get caught in the buffer, plus it is a bind having to search through a big list like this to find what you want.

So my question is: Is there any method of using the find command (or some recursive search command(s)) that will enable me to search for a profile without getting useless warning messages? (Useless because, if I can't go into that directory then there is no way these files would be there)

Thanks in advance,

Anthony

Just redirect STDERR to /dev/null, i.e.

Code:

my_find_command_here 2>/dev/null

Cheers
ZB

Redirect error message to /dev/null by adding "2> /dev/null" to your command.

e.g.

find / -name file_i_am_looking_for 2> /dev/null

Thanks a lot guys, it was just what I wanted!