Linux

10710 readers

323 users here now

A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)

Also, check out:

Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Ategon@programming.dev

anzo@programming.dev

dwraf_of_ignorance@programming.dev

Help me understand bash syntax (programming.dev)

submitted 1 day ago by emotional_soup_88@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was trying to find all symbolic links in /usr/lib and use file on the first entry in the list, which I delimited with head -n 1.

Why does find /usr/lib -maxdepth 1 -type l | file $(head -n 1) work but find /usr/lib -maxdepth 1 -type l | head -n 1 | file does not?

It complains that I am not using file correctly. Probably because it lacks an argument, but - programmatically/syntactically - why can't file grab it's argument from the pipe?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] emotional_soup_88@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago

Thanks! So this was more about my lack of understanding of how the file command works... But anyway, this gave me some new stuff to study! Especially the -print0 and -quit options and the xargs command.