Run a command on the output of a first command
$ find /home/user/ -mtime -3 -print -exec cp {} /media/username/usb-stick/ \;will copy files created or modified within the last three days to the USB stick mounted.
The beginning of this command is the usual find command, with the option -mtime in this example.
We add the option -print so the shell shows what’s being copied.
Then comes -exec which runs the command cp, in this example, on the selected files. The curly brackets i.e. {} come along with usage of -exec and are replaced by the current file name being processed.
; tells -exec that it is the end of the command.
Backslash i.e. \ is just here to escaped ;.
Nota Bene: -exec executes the command on each find (not as a batch).
To learn more about the option -exec, run $ man find.
To learn more about the option -mtime, check out: https://yctct.com/find-mtime
The utility find was published in 1971 and is copyleft-licensed.
personal computing command-line interface (cli) gnu linux trisquel shell literacy office applications wiki exec
