How to combine 2 -name conditions in find?

Question

I would like to search for files that would not match 2 -name conditions. I can do it like so :

find /media/d/ -type f -size +50M ! -name "*deb" ! -name "*vmdk"

and this will yield proper result but can I join these 2 condition with OR somehow ?

score 281 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 12 '12 at 15:05

281

yes, you can:

find /media/d/ -type f -size +50M ! \( -name "*deb" -o -name "*vmdk" \)

Explanation from the POSIX spec:

! expression : Negation of a primary; the unary NOT operator.

( expression ): True if expression is true.

expression -o expression: Alternation of primaries; the OR operator. The second expression shall not be evaluated if the first expression is true.

Note that parenthesis, both opening and closing, are prefixed by a backslash (\) to prevent evaluation by the shell.

edited Oct 12 '12 at 15:05

rahmu

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answered Oct 11 '12 at 18:08

Serge

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If you're doing `-exec` or any other action on the `find` results, remember to parenthese `\( \)` the whole criteria, otherwise `-exec` will apply only to the last `-or`-ed criterion. To work on all of them, parenthese them: `find \( -o \) -exec ` – Victor Sergienko Jun 13 '19 at 20:38
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this should be the accepted answer – swe Sep 29 '20 at 13:17
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one may want to consider -iname instead of -name for case insensitivity – Luke Rehmann Oct 09 '20 at 16:57
also `-execdir` is preferable wrt `-exec` – Alessandro Cuttin Jun 23 '21 at 09:02

Alex Leach · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-13T11:04:18.503

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You can do this using a negated -regex, too:-

 find ./ ! -regex  '.*\(deb\|vmdk\)$'

edited Oct 13 '12 at 11:04

answered Oct 11 '12 at 21:18

Alex Leach

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Note that `-regex` is less portable than `-name`. – jw013 Oct 12 '12 at 13:54
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Should not be the accepted answer. Question asks for a solution using multiple name patterns with `find -name`. Serge's answer answers that. – Veverke Nov 24 '20 at 12:04

score 46 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 07 '20 at 10:59

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You were close to a solution:

find /media/d/ -type f -size +50M -and ! -name "*deb" -and ! -name "*vmdk"

You can combine the following logic operators in any sequence:

-a   -and      - operator AND
-o   -or       - operator OR
!              - operator NOT

edited Feb 07 '20 at 10:59

makrom

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answered Jun 11 '16 at 13:18

DenisKolodin

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It doesn't look like you've actually changed the effect of the user's `find` command. Note that `-a` is the default operator if an explicit operator is missing. Also note that if you use `-o`, there must be a logical grouping of the two name tests. You do this with `\( ... \)`. – Kusalananda Feb 07 '20 at 12:29
Absolutely incredible. This 'find' command is changing my life. – wheeleruniverse Nov 19 '20 at 06:31

score 8 · Answer 4 · 2012-10-12T14:09:04.310

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You can use regular expressions as in:

find /media/d -type f -size +50M ! -regex '\(.*deb\|.*vmdk\)'

Backslash is the escape character; . matches a single character, and * serves to match the previous character zero or more times, so .* means match zero or more characters.

edited Oct 12 '12 at 14:09

answered Oct 12 '12 at 13:48

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Adding an explanation would make your answer better. – N.N. Oct 12 '12 at 14:01
You're right. Added some explanations. – Oct 12 '12 at 14:09

How to combine 2 -name conditions in find?

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