Debian GNU/Linux Reference Guide
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8.6.19 Script snippets for looping over each file

The following ways of looping over each file matching *.ext ensures proper handling of funny file names such as ones with spaces and performs equivalent process:

• Shell loop (This example is multi line style with PS2=" " . To do the same in one line, you insert a semicolon for each line break.):

       for x in *.ext; do
         if test -f "$x"; then
           command "$x"
         fi
       done
  

• find and xargs combination:

       find . -type f -maxdepth 1 -name '*.ext' -print0 | \
        xargs -0 -n 1 command
  

• find with -exec option with a command:

       find . -type f -maxdepth 1 -name '*.ext' \
        -exec command '{}' \;
  

• find with -exec option with a short shell script:

       find . -type f -maxdepth 1 -name '*.ext' \
        -exec sh -c "command '{}' && echo 'successful'" \;
  

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