This is a very simple one, but somehow I always forget the correct syntax. I want to use the “find” command to locate files and then use several “exec” statements to perform various operations on whatever “find” finds. In the following example I am making sure that all /etc/*.conf files are owned by “root:root” and that they don’t have permissions greater than 644. So here we go…

find /etc -type f -name "*.conf" -exec chown root:root {} ; -exec sh -c '
	if [ `stat -c "%a" "{}"` -gt 644 ]
	then
		chmod 644 "{}"
	fi
' ;

Here’s an example of what files looked like before this command was executed:

icebox:/etc # ls -als
total 488
 4 drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Feb  9 23:26 .
12 drwxr-xr-x 123 root root  12288 Feb  9 23:25 ..
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root    509 Dec  3  2008 a11y.conf
 4 -rw-------   1 root root   2726 Jan 14  2009 autofs_ldap_auth.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root     79 Dec  3  2008 cups-autoconfig.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 xbmc users   408 Dec  3  2008 depmod.conf
 4 -rwxrwxrwx   1 root root   1411 Dec  3  2008 dhclient.conf
20 -rw-r--r--   1 xbmc users 18485 Dec  2  2008 dnsmasq.conf
16 -rw-r--r--   1 root root  14283 Jan  6  2009 dvdwizard.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root    373 Dec  9  2008 esd.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root   2689 Dec  3  2008 gai.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root   1984 Dec  3  2008 gnome_defaults.conf
 4 -rw-------   1 xbmc users    66 Jan 27 09:47 grub.conf
 4 -rwxrwxrwx   1 root root    840 Dec  3  2008 gssapi_mech.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root    370 Dec  3  2008 host.conf

And after…

icebox:/etc # ls -als
total 488
 4 drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Feb  9 23:26 .
12 drwxr-xr-x 123 root root 12288 Feb  9 23:25 ..
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root   509 Dec  3  2008 a11y.conf
 4 -rw-------   1 root root  2726 Jan 14  2009 autofs_ldap_auth.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root    79 Dec  3  2008 cups-autoconfig.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root   408 Dec  3  2008 depmod.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root  1411 Dec  3  2008 dhclient.conf
20 -rw-r--r--   1 root root 18485 Dec  2  2008 dnsmasq.conf
16 -rw-r--r--   1 root root 14283 Jan  6  2009 dvdwizard.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root   373 Dec  9  2008 esd.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root  2689 Dec  3  2008 gai.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root  1984 Dec  3  2008 gnome_defaults.conf
 4 -rw-------   1 root root    66 Jan 27 09:47 grub.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root   840 Dec  3  2008 gssapi_mech.conf
 4 -rw-r--r--   1 root root   370 Dec  3  2008 host.conf