24

I often try to find files with following syntax:

find . -name "filetofind"

However it usually results as many rows or error reporting (Permission denied) about folders where permission is denied. Is there any other way to avoid this spam than using sudo or advanced grepping from error-output?

2

3 Answers 3

27

Try

find . -name "filetofind" 2>/dev/null

This will redirect stderr output stream, which is used to report all errors, including "Access denied" one, to null device.

2
  • Thanks, works like a charm :) I suppose there is no easy way to make it default option without creating an alias doing the same.
    – user40167
    Aug 24, 2010 at 11:01
  • No, this is by design of the shell.
    – Catherine
    Aug 24, 2010 at 11:10
11

You can also use the -perm and -prune predicates to avoid descending into unreadable directories (see also How do I remove "permission denied" printout statements from the find program? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange):

find . -type d ! -perm -g+r,u+r,o+r -prune -o -name "filetofind" -print
3

If you want to see other errors and you don't have files named "permission denied" then this will work "better".

find . -name "filetofind" 2>&1 | grep -v 'permission denied' 

Redirecting the output to grep with the inversion option.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .