# find command in terminal -- listing files twice



## Straitsfan (Jan 10, 2010)

find command in terminal -- listing files twice
I noticed the other day that after i used the find command to search for some files, the computer listed them twice -- first with just the names of the files (meaning ./(then the individual file names), then with the directory name, followed by the file names (directory name/file name). I was already in the desired directory, and I don't think this has ever happened before. Can someone tell me why it does this and how to fix it? Is there something wrong?


Here's the command I'm using:

find . -iname "*(text to search for)*" -type f

and, if I use find from my home directory (that is, not in the desired directory, it lists ./(directory name)/(directory name)/file names.  This is really wierd.  Is it supposed to do this?


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## artov (Jan 11, 2010)

To me it lists the files only once, so there is something wrong. You might like to try

find . -iname "*text*" -type f -print0 | xargs -0 ls -l

It lists each file with lots of information in columns. You should check the second column. It should be 1 (each file contains has only one name).


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## Straitsfan (Jan 11, 2010)

Uh -- guess what?

I noticed that I placed a copy of the subdirectory from my flash drive into the subdirectory, which meant I had two copies of the same file.

A simple srm and they were gone.

I. feel. like. such. an. idiot.


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