Does `find` support multiple `maxdepth` conditions

find

I want to execute a find search with multiple maxdepths, depending on the directory.

Is this possible? It seems that -maxdepth is "global", but I was curious if there is some workaround.

(I'm aware it's possible to execute two separate commands, but using one would be faster, and it would keep the calling code simpler)

Best Answer

You can sort of emulate it using -prune on different matching pathnames. For example, to match /etc to depth 1, and /lib to depth 2:

find /etc /lib/ \
    \( -regex '/etc/[^/]*/.*'       -prune \) \
 -o \( -regex '/lib/[^/]*/[^/]*/.*' -prune \) \
 -o -print

You need to be careful to add the last line to print or otherwise operate on the remaining files and directories.

Related Solutions

Bash – Execute multiple bash commands on the output of find

I came up with this example and as others have said in the comments it's the read line </dev/tty that's causing it to wait for user input.

#!/bin/bash

find db -type f -name '*.jpg' -exec sh -c '
file="$0"
echo "hi"
echo "$file"
read line </dev/tty
' {} \;

My script's output

hi
db/db1440/gothamgardenxmas21440.jpg
     <---- I hit enter here
hi
db/db1440/unveiling11440.jpg
     <---- I hit enter here    
hi
db/db1440/astronomer21440.jpg
     <---- I hit enter here
...

“find” output relative to directory

If what you are trying to do is not too complex, you could accomplish this with sed:

find diskimg | sed -n 's|^diskimg/||p'

Or cut:

find diskimg | cut -sd / -f 2-

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Bash – Execute multiple bash commands on the output of find

My script's output

“find” output relative to directory

Related Question