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On linux, the default find command ((GNU findutils) 4.4.2 on my system) has an optional path parameter, which defaults to current directory (the common case). From man page:

find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-D debugopts] [-Olevel] [path...] [expression]

On OSX, find does not have an optional path parameter:

usage: find [-H | -L | -P] [-EXdsx] [-f path] path ... [expression]
       find [-H | -L | -P] [-EXdsx] -f path [path ...] [expression]

I find this quite annoying. Has anyone solved this issue with a clever command alias/shell function, or perhaps by installing a different version of find?

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This is completely OT for SO, but historically find always required a path - it became optional in Linux but that is by no means standard. Typically you just type . for the path when searching from the current directory, e.g. find . -name foo.txt. – Paul R Jan 16 at 16:19
@PaulR sorry, I wasn't sure if this would be OT or not. I found some other questions asking about command line usage. Maybe they were old, before other stack exchange domains went up. Where would this belong? – michalmocny Jan 16 at 17:49

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 16 at 20:16

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OS X uses BSD find, which has historically required a path. You can install GNU findutils via MacPorts or the like.

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Or create a simple shell script... – weberc2 Jan 16 at 21:13
Why a shell script when a function will do? – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jan 16 at 21:31
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brew install findutils installed gfind which I could alias. Thanks! – michalmocny Jan 16 at 22:22
@IgnacioVazquez-Abrams because it doesn't necessitate installing MacPorts or something similar. – weberc2 Jan 17 at 14:29
You don't need to install anything to have functions; they're part of bash. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jan 17 at 16:10

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