Скачать или смотреть How to Sort Bash Find Results Before Opening Files on MacOSX

Learn how to sort the results of your Bash find command alphabetically before opening files on MacOSX, improving your file management and efficiency.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/77142956/ asked by the user 'Simon Troup' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/7523660/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/77143100/ provided by the user 'Ed Morton' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/1745001/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Sort bash find results before opening files

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Introduction to the Problem

If you’re using MacOSX and frequently find yourself using the terminal to locate and open files, you might notice an annoying issue: the find command opens files in what seems like a random order. This can be especially frustrating when you need to access your documents in a specific sequence, such as alphabetical order.

The command you're using may look something like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

While this command successfully locates the files you need, the order of file opening can feel haphazard. In this guide, we will explore a solution to achieve a sorted file opening experience using Bash.

Solution: Sorting Find Results Before Opening

To get your files opened in the order you want, you can utilize a combination of find, sort, and xargs. Let’s break down the solution:

Step 1: Use the find Command

The find command is powerful for locating files, and you’re already using it correctly to find your desired PDFs.

Step 2: Pipe the Results to sort

Instead of using the -exec open feature directly within the find command, we can leverage piping. Piping allows you to send the output of one command (in this case, find) as input to another command (in this case, sort).

Step 3: Utilization of xargs

After sorting the file list, you will use xargs to open each file in the sorted order. The xargs command constructs an argument list and can be used to call another command (like open in this scenario).

Here’s the modified command to achieve this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation of the Command

find ./ -type f -regex '.*[advert]_00[1-5]_2023.pdf': This part finds all files matching the regex in the current directory and subdirectories.

| sort: This pipes the found files to the sort command, which organizes them alphabetically.

| xargs -n 1 open: This takes each sorted filename and opens it individually. The -n 1 option specifies that xargs should take one argument at a time (one file per open call).

Important Considerations

File Names: This solution assumes that file names do not contain newlines or characters that might disrupt the command's execution. If your file names are safe, this command should work perfectly.

Testing: It’s a good practice to test your command with a smaller set of files to ensure it behaves as expected before running it on a larger directory.

Conclusion

By using the combination of the find, sort, and xargs commands, you can effectively open your files in alphabetical order on MacOSX. This method not only saves you time but also makes file management much more systematic and reliable. Say goodbye to the confusion of random file openings and embrace this organized approach!

Remember to reach out if you have any questions or need further assistance on Bash commands!