As reported on the git mailing list[1], find(1) should exit with non-zero status when a non-existent path is given which I think is also the intent of the find(1) code.
[1] http://marc.info/?l=git&m=126186443524638 For example: # find /no-such-path find: fts_open: No such file or directory # echo $? 0 ^^^ <--- should be something non-zero. Looking at the code for find, we have the following in /usr/src/usr.bin/find/find.c, line 153: if (!(tree = fts_open(paths, ftsoptions, NULL))) err(1, "fts_open"); This looks right and fts_open(1) says: If an error occurs, fts_open() returns NULL and sets errno appropriately. Debugging, it seems like errno comes back as ENOENT but the variable "tree" is not set to null... Debugging a bit more it seems like "fts_open" calls "fts_stat" which returns FTS_NS but the code path for fts_open doesn't go into the error path at this point. Therefore, I propose the patch below. With the patch applied I get: # find /no-such-path find: fts_open: No such file or directory # echo $? 1 Index: fts.c =================================================================== RCS file: /usr/cvs/src/lib/libc/gen/fts.c,v retrieving revision 1.43 diff -u -r1.43 fts.c --- fts.c 27 Aug 2009 16:19:27 -0000 1.43 +++ fts.c 28 Jan 2010 06:48:11 -0000 @@ -117,6 +117,10 @@ p->fts_accpath = p->fts_name; p->fts_info = fts_stat(sp, p, ISSET(FTS_COMFOLLOW)); + /* stat(2) failed, so fts_open should error. */ + if (p->fts_info == FTS_NS) + goto mem3; + /* Command-line "." and ".." are real directories. */ if (p->fts_info == FTS_DOT) p->fts_info = FTS_D;
