find: missing argument to `-exec' when executing the find command in Linux [closed]

Question

I get the error find: missing argument to-exec'` when I attempt to run the command

find . -maxdepth 1 \( -iname \*.png -o -iname \*.jpg \) -exec echo {} \; 

The reason I am using echo is because I want to make sure it is returning the results I expect before I replace it with either rm or mv. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You don't need -exec... at all. Just run the command without it, and you will see what it found.

If it looks acceptable, add -delete onto the end to delete the files.

Answer 2

The issue apparently was I was using the : in my command as opposed to ;. I noticed that as I repeated the exercise having read the example at Why might -exec affect the output of find in Linux?.

The example I posted although real was typed out as opposed to copied and pasted.