How can I make find return non-0 if -exec command fails?

Question

When I run the find command with an -exec subcommand that fails, find returns a 0 exit code:

$ find . -iname '*.txt' -exec ls foo \;
ls: foo: No such file or directory
ls: foo: No such file or directory
ls: foo: No such file or directory
ls: foo: No such file or directory
ls: foo: No such file or directory
ls: foo: No such file or directory
ls: foo: No such file or directory
$ echo $?
0

Is there any way to make find fail if any of its subcommands fail?

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 28 '18 at 15:57

0

That's the limitation of find. Refer to the standard: http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/find.html

It will return 0 unless error happened while traversing directories.

Use xargs instead.

answered Mar 28 '18 at 15:57

Danila Ladner

5,321

Can you please expand on what you mean by "use xargs instead"? An example would be appreciated. – David Eyk Mar 28 '18 at 16:08
find . -iname '*.txt' -print0 | xargs -n 1 -0 ls foo – Danila Ladner Mar 28 '18 at 16:23

How can I make find return non-0 if -exec command fails?

1 Answers1