[PATCH 14/42] find.1: access ' character portably

"G. Branden Robinson" <[email protected]> Tue, 18 Nov 2025 21:46:07 -0600
Newsgroups	gmane.comp.gnu.findutils.bugs
Message-ID	<20251119034607.vhlfetejp7z4fdpg@illithid>
The `\(aq` special character escape sequence is not universally
portable.  Indirect it through a string definition.  (GNU Bash also uses
this technique.[1])

[1] https://github.com/bminor/bash/blob/a8a1c2fac029404d3f42cd39f5a20f24b6e4fe4b/doc/bash.1#L26
---
 find/find.1 | 20 +++++++++++---------
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/find/find.1 b/find/find.1
index c1ad25fc..befc5b27 100644
--- a/find/find.1
+++ b/find/find.1
@@ -2,10 +2,12 @@
 .TH FIND 1 2025-10-12 findutils \" -*- nroff -*-
 .ie \n(.g \{\
 .  ds " \(dq
+.  ds ' \(aq
 .\}
 .el \{\
 .  \" \*" is not usable in macro arguments on AT&T troff.
 .  ds " ""\" two adjacent quotes and no space before this comment
+.  ds ' '
 .\}
 .SH NAME
 find \- search for files in a directory hierarchy
@@ -2340,7 +2342,7 @@ .SS "Processing arbitrary starting points"
 .nf
 \&
 .in +4n
-.B $ find .\& \-type f \-exec file \(aq{}\(aq \e;
+.B $ find .\& \-type f \-exec file \*'{}\*' \e;
 .in
 \&
 .fi
@@ -2367,14 +2369,14 @@ .SS "Traversing the filesystem just once \(en for 2 different actions"
 .in +4n
 .B $ find / \e
 .in +4n
-.B \e( \-perm \-4000 \-fprintf /root/suid.txt \(aq%#m %u %p\en\(aq \e) , \e
+.B \e( \-perm \-4000 \-fprintf /root/suid.txt \*'%#m %u %p\en\*' \e) , \e
 .br
-.B \e( \-size +100M \-fprintf /root/big.txt  \(aq%\-10s %p\en\(aq \e)
+.B \e( \-size +100M \-fprintf /root/big.txt  \*'%\-10s %p\en\*' \e)
 .in -4n
 .in -4n
 \&
 .fi
-This example uses the line-continuation character \(aq\e\(aq on the first two
+This example uses the line-continuation character \*'\e\*' on the first two
 lines to instruct the shell to continue reading the command on the next line.
 .
 .SS
@@ -2516,7 +2518,7 @@ .SS "Traversing the filesystem just once \(en for 2 different actions"
 \&
 .in +4n
 .B $ cd /source-dir
-.B $ find .\& \-name .snapshot \-prune \-o \e( \e! \-name \(aq*~\(aq \-print0 \e) \e
+.B $ find .\& \-name .snapshot \-prune \-o \e( \e! \-name \*'*~\*' \-print0 \e) \e
 .br
 .in +4n
 .B | cpio \-pmd0  /dest-dir
@@ -2556,9 +2558,9 @@ .SS "Traversing the filesystem just once \(en for 2 different actions"
 .in +4n
 .B $ find repo/ \e
 .in +4n
-.B \e( \-exec test \-d \(aq{}/.svn\(aq \e; \e
-.B \-or \-exec test \-d \(aq{}/.git\(aq \e; \e
-.B \-or \-exec test \-d \(aq{}/CVS\(aq \e; \e
+.B \e( \-exec test \-d \*'{}/.svn\*' \e; \e
+.B \-or \-exec test \-d \*'{}/.git\*' \e; \e
+.B \-or \-exec test \-d \*'{}/CVS\*' \e; \e
 .B \e) \-print \-prune
 .in -4n
 .in -4n
@@ -2816,7 +2818,7 @@ .SS "\(lqpaths must precede expression\(rq error message"
 to use the pattern with the wildcard during the search for file name matching
 instead of file names expanded by the parent shell:
 .nf
-.B $ find .\& \-name \(aq*.c\(aq \-print
+.B $ find .\& \-name \*'*.c\*' \-print
 .B $ find .\& \-name \e*.c \-print
 .fi
 .
-- 
2.30.2
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