Re: -newer returning old results

[James Youngman]

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 3:06 PM, Kai Hendry <address@hidden> wrote:
> I have a script that uses find and -newer, however everytime it's
> invoked it returns the same selected old results. For the most part it
> works, but for example the particular old contents of
> "/home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/" are returned. How can
> this be explained?
>
> Many thanks,
>
>
> thor:456$ find /home/hendry/static.natalian.org -newer last.txt -iname
> *.ogg -o -iname *.ogv -type f

This is a valid find command line.  But there are two problems with it
that mean it no doubt does not do what you hoped.

1. You did not quote the arguments to -iname.   See for example the
section NON-BUGS in the find manpage.   Also see the description of
-iname in the same manual page.
2. The precedence of the implicit "and" between tests is higher than
that of "-o".    See the section OPERATORS in the find manpage.   In
other words

find /home/hendry/static.natalian.org -newer last.txt -iname "*.ogg"
-o -iname "*.ogv" -type f
means the same as
find /home/hendry/static.natalian.org \( -newer last.txt -iname
"*.ogg" \) -o \( -iname "*.ogv" -type f \)
not the same as
find /home/hendry/static.natalian.org  -newer last.txt \( -iname
"*.ogg" -o -iname "*.ogv" \) -type f

... whereas it is probably the latter (with the altered -type f) that
you intended.

I hope this helps,
James.



> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/12.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/11.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/23.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/24.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/22.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/33.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/32.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/21.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/31.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/13.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/34.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-07-12/talkaoke-2009-05-28-host_session_9-part_2.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_4205.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_3967.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_4206.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_4169.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_3969.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_4160.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_4217.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_4183.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_3949.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_3970.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_3966.ogv
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_3968.ogv
> thor:457$ cat last.txt
> /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2010-01-10/34.ogv
>
> thor:459$ stat /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_4205.ogv
>  File: `/home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05/mvi_4205.ogv'
>  Size: 3161219         Blocks: 6184       IO Block: 4096   regular file
> Device: 811h/2065d      Inode: 187843284   Links: 1
> Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: (67299/  hendry)   Gid: (24839/pg224602)
> Access: 2009-07-17 17:45:50.000000000 -0700
> Modify: 2009-01-05 05:41:32.000000000 -0800
> Change: 2009-07-23 06:57:19.000000000 -0700
> thor:460$ stat last.txt
>  File: `last.txt'
>  Size: 51              Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
> Device: 811h/2065d      Inode: 187260985   Links: 1
> Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--)  Uid: (67299/  hendry)   Gid: (24839/pg224602)
> Access: 2010-03-08 01:07:08.000000000 -0800
> Modify: 2010-10-20 06:56:42.000000000 -0700
> Change: 2010-10-20 06:56:42.000000000 -0700
> thor:461$ stat /home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05
>  File: `/home/hendry/static.natalian.org/2009-01-05'
>  Size: 4096            Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   directory
> Device: 811h/2065d      Inode: 187842583   Links: 2
> Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (67299/  hendry)   Gid: (24839/pg224602)
> Access: 2009-07-17 18:06:41.000000000 -0700
> Modify: 2009-01-05 05:41:32.000000000 -0800
> Change: 2009-07-23 06:57:19.000000000 -0700
>
>
>
> thor:463$ mount
> /dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
> tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
> proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
> sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
> tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
> devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
> /dev/sda2 on /tmp type ext3
> (rw,noexec,noatime,nodiratime,data=ordered,commit=300)
> /dev/sda6 on /var/spool/cron/crontabs type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev)
> /dev/sdb1 on /home type ext3
> (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,errors=remount-ro,data=writeback)
> none on /sys/kernel/config type configfs (rw)
>
>