6

I want to repeat

touch ../template/filename

where filename comes from find. I want xargs to apply the touch operation, but I dont want it to insert a space like it usually does which derives into:

touch ../template/ filename

Here is my incomplete command. How Do I complete it?

find *.html | xargs touch ../template/WHAT-NOW
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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
12 
find -name "*.html" | xargs -d"\n" -I"{}" touch ../template/{}

find -name "*.html" -exec touch ../template/{} \;

Note that find *.html is wrong, since wildcards are expanded before command execution.

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2
  • The find command gives me ./photos_each.html when I actually meant photos_each.html. I want simply the filename
    – Jesvin Jose
    Sep 8, 2012 at 13:51
  • 1
    @aitchnyu: They are equivalent here. Both ../template/photos_each.html and ../template/./photos_each.html should work.
    – u1686_grawity
    Sep 8, 2012 at 14:41
4

This is easier to write as a shell loop. For instance, in C shell you might write:

foreach i (`find -name "*.html"`)
   touch ../template/$i
end

And here it is in bash:

for i in `find -name "*.html"`
do
   touch ../template/$i
done

And in my Hamilton C shell (full disclosure: I'm the author), I added a "..." wildcard to tree-walk, so you could write:

foreach i (.../*.html)
   touch ../template/$i
end
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0

Consider using GNU Parallel instead. That way you avoid nasty surprises if the filenames contain space ' or ":

find *.html | parallel -X touch ../template/{/}

See the intro videos to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL284C9FF2488BC6D1

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