Why should I escape the semicolon with find?












2















I'm using bash on Debian. I have to write



find -iname "*mp3" -exec cp {}  /media/MP3Player/ ;


escaping the final semicolon, or else I get an error.






find options







share|improve this question




















  • 1





    -exec command ;

    – Jeff Schaller
    Jan 4 at 20:20
















2















I'm using bash on Debian. I have to write



find -iname "*mp3" -exec cp {}  /media/MP3Player/ ;


escaping the final semicolon, or else I get an error.






find options







share|improve this question




















  • 1





    -exec command ;

    – Jeff Schaller
    Jan 4 at 20:20














2












2








2








I'm using bash on Debian. I have to write



find -iname "*mp3" -exec cp {}  /media/MP3Player/ ;


escaping the final semicolon, or else I get an error.






find options







share|improve this question
















I'm using bash on Debian. I have to write



find -iname "*mp3" -exec cp {}  /media/MP3Player/ ;


escaping the final semicolon, or else I get an error.






find options




find options






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Jan 5 at 12:41







Poor Standard

















asked Jan 4 at 20:16









Poor StandardPoor Standard

133




133








  • 1





    -exec command ;

    – Jeff Schaller
    Jan 4 at 20:20














  • 1





    -exec command ;

    – Jeff Schaller
    Jan 4 at 20:20








1




1





-exec command ;

– Jeff Schaller
Jan 4 at 20:20





-exec command ;

– Jeff Schaller
Jan 4 at 20:20










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















9














You have to escape the semicolon so that your current shell doesn't see it and use it as a command separator before find gets to see it and use it to terminate the command you're sending to -exec.



Also, the manual does state in relevant part:




-exec utility [argument ...] ;



[...]



The expression must be terminated by a semi-
colon (;). If you invoke find from a shell you may need to quote the semicolon if the shell would otherwise treat it as a
control operator.




n. b. quickly searching my find manual shows examples of the ; syntax.






share|improve this answer

























    Your Answer








    StackExchange.ready(function() {
    var channelOptions = {
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "106"
    };
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
    createEditor();
    });
    }
    else {
    createEditor();
    }
    });

    function createEditor() {
    StackExchange.prepareEditor({
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader: {
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    },
    onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    });


    }
    });














    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function () {
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f492574%2fwhy-should-i-escape-the-semicolon-with-find%23new-answer', 'question_page');
    }
    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes








    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    9














    You have to escape the semicolon so that your current shell doesn't see it and use it as a command separator before find gets to see it and use it to terminate the command you're sending to -exec.



    Also, the manual does state in relevant part:




    -exec utility [argument ...] ;



    [...]



    The expression must be terminated by a semi-
    colon (;). If you invoke find from a shell you may need to quote the semicolon if the shell would otherwise treat it as a
    control operator.




    n. b. quickly searching my find manual shows examples of the ; syntax.






    share|improve this answer






























      9














      You have to escape the semicolon so that your current shell doesn't see it and use it as a command separator before find gets to see it and use it to terminate the command you're sending to -exec.



      Also, the manual does state in relevant part:




      -exec utility [argument ...] ;



      [...]



      The expression must be terminated by a semi-
      colon (;). If you invoke find from a shell you may need to quote the semicolon if the shell would otherwise treat it as a
      control operator.




      n. b. quickly searching my find manual shows examples of the ; syntax.






      share|improve this answer




























        9












        9








        9







        You have to escape the semicolon so that your current shell doesn't see it and use it as a command separator before find gets to see it and use it to terminate the command you're sending to -exec.



        Also, the manual does state in relevant part:




        -exec utility [argument ...] ;



        [...]



        The expression must be terminated by a semi-
        colon (;). If you invoke find from a shell you may need to quote the semicolon if the shell would otherwise treat it as a
        control operator.




        n. b. quickly searching my find manual shows examples of the ; syntax.






        share|improve this answer















        You have to escape the semicolon so that your current shell doesn't see it and use it as a command separator before find gets to see it and use it to terminate the command you're sending to -exec.



        Also, the manual does state in relevant part:




        -exec utility [argument ...] ;



        [...]



        The expression must be terminated by a semi-
        colon (;). If you invoke find from a shell you may need to quote the semicolon if the shell would otherwise treat it as a
        control operator.




        n. b. quickly searching my find manual shows examples of the ; syntax.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited Jan 4 at 20:22

























        answered Jan 4 at 20:17









        DopeGhotiDopeGhoti

        45.3k55988




        45.3k55988






























            draft saved

            draft discarded




















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid …



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f492574%2fwhy-should-i-escape-the-semicolon-with-find%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            -

            Popular posts from this blog

            How to change which sound is reproduced for terminal bell?

            Image
            3 Recently upgrade to 18.10 from 18.04, and using the terminal is becoming annoying: the new alert sound is a drip ( /usr/share/sounds/gnome/default/alerts/drip.ogg ), and the previous one is still located at ( /usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/bell.ogg ). My issue is that at the gnome-terminal, when autocompleting or pressing left BOTH sounds are reproduced, at the same time. I want to just have ubuntu/stereo/bell.ogg active, not both . At the moment I have been only able to reduce the volume of the alerts (but still both are played), or turn the alerts down (but I dislike both "solutions"). gnome-terminal 18.10 teminal-bell share | improve this question
            Read more

            Title Spacing in Bjornstrup Chapter, Removing Chapter Number From Contents

            Image
            up vote 5 down vote favorite 2 I would like to make it so that the vertical space below the title of each chapter is the same when using the Bjornstrup package (i.e. so that the descenders do not affect the spacing - as shown by the red arrow in the picture below). I think I'm fairly happy with the spacing around "A chapter", so I'd really like titles without descenders (e.g. "Contents") to have the same vertical spacing as "A chapter" below the title. I would also like to remove the large "0" in the contents title. Any help appreciated, as always. documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{book} % Packages[![enter image description here][1]][1] usepackage[left=3.5cm, right=3.5cm, top=4.3cm, bottom=4.25cm]{geometry} usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} usepackage{libertine} usepackage[libertine]{newtx
            Read more

            Can I use Tabulator js library in my java Spring + Thymeleaf project?

            Image
            0 I want to add Tabulator js to my java project. I added tabulator.min.js, tabulator.min.css to resources folder. After that added to my html page these dependencies as recommending in readme.md. <link rel="stylesheet" th:href="@{/css/tabulator.min.css}"> <script type="text/javascript" th:src="@{/js/tabulator.min.js}"></script> Now my tables view all elements, that I have in the html page, but not correct. In the documentation of Tabulator is example how to create header and table, var table = new Tabulator("#example-table", { columns:[ {title:"Name", field:"name", sorter:"string", width:200, editor:true}, {title:"Age", field:"age", sorter:"
            Read more