Solaris: find -exec command pipe command

find . -name "*.dat" -exec sh -c 'grep ID $1 | wc -l' {} {} \;

This find command will count the number of records in a each file by counting the keys. This is a simplistic example which assumes a hash type file structure where the text of the keys does not occure within data or other keys. The purpose of this example is to illustrate pipes within a find. Most would prefer the following code which produces the same result.

find . -name "*.dat" -print | xargs grep -c ID

Data_File_1.dat

Data_File_2.dat

ID:      1
Command: find

ID:      2
Command: xargs

ID:      1
Command: find

ID:      2
Command: xargs

ID:      3
Command: grep

Sample find, execute, grep command pipe command

bash$ find . -name "*.dat" -exec sh -c 'grep ID $1 | wc -l' {} {} \;
       3
       2
bash$ sh -c 'grep ID $1 | wc -l' Data_File_2.dat Data_File_2.dat
       3
bash$ sh -c 'grep ID $1 | wc -l' Data_File_1.dat Data_File_1.dat
       2

As we can see, the find command above is simply running the the two commands that follow it using -exec. The reason that the argument is passed it twice, Using {} {}, is to ensure that things will work if you simply try changing shells. The following code helps demonstrate this.

Shell and Argument Positions

bash$ sh -c 'echo $1' argument_1 agrument_2
agrument_2
bash$ bash -c 'echo $1' argument_1 agrument_2
agrument_2
bash$ csh -c 'echo $1' argument_1 agrument_2
argument_1

bash$ find . -name "*.dat" -exec sh -c 'grep ID $1 | wc -l' {} {} \;
       3
       2
bash$ find . -name "*.dat" -exec csh -c 'grep ID $1 | wc -l' {} {} \;
       3
       2
bash$ find . -name "*.dat" -exec csh -c 'grep ID $1 | wc -l' {} \;
       3
       2
bash$ find . -name "*.dat" -exec sh -c 'grep ID $0 | wc -l' {} \;
       3
       2
bash$ find . -name "*.dat" -exec bash -c 'grep ID $0 | wc -l' {} \;
       3
       2
bash$ find . -name "*.dat" -print -exec csh -c 'grep ID $1 | wc -l' {} {} \;
./Data_File_2.dat
       3
./Data_File_1.dat
       2
bash$ find . -name "*.dat" -exec csh -c 'echo -n $1; grep ID $1 | wc -l' {} {} \;
./Data_File_2.dat       3
./Data_File_1.dat       2

Roger Hall
COMPUSPEC