RE: Searching the IFS

["Dennis Lovelady" <iseries@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Only 10 minutes and you quit? Do remember that these sort of commands
> can run for a LONG time especially if you have a lot of directories!
> Watch active jobs and you'll see the find command running in a
> different
> job.

It didn't occur to me until after a good night's sleep that on iSeries when
searching from / the search includes all the members of all the files of all
the libraries (in the /QSYS.LIB filesystem), the /QDLS, /QOpenSys and
possibly other filesystems that don't presently come to mind.  Of course
that will run for "a while."  To tell find to search only the present
filesystem, use the -x switch, as in:
   find -x / -type d | grep i- '/mydir/mysubdir$'

Yes, that will run for a considerable time too (as Larry pointed out) but at
least it won't spend any time futilely searching, especially in /QSYS.LIB.

You are far better off to limit find to a subset of directories (such as
find /home /mytop /otherdir /source -type d | grep -i 'whatISeek'), and then
opening up the search to a grander scale only if necessary.  

Final thought is that with experience comes the intuition necessary to
efficiently use these commands (like with most other things).  It's like
cooking chicken:  fricassee, fricassee, fry fry again.   :)

D

Dennis Lovelady
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dennislovelady
--
"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."
        -- Abraham Lincoln