How to loop through all files (recursively) in a certain directory

Question

My task is to loop through all files (recursively) in a certain directory. The directory path is specified in the first parameter of the program. Now I have the following one-liner:

find * -type f -exec echo "put {}" \;

, but I don't know how to specify directory path as the first parameter and how left * if there are no parameters.

If I'm doing it like:

$YOUR_DIR = "*";
find "$YOUR_DIR" -type f -exec echo "put {}" \;

it isn't working.

Please, help me.

Answer 1

Parameters to a script are identified numerically as ${1}, ${2}, etc. (or $1, $2, etc.). You can also refer to ALL parameters using ${*} (or $*). But you are using *, without the preceding dollar sign. This has a completely different meaning. It means 'all entries in the current directory'.

You should really just be using one directory, so check the first parameter, and make sure it is a directory before using it:

#!/bin/bash

if [ ! -d "${1}" ]; then
  echo "'${1}' is not a directory."
  exit 1
fi

find "${1}" -type f -exec echo "put {}" \;