On 07Mar2011 16:34, Kevin Martin <kevintm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: | Strangely enough, if I'm in a directory and do a "find . -name e" (where e doesn't exist) I get *no* failed message and an exit code | of 0. I find that a bit odd as I would think that "find e" and "find . -name e" would be the same thing. Perhaps that's something | to do with the bash shell? No, it just means that find has successfully searched your directory and encountered no errors. Something like a directory it could not search etc would evince a non-zero status. One approach might be like this: find the-dir -name e >find.output if [ -s find.output ] then echo file found else echo file no found fi Of course, you will often want to check that exactly one file was found, etc. For example: nfiles=`wc -l <find.output` case $nfiles in 0) echo nothing found ;; 1) the_file=$(<find.output) echo found $the_file ;; *) echo $nfiles files found ;; esac Cheers, -- Cameron Simpson <cs@xxxxxxxxxx> DoD#743 http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/ We now return you to the previously scheduled counter-steering flame-fest and under-clothing auction, after a few words about your sponsor, the DoD. - Denis McKeon <galway@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines