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To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Matt Tagg <wamatt@gmail.com>
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From: "Chris H" <bsd-lists@bsdforge.com>
Subject: Re: find with -delete option on absolute paths
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2015 21:44:57 -0700
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On Tue, 10 Mar 2015 20:31:52 -0700 Matt Tagg <wamatt@gmail.com> wrote

> Hey BSD folks
> 
> I believe this was discussed previously (2013), though I could not
> find a resolution.
> 
> To recap, suppose we try deleting files on an absolute path:
> 
> matt@mtbook:/% find /tmp/foo/* -delete
> find: -delete: /tmp/foo/bar.txt: relative path potentially not safe
> 
> As you can see it gives an error and quits. However if we instead try this:
> 
> matt@mtbook:/% gfind /tmp/foo/* -delete
> 
> GNU Find throws no error and works as expected ('bar.txt is deleted')
> 
> So as an end user, I find this rather confusing. How can I get the
> same behavior with BSD Find out of the box?
I don't know. But for tasks like you describe, I generally
cobble up (bourne)shell scripts, and keep them handy in my
~/bin/ folder. Heck, you could easily create aliases to
accomplish frequently used one-liners, and let us not
overlook your shells history.

But regarding your specific line above; maybe you mean:
# find -name /tmp/foo/* -delete, or
#find /tmp/foo/ -name * -delete
or for directories
# find /tmp/ -type d -name foo -delete
which wouldn't probably work, but is basically the
syntax your looking for. The key here, is -name. If
you get into the habit of using it, you'll forget
you need to add it, before you know it.
But for me; I'm still keen on cobbling up one-liners
for this sort of thing. :)

All the best.

--Chris
> 
> Thanks
> - m
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