RegEx problems

[blakejohnson86]

There is a script that I am trying to write, but I can't get this RegEx working. I want the regex to find all filenames from 1.jpg to 99999.jpeg. I can get it to show results if I strip out "{1,6}", "e?", and add ".*" in there, but that ends up showing more than I want it to show. Tried I think all of the the regextype variations.

find "./images/" -regextype "posix-extended" -iregex ".*[/][0-9]{1,6}\.jpe?g[^/]$"

Folder contents:

ls -l ./images/
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 bjohnson users 0 2008-10-29 07:38 041.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 bjohnson users 0 2008-10-29 10:48 31.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 1 bjohnson users 0 2008-10-29 10:48 54364.jpg

[burschik]

I think you need to get rid of the trailing "[^/]", which is matched by any single character, except "/". I assume that there is no such character after "jpe?g".

[blakejohnson86]

Oops. Now that you mention that, it all makes sense now.

And that works. I was thinking differently when I added that. I was thinking that it would not include any folder names in the search result. Thanks.

[ghostdog74]

take note when you use find's -regex switch. Please read the find man page for some caveats.
anyway, no need for regex

# ls -1
002.jpg
01.jpg
5346.jpg
test.jpg

# ls -1 [0-9]*.jpg
002.jpg
01.jpg
5346.jpg

if you want to use find

 # find . -type f -name "[0-9]*.jpg"
./5346.jpg
./002.jpg
./01.jpg

[drl]

Hi.

There are differences between filename expressions and regular expressions. Use the one that is least complex that filters the filenames that you need. Depending of the situation you may need even more complexity:

#!/bin/bash -

# @(#) s1       Demonstrate find with regular expression, not shell expression.

echo
echo "(Versions displayed with local utility \"version\")"
version >/dev/null 2>&1 && version "=o" $(_eat $0 $1) find
set -o nounset

FILE1="1.jpg 99999.jpeg"
FILE2="z3.jpg 3.jpg.xxx"
FILE3="002.jpg 01.jpg 5346.jpg test.jpg 99x.jpg 98_x_.jpg 99999999.jpg"
FILES="$FILE1 $FILE2 $FILE3"
rm -f $FILES
touch $FILES

echo
echo " All files:"
ls -1

echo
echo " All .jpg files starting with decimal:"
ls -1 [0-9]*.jpg

echo
echo " find with filename-expansion (glob) expression:"
find . -type f -name '[0-9]*.jpg'

echo
echo " find with regular expression (on entire path -- see man page):"
find . -type f -regex './[0-9]*.jpg'

echo
echo " find with length-limited regular expression:"
find . -regextype posix-egrep -type f -iregex './[0-9]{1,5}.jpe?g'

exit 0

Producing:

$ ./s1

(Versions displayed with local utility "version")
Linux 2.6.26-1-686
GNU bash 3.2.39
find (GNU findutils) 4.4.0

 All files:
002.jpg
01.jpg
1.jpg
3.jpg.xxx
5346.jpg
98_x_.jpg
99999.jpeg
99999999.jpg
99x.jpg
s1
t1
test.jpg
z3.jpg

 All .jpg files starting with decimal:
002.jpg
01.jpg
1.jpg
5346.jpg
98_x_.jpg
99999999.jpg
99x.jpg

 find with filename-expansion (glob) expression:
./99x.jpg
./01.jpg
./98_x_.jpg
./002.jpg
./99999999.jpg
./5346.jpg
./1.jpg

 find with regular expression (on entire path -- see man page):
./01.jpg
./002.jpg
./99999999.jpg
./5346.jpg
./1.jpg

 find with length-limited regular expression:
./99999.jpeg
./01.jpg
./002.jpg
./5346.jpg
./1.jpg

cheers, drl

[blakejohnson86]

ghostdog, drl - Thanks for your input. Although I already have my solution for this particular issue, I appreciate your willingness to help.