GNU find: Pitfalls

[peter_b]

Pitfall #1: Shell-wildcards in filename search string

I want to search for all files matching "*.wav" or "*.mp3".
The following command seems correct, but it's not:

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$ find . -type f -iname *.wav

In this case, the shell (usually BASH) will expand the wildcard - but only in the current directory you're running the "find" command.

When using any kind of shell-wildcards in the search pattern, they must be quoted:

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$ find . -type f -iname '*.wav'