On Wed, 15 Aug 2012, Craig White wrote: > the relevant snippet is... > > NAME="*.mov" > cd $IN > if test -n "$(find . -maxdepth 1 -name $NAME -print -quit)" > > and if there is one file in this directory - ie test.mov, this works fine > > but if there are two (or more) files in this directory - test.mov, test2.mov > > then I get an error... > find: paths must precede expression The substitution of $NAME is expanding the wild card, giving you a single -name with two arguments. You probably want something like: NAME="\*.mov" Steve