Error in man page, re: -printf \ escape
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
findutils (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Low
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: findutils
Hi,
In the findutils package 4.2.22-2, installed on a 'Breezy' machine, the man page states, under the section for '-printf':
\v Vertical tab.
\ ASCII NUL.
\\ A literal backslash (`\').
I believe the '\ ASCII NUL.' entry is wrong. Despite repeated attempts to use this feature, I failed. I eventually found that the information obtained by the command 'info find' differs on the available escapes for the -printf option. The same documentation for the -printf command, taken from the 'info find' command on the same Breezy system reads:
3.2.1 Escapes
-------------
<snip>
`\v' Vertical tab.
`\\' A literal backslash (`\').
As you can see, the '\' option is not listed.
Indeed, in my testing, this works:
find . -iname "a*" -print0 | xargs -0 du -h
This works, using octal 000 to get a null character:
find . -iname "a*" -printf '%f\000' | xargs -0 du -h
but this does not work:
find . -iname "a*" -printf '%f\' | xargs -0 du -h
Thanks!
Ben
Related branches
Changed in findutils: | |
importance: | Undecided → Low |
status: | Confirmed → Triaged |
Still present in Dapper!
man find gives the (apparently) wrong information.
info find give the correct information