unusual Update Manager update offering

Nils Kassube kassube at gmx.net
Sat May 17 19:30:32 UTC 2008


Default User wrote:
> find / -name libtotem-plparse\*
>
> and wonder why I get no results found.  Yes, I do feel stupid.  BTW,
> why "\" at the end of the filename argument, and not just "\"? What
> does the "\" do?

The "\" is needed because otherwise the shell would expand any filenames 
which match the wildcard pattern "libtotem-plparse*" in your current 
directory. If there is no such file, it isn't needed. However if there is 
such a file, you will not get the expected result. As an alternative you 
could use quotes.

> I normally use "sudo" with "find" because when I don't, I get a very
> long list of directories not searched, each with a "permission denied"
> error message.  

You can avoid the error messages like this:

find / -name libtotem-plparse\* 2>/dev/null

> If you don't know where a file should be, or even if it 
> exists, (which is why you are using "find"), how can you do a full
> search without using sudo?

Granted, if you really have to search in every directory, sudo may be 
necessary. But nearly every file installed from Ubuntu packages are in 
world readable directories.

> And what are the security risks of using 
> "sudo find", especially on a local filesystem?

The risk is damaging your system because find is a possibly dangerous 
command (e.g. with the -delete option), especially if you get the syntax 
wrong.


Nils




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