find-exec

uqfindexec is a command-line tool developed to process files in a specified directory. It executes a given command or a pipeline of commands on each file found in that directory, similar to the -exec option of the Linux find command.

This program allows the user to specify commands that can include placeholders ({}) for file names, supports options for parallel execution, and can handle hidden files. It was designed for process management and command execution tasks in a Linux environment.

Features

• File Processing: Runs specified commands or pipelines on files in a directory.
• Placeholder Substitution: Replaces {} in the command with the file name being processed.
• Directory Scanning: Can work with specified directories or default to the current directory.
• Optional Hidden File Inclusion: Can process hidden files (--allfiles option).
• Parallel Processing: Supports parallel execution of commands for faster processing (--parallel option).
• Statistics: Outputs statistics about the processing of files (--stats option).
• Error Handling: Handles invalid directories, invalid commands, and missing files gracefully.

Usage

The program is run with the following options:

./uqfindexec [--directory dirname] [--stats] [--parallel] [--recurse] [--allfiles] [cmd]

• --directory dirname: Specifies the directory to process (defaults to current directory).
• --stats: Outputs statistics after processing.
• --parallel: Runs the commands in parallel for faster execution.
• --recurse: Recursively processes files in subdirectories (CSSE7231 only).
• --allfiles: Includes hidden files in the processing.
• cmd: Command or pipeline of commands to run on each file (can include {} as a placeholder for the file name).

Example Commands

1. Run the command wc -l on every file in the /etc directory:

./uqfindexec --directory /etc "wc -l {}"

2. Convert lowercase letters to uppercase in each file, saving the result in a new file:

./uqfindexec --allfiles "tr a-z A-Z < {} > {}.out"

3. Output file modification dates for all files in /etc modified in 2023:

./uqfindexec --directory /etc 'stat {} | grep "Change: 2023" | cut -d " " -f 2'