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Using semicolon (;) vs plus (+) with exec in find

Why is there a difference in output between using 

find . -exec ls '{}' \+

and

find . -exec ls '{}' \;

I got:

$ find . -exec ls  \{\} \+
./file1  ./file2

.:
file1  file2  testdir1

./testdir1:
testdir2

./testdir1/testdir2:


$ find . -exec ls  \{\} \;
file1  file2  testdir1
testdir2
./file2
./file1
Solution

  • This might be best illustrated with an example. Let's say that find turns up these files:

    file1
file2
file3

    Using -exec with a semicolon (find . -exec ls '{}' \;), will execute

    ls file1
ls file2
ls file3

    But if you use a plus sign instead (find . -exec ls '{}' \+), as many filenames as possible are passed as arguments to a single command:

    ls file1 file2 file3

    The number of filenames is only limited by the system's maximum command line length. If the command exceeds this length, the command will be called multiple times.