Searching for *.graphml files with the find utility

Question

I am trying to find all my GRAPHML files under the current directory in bash. So I ran the following command:

find . -name *.graphml

And I get the error message:

find: paths must precede expression
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [path...] [expression]

What is wrong with the command above? The strange thing is that it works fine for other regexps.

Answer 1

Always enclose the pattern in quotes (e.g. *.graphml in your case). Otherwise it will be expanded by the shell before the find command. This means that find does not get a literal *graphml passed, but rather what the shell expands *.graphml to.

Therefore:

find . -name "*.graphml*"

See:

• man find which says: "Don't forget to enclose the pattern in quotes in order to protect it from expansion by the shell."
• A little more about Quoting from the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide.