bash finding files in directories recursively

Question

I'm studying the bash shell and lately understood i'm not getting right recursive calls involving file searching- i know find is made for this but I'm recently asked to implement a certain search this way or another.

I wrote the next script:

#!/bin/bash


function rec_search {
for file in `ls $1`; do
echo ${1}/${item}
if[[ -d $item ]]; then
rec ${1}/${item}
fi
done
}

rec $1

the script gets as argument file and looking for it recursively. i find it a poor solution of mine. and have a few improvement questions:

how to find files that contain spaces in their names
can i efficiently use pwd command for printing out absolute address (i tried so, but unsuccessfully)
every other reasonable improvement of the code

Don't use ls!

Biffen
– Biffen

2016-08-11 11:48:40 +00:00
Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 11:48 — Biffen
– Biffen, Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 11:48
@Inian find is not a built-in command in any shell.

chepner
– chepner

2016-08-11 12:37:10 +00:00
Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 12:37 — chepner
– chepner, Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 12:37
@chepner: Agreed it should have been GNU findutils

Inian
– Inian

2016-08-11 12:40:00 +00:00
Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 12:40 — Inian
– Inian, Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 12:40

janos · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-11 12:01:39Z

3

Your script currently cannot work:

The function is defined as rec_search, but then it seems you mistakenly call rec
You need to put a space after the "if" in if[[

There are some other serious issues with it too:

for file in `ls $1` goes against the recommendation to "never parse the output of ls", won't work for paths with spaces or other whitespace characters
You should indent the body of if and for to make it easier to read

The script could be fixed like this:

rec() {
    for path; do
        echo "$path"
        if [[ -d "$path" ]]; then
            rec "$path"/*
        fi
    done
}

But it's best to not reinvent the wheel and use the find command instead.

answered Aug 11, 2016 at 12:01

janos

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Comments

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-11 12:36:37Z

0

If you are using bash 4 or later (which is likely unless you running this under Mac OS X), you can use the ** operator.

rec () {
  shopt -s globstar
  for file in "$1"/**/*; do
    echo "$file"
  done
}

answered Aug 11, 2016 at 12:36

chepner

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