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1

I have a script that changes the properties of the files for a folder.

Here is the example tree:

dir 1
    --file 1
    --file 2
    --file 3
dir 2
    --file 1
    --file 2
dir 3
    --file 1
    --file 2
    --file 3

I am running this command on the terminal for which I wan to run the shell script (script.sh) for every directory

find . -type d -exec ./script.sh {}\;

it does not run and errors' this:

find: missing argument to `-exec'

What am I missing here?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 7 down vote accepted

You are missing the space between {} and ; :

find . -type d -exec ./script.sh {} \;
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just a space.. It worked. Thanks a ton –  Ashwin kumar Mar 28 '13 at 18:21
up vote 0 down vote

try

find . -type d -exec /path/to/script.sh '{}' \;

or

find . -type d -exec /path/to/script.sh \{\} \;

or (i believe it will work too, as "}" is unambiguously not special in that case, hence literral) :

find . -type d -exec /path/to/script.sh \{} \;
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I 1) added quotes around {} to avoid the shell to interpret {} as "launch something in the current shell" instead of the literral "{}" string. 2) added a space after it so that exec sees the expected ";" indicating the end of the exec command (that was the point making it "barf" to you) 3) put full path to the script to launch, to avoid confusion (reader and/or program) about which script is launched... –  Olivier Dulac Mar 28 '13 at 18:21

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