Missing argument to -exec

[R_Winston]

I was wondering if anyone could explain what is wrong with this. I keep getting a missing argument to `-exec'

find /data/shippers -name "*.txt" -mtime 2 -type f -exec tar czvf $1.$(date +%y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar /data/shippers/archive

What I am trying to do is find all the txt files that are 2 to 3 days old and archiving them into the archive folder. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You in advance

Winston

[secondmouse]

Using -exe like what you did will never get what you intended. Try to use xargs instead:

find /data/shippers -name "*.txt" -mtime 2 -type f | xargs tar czvf /dest_dir/$1.$(date +%y%m%d-%H%M%S).tgz

Of course you have to make sure you pass argument to $1. The destination folder for the tar archive should be anywhere other than /data/shippers, otherwise your tar file will keep rolling until you run out of space.

Ref: Linux backup - Using find, xargs, and tar to create a huge archive | devdaily.com