Error = find: -exec: no terminating ";" or "+"

Question

I am looking for some help trying to get a command working. I want to find some files only and move them, but when I enter this command:

find /Volumes/NEXSAN/Engine\ Folders/Input/DTO_Proxy/* -type f -mtime +7 -exec mv -v {} /Volumes/NEXSAN/.2BeDeleted4realz/

I get this error

find: -exec: no terminating ";" or "+"

I know I probably have it wrong, but I can't figure out what's missing?

On a tangential note, I made the mistake of using + without {} which produced the same (misleading) error message on OSX 10.6.8. — tripleee
– tripleee, Commented Oct 18, 2015 at 9:11
A similar error can occur if the exec command is in quotes. E.g.: find . -name foo -exec "stat {} \;". — bshacklett
– bshacklett, Commented Jan 17, 2024 at 17:49

MrWonderful · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-19 21:18:02Z

77

Just terminate the find command with \;, making sure to include the space before the \;.

find /Volumes/NEXSAN/Engine\ Folders/Input/DTO_Proxy/* -type f -mtime +7 -exec mv -v {} /Volumes/NEXSAN/.2BeDeleted4realz/ \;

edited Mar 19, 2015 at 21:18

MrWonderful

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answered Aug 5, 2014 at 15:36

Avinash Raj

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5 Comments

kfriend Over a year ago

To anyone who comes across this, make sure that there is a space before the terminating "\;", or find will still complain about no terminating ";"

drevicko Over a year ago

How does one do this for a terminating '+'? I tried "\+" and it didn't work (bash 4.3.46, find isn't telling me it's version !?, it's on osx)

David Resnick Over a year ago

@drevicko It worked for me after adding {}, i.e. -exec mv {} +.

drevicko Over a year ago

@DavidResnick was a while ago, but... I think I had some command parameters between {} and \+. This is not allowed by find --- I think because of the way it determines when it needs to run multiple commands (due to there being a lot of found files, hence the command line is too long to do in one go).

Locane Over a year ago

And we all wonder why unix / linux isn't more widely adopted by regular people...

Michael Mior · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-13 23:32:14Z

If you want to correct the find command that you had, it should look like this:

find . -name '*.xml' -exec SetFile -t TEXT {} \;

The *.xml needs to be quoted so it's passed as a parameter to find instead of expanded by the shell. The ; also needs to be escaped so it's passed as part of the parameter to find and not interpreted by the shell.

Keep in mind this will only work for files within the current directory (and subdirectories) and for any new files created, you would need to run the command again.

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