GNU bug report logs - #32668
26.1; Give find-dired prefix argument behaviour equivalent to that of rgrep

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Phil Sainty <psainty <at> orcon.net.nz>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 26.1; Give find-dired prefix argument behaviour equivalent to that of
 rgrep
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2018 21:34:08 +1200

In bug#27456 "Not possible to use -prune with find-dired", workarounds
were provided for the issue that, due to the way that `find-dired'
constructs its find command, some common usage patterns for the `find'
command can't be used with `find-dired'.

I think it would be useful and consistent for `find-dired' to acquire
the prefix argument behaviour of `rgrep', which does the following:

> With C-u prefix, you can edit the constructed shell command line
> before it is executed.
> With two C-u prefixes, directly edit and run [the find command].

Giving the user access to edit the final command before it is executed
would allow users to massage otherwise-unusable syntax into a working
command.

This would give users an alternative solution to the kind of problem
presented in the aforementioned bug report, and would be especially
useful for those who are unfamiliar with the particular find options
needed to work around the problem at present.






In GNU Emacs 26.1 (build 1, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll
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 of 2018-06-19 built on shodan
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Message #8 received at 32668 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: Phil Sainty <psainty <at> orcon.net.nz>, Michael Heerdegen
 <michael_heerdegen <at> web.de>
Cc: 27456 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, 32668 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, darkfeline <at> felesatra.moe
Subject: RE: bug#27456: 25.2; Not possible to use -prune with find-dired
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2018 07:04:26 -0700 (PDT)

> For now I have raised this as bug#32668: 26.1; Give find-dired prefix
> argument behaviour equivalent to that of rgrep

FWIW, in my library `find-dired+.el', which adds to `find-dired.el',
`find-dired' acts as follows (`C-h f find-dired'):

------8<---------------
find-dired is an interactive Lisp function in ‘find-dired+.el’. 

(find-dired DIR ARGS &optional DEPTH-LIMITS EXCLUDED-PATHS)

Run ‘find’ and put its output in a buffer in Dired Mode.
Then run ‘find-dired-hook’ and ‘dired-after-readin-hook’.
The ‘find’ command run (after changing into DIR) is essentially this,
where LS-SWITCHES is ‘(car find-ls-option)’:

  find . \( ARGS \) LS-SWITCHES

Optional args:

* DEPTH-LIMITS:   Minimum and maximum depths: (MIN-DEPTH MAX-DEPTH).
* EXCLUDED-PATHS: Strings matching paths to be excluded.
                  Uses ‘find’ switch ‘-path’.

When both optional args are non-nil, the ‘find’ command run is this:

  find . -mindepth MIN-DEPTH -maxdepth MAX-DEPTH
         \( -path EXCLUDE1 -o -path EXCLUDE2 ... \)
         -prune -o \( ARGS \) LS-SWITCHES

where EXCLUDE1, EXCLUDE2... are the EXCLUDED-PATHS, but shell-quoted.
------8<---------------

The same is true for `find-name-dired' and `find-grep-dired' - they make the same use of `-prune', as does the new command `find-time-dired' (`C-h f'):

------8<---------------
find-time-dired is an interactive Lisp function in ‘find-dired+.el’.
 
(find-time-dired DIR MIN-TIME MAX-TIME &optional DEPTH-LIMITS
EXCLUDED-PATHS)

Find files in directory DIR newer or older than a timestamp.
The output is shown in a Dired buffer.

MIN-TIME is a format-time string parsable by ‘parse-time-string’, such
 as "2014-12-25 23:59:00".  Only files newer than this are shown.
 If MIN-TIME is nil or a string matching regexp "^\s-*$", there is
 no lower time limit.

MAX-TIME is also a format-time string parsable by ‘parse-time-string’.
 Only files older than this time are shown.
 If MAX-TIME is nil or a string matching regexp "^\s-*$", the upper
 time limit is the current system time.

Optional arg DEPTH-LIMITS is a list (MIN-DEPTH MAX-DEPTH) of the
 minimum and maximum depths.  If nil, search directory tree under DIR.

Optional arg EXCLUDED-PATHS is a list of strings that match paths to
 exclude from the search.  If nil, search all directories.

If args DEPTH-LIMITS and EXCLUDED-PATHS are both non-nil then the
command run is essentially the following:

    find . -mindepth MIN-DEPTH -maxdepth MAX-DEPTH
           \( -path EXCLUDE1 -o -path EXCLUDE2 ... \)
           -prune -o \( -TIME-SWITCH -SINCE-MIN -TIME-SWITCH +SINCE-MAX \)
           LS-SWITCHES

where:

* EXCLUDE1, EXCLUDE2... are the EXCLUDED-PATHS, but shell-quoted.
* TIME-SWITCH is ‘find-diredp-time-prefix’ concatenated with "min".
* SINCE-MIN is the elapsed time since MIN-TIME in minutes.
* SINCE-MAX is the elapsed time since MAX-TIME in minutes.
* LS-SWITCHES is ‘(car find-ls-option)’.
------8<---------------

This code was improved by Tino Calancha. Without having studied
the bug threads of #27456 or #32668, this sounds relevant. If it
helps I can offer this code, as a patch or as is. The code is here:

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/download/find-dired%2b.el

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