Re: Request for long option support for find -type

[Bernhard Voelker]

On 9/29/23 04:00, A C wrote:
> I would like to request that the find command supports long options for the -type argument, such as 
> "--type=directory" or "-type directory". This would make the command more 
> readable and self-explanatory, especially when writing bash scripts that use find.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'd like to understand ...

> It would also be consistent with the other long options that find already 
> supports, such as -name, -size, --mtime, etc.

... where did you see --name, --size and --mtime in GNU find?
The only find options having double-dash long options are -help/--help and 
-version/--version.

> I understand that this might require some changes to the code and the 
> documentation, and I am not sure if there are any technical or historical 
> reasons why this feature is not implemented yet. However, I think it would be a 
> nice addition to the find command, and I hope you will consider it.

find(1) is a very old tool ... and probably one of the first UNIX tools.
The supported options are mandated by POSIX [1], and they're all single-dashed
options and operands.  This is quite unique.

[1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/find.html

Changing only -type to allow also --type would be a possible extension which
is allowed by POSIX, but then why would then all the others stay with 
single-minus?

Changing all from '-....' to '--....' would be possible, of course, but that 
would
mean a lot of changes and probably lead to redundant code harder to maintain.
I'd question the gain of all this, and therefore am 10:90 for adding it.

FWIW the way find(1) parses its arguments is also special (or nowadays unusual):
it requires the starting points right before all the predicate expressions,
while most other tools allow
  $ tool -a -b --long --option -- argument1 arg2

Have a nice day,
Berny