[bug #62268] [feature request] -quit N to make find exit immediately with a certain exit code

[Martin von Wittich]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?62268>

                 Summary: [feature request] -quit N to make find exit
immediately with a certain exit code
                 Project: findutils
            Submitted by: martinvonwittich
            Submitted on: Fri 08 Apr 2022 01:45:11 PM UTC
                Category: find
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: None
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: 
        Originator Email: 
             Open/Closed: Open
                 Release: None
         Discussion Lock: Any
           Fixed Release: None

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Details:

A very typical use case for find in shell scripting is to check if some files
exist, e.g. in an if block:


if find /tmp -name 'some_pattern*' | grep -q .
then
  do_something
fi


Unfortunately find currently doesn't have any way to communicate "some
matches" or "no matches" via exit code, necessitating the grep -q workaround,
or another workaround like -exec false:


if find /tmp -name 'some_pattern*' -exec false {} +
then
  do_something
fi


There is a -quit operator that exits find immediately, but it doesn't
currently support specifying an exit code. It would be useful if it were
possible to specify an exit code via -quit N so we could use find like this:


if ! find /tmp -name 'some_pattern*' -quit 1
then
  do_something
fi


Adding support for specifying an exit code has been suggested by berny before,
but unfortunately it went unnoticed:
https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=54730#comment6






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