Arg list too long error while using find

Question

I have the find command as follows:

find /jobs/logs/* -prune -name '*.log' -type f -mtime +1 |
    while read LOGFILE
    do
        echo $LOGFILE
    done

This is failing due to the following error:

/usr/bin/find: arg list too long

Can anyone suggest a way to fix this?

(This is a continuation of my previous question.)

Solution 1

Let find to the directory traversal, that's its job! Building on my previous answer:

find /jobs/logs/. -name . -o -type d -prune -o
                  -type f -mtime +1 -exec sh -c 'echo "$0"' {} \;

Incidentally, note that I used -exec to make find invoke a command — that's what it's for.

Also, note that read LOGFILE does not read a line of input: it strips leading whitespace and interprets backslashes. A reliable way to read a line is IFS= read -r LOGFILE.

Solution 2

Try changing your find command to:

find /jobs/logs/. ! -name . -prune -name '*.log' -type f -mtime +1 

This tells find to exclude the . directory and prune all the rest, so that it doesn't descend further.

Take a look at this page for more information: Limit the search to the current directory portably