find /tmp -printf '%s %p\n' |sort -n -r | head
This command is working fine but what are the %s %p options used here? Are there any other options that can be used?
Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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asked Jul 11, 2015 at 6:24
3 Answers
What are the %s %p options used here?
From the man page:
%s File's size in bytes.
%p File's name.
Scroll down on that page beyond all the regular letters for printf and read the parts which come prefixed with a %.
%n Number of hard links to file.
%p File's name.
%P File's name with the name of the starting-point under which it was found removed.
%s File's size in bytes.
%t File's last modification time in the format returned by the C `ctime' function.
Are there any other options that can be used?
There are. See the link to the manpage.
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@don_crissti I'll never understand why people prefer random web documentation to the documentation installed on their systems (which has the added benefit of actually being relevant to their system).– Kusalananda ♦Nov 17, 2017 at 9:53
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1@Kusalananda - Well, I can think of one scenario in which people would include a link to a web page instead of a quote from the documentation installed on their system: they're not on a linux machine at the time of writing the post... However, the link should point (imo) to the official docs (hence my comment above, which, for some unknown reason, was deleted by the mods...). That aside, I fully agree with you: the OP should consult the manual page installed on their system. Nov 17, 2017 at 12:52
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2@don_crissti Or they are on a server that has no manpages installed which is rather frequent. Feb 15, 2018 at 12:10
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2@don_crissti I can think of several reasons. For starters, man pages are usually written with every feature explained, in whatever order makes sense to the programmer. That's not usually helpful at all to normal users. I've been scripting for 35 years, and these days I search stackexchange first, then worst-case (almost never) fall back to man page.– JimOct 26, 2018 at 4:15
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6I should also add that, in addition to overwhelming and often inscrutable output of man pages for relatively inexperienced users, as a programmer/power user I'm usually looking for novel solutions that man pages don't cover. For example (just now), specific date format for 'find' command output. The man page doesn't tell you to put "%T" in front of each variable--at least not that I found even looking for that specifically. You could spend all day trying to figuring it out. (Or just give.) Whereas a search on Stack Exchange will yield that answer, clearly explained, in the first result.– JimOct 26, 2018 at 15:24
A bit late for an answer, but I found a handy list of the options here:
Explainshell, find -printf options
It is indeed already in the man page, but this one has a nicer format (and you can put it behind a transparent shell tab.
Barrett 2012 says on page 74:
"-printfstring print the given string, which may have substitutions applied to it in the manner of the C library function printf()."
and recommends, of course, the manpage for the full list of options. While things like find . -printf '%s %p\n' get explained, others dont. @jim has mentioned the use of %T. I personally use a script with a line similar to find . -printf '%T@ %p\n' without ever being able to understand what that %T@ is. Can anybody reference an explaining source for these options not found in the manpages?
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2@Kusalananda, Daniel J. Barrett, author of "Linux Pocket Guide", page citation refers to the second edition. Before you run to the library, be warned that the solution to this question is not to bee found in there. Otherwise a very good guide.– chokloOct 18, 2019 at 15:05
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Might have been missing from find's manpage back in the day. You should see an entry now specifically for %Tk, where k is the same notation as used in %Ak. Which states: @ = seconds since Jan. 1, 1970, 00:00 GMT, with fractional part.– NicholiFeb 26, 2020 at 3:11
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@Nicholi | thanks, that makes sense. Times in other formats sometimes fail to sort things nicely.– chokloFeb 26, 2020 at 13:49
-printf "%TY-%Tm-%TdT%TT %p\n"(including the double quotes) prefixes the file name with the modification time in ISO 8601 format. (On some systems, the seconds part is in nanosecond resolution which may ruin the display - a post filter, likeperl -nle 's/(\d\dT[^\.]+\.\d\d\d)\d+/$1/g; print $_', may be required).