Using `find` for multiple file extensions

Question

I am using the following command for counting the lines of text in JAVA files:

find . -name '*.java' | xargs wc -l

How can I modify the find command parameters to match more than one file extension? For example, I would like use the above operation for CPP, C, and H files.

Answer 1

$ find /path/ -name '*.cpp' -or -name '*.c' -or -name '*.h'

The “-or” says I’m looking for either/both of two sets.

I recently wrote a quick guide to using find with boolean operators here: http://jamesfishwick.com/2012/linux-find-and-boolean-operators

Answer 2

You will need to use the -o option. For example the statement below finds all png, jpg and gif files in a folder.

find . \( -iname \*.png -o -iname \*.jpg -o -iname \*.gif \)

I use the -iname option so that the match is case insensitive.

Answer 3

Use the -o option for an OR. For example, this would list .cpp, .c and .h files:

find . -name \*.cpp -o -name \*.c -o -name \*.h