On Thu, 22 Jun 2006, James Pearson wrote:
Robert wrote:
Can someone explain why this: find . -depth -print0 | cpio --null -pmd /tmp/test will copy all files in and below the current directory -and- this: find . -depth -print | grep -v .iso$ | wc -l will count all the non-iso files -and- this: find . -depth -print | grep .iso$ | wc -l will count *only* the iso files -but- this: find . -depth -print0 | grep -v .iso$ | cpio --null -pmd /tmp/test doesn't copy *anything*? Any suggestions for a work-around would also be most welcome.
Because -print0 generates a NULL separated list - so grep will match .iso\0 in the string generated by find and hence not output any list for cpio to read ...
One workaround:
find . -depth -print | grep -v .iso$ | cpio -pmd /tmp/test
The -print0 command is typically used when find is passing filenames with spaces or other characters that require a shell escape.
If the filenames are all shell-safe, then -print0 is unnecessary. If there's a chance that even one name contains a space, however, then -print0 is your friend.
-- Paul Heinlein heinlein@madboa.com