Timeline for How to find files with find tool in system path ($PATH)? Or alternatively, How to specify starting-point directory for find as an expression?

Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0

7 events

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Apr 13, 2024 at 17:33	comment	added	Anton Samokat		@StéphaneChazelas I've found related question about this: Expansion of a shell variable and effect of glob and split on it
Apr 11, 2024 at 20:13	comment	added	Stéphane Chazelas		@AntonSamokat, we quote expansions to prevent the splitting and globbing that happens otherwise in list contexts. Note that the splitting part is not on "spaces" but on characters of `$IFS` (which only happens to contain space by default). A scalar variable assignment is not one of those list contexts. `PATH=~/bin:$PATH` is a scalar variable assignment. And in bash, in `export PATH=~/bin:$PATH` the argument to `export` is also treated as a scalar assignment, so there won't be any split+glob. `$PATH` is already exported though so the `export` is superfluous. Quoting `$PATH` won't harm. ~ does
Apr 11, 2024 at 18:12	vote	accept	Anton Samokat
Apr 11, 2024 at 18:11	comment	added	Anton Samokat		@StéphaneChazelas with `PATH=~/bin:$PATH` also everything is fine, but I think it is better to use quotes around $PATH like `export PATH=~/bin:"$PATH"` for case if $PATH contains or will contain spaces.
Apr 11, 2024 at 18:05	comment	added	Anton Samokat		I had `export PATH="~/bin:$PATH"` in `~/.bashrc`. After fixing it to `export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"` command find `echo $PATH \| tr ':' ' '` -lname /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice started working without showing error. `(IFS=:; find $PATH -lname /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice)` is also working. Thanks!
Apr 11, 2024 at 14:53	comment	added	Stéphane Chazelas		`~` will be expanded (at the time of that assignment) if you run `PATH=~/bin:$PATH`. The OP must have run something like `PATH='~/bin':$PATH`.
Apr 11, 2024 at 14:44	history	answered	Chris Davies	CC BY-SA 4.0