find command and path parameter

Question

Having the file structure like that:

/root/abc/1.txt
/root/abc/2.txt

and sitting in /root directory.

1.) Why doesn't the command:

find . -path "abc/*.txt"

returns no results while

find . -path "./abc/*.txt"

and

find . -path "*/abc/*.txt"

do works?

2.) What's the difference between find . -path "./abc/*.txt" and find . -path "*/abc/*.txt"

Answer 1

Question 1:

The -path pattern parameter matches the entire filename.

$ find
.
./abc
./abc/1.txt
./abc/2.txt

The pattern abc/*.txt does not match without the leading ./.

Question 2:

The wildcard * can match any string of any length (including / and . characters). The parameter -path "*/abc/*.txt" has two wildcards, so it can match any of the following:

./abc/a.txt
* *
./abc/ANYTHING.txt
* ********
def/ghi/abc/SOMETHING.txt
******* *********
./abc/def_dsa/faf.txt
* ***********

• Mulligan: I've made a typo in question 2: should be find . -path "*/abc/*.txt" rather then find . -path "\*/abc/*.txt". So can You be so nice and answer such corrected question?
• Steven: @Mulligan Edited the answer. Does this answer your question?
• Mulligan: Yes, thx. for help:-)
• Mulligan: So Am i right that -path pattern is applied to the result of what find .produces and that's why my first attempt fails?
• Steven: You are correct

Answer 2

The following sentence is from the -path option in the find manual:

Note that the pattern match test applies to the whole file name, starting from one of the start points named on the command line.

This explains why your alternative search patterns ("./abc/*.txt" and "*/abc/*.txt") work. Your original search pattern ("abc/*.txt") will work only if the search root is abc:

find abc/ -path "abc/*.txt"

As for the difference between "./abc/*.txt" and "*/abc/*.txt", neither will try to expand the string before calling find: the first will find files only in the top-level directory ./abc/, but the second will find files in any subdirectory abc, such as ./def/abc/, ./ghi/def/abc/, etc, as well as ./abc/.

• Mulligan: I've made a typo in question 2: should be find . -path "*/abc/*.txt" rather then find . -path "\*/abc/*.txt". So can You be so nice and answer such corrected question?
• AFH: The difference between "./abc/*.txt" and "*/abc/*.txt" is that the first will match text files in the top-level ./abc directory only, while the second will match not only here, but also in ./def/abc or in any other subdirectory further down the hierarchy.