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The following command works as expected within vim:

:args `find . -type f`

as well as this one (with wildcard):

:args `find . -name \*.inc`

However when I run the following:

:args `find . -type f -not -path "*/\.*"`

I've the error:

E79: Cannot expand wildcards

"`find . -type f -not -path" [New File]

It works from the command line as expected:

$ find . -type f -not -path "*/\.*"

Basically the extra -not -path "*/\.*" means to ignore all the hidden files starting with dot, such as git repository files.

What I'm doing wrong? Do some characters needs to be escaped (which one)?

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  • More words about the E79. For this case, find returning error code let vim raise the E79 message. This is not the same thing as help E79 described. For instance, :args `false` also gets an E79, and it has nothing to do with expanding wildcard.
    – TerrenceSun
    Commented Jun 8, 2022 at 11:31

1 Answer 1

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11

You were close. Enclose the path pattern in single quotes instead of double quotes for the find command like so:

args `find . -type f -not -path '*/\.*'`

By the way, a handy way to ignore hidden files is to use :args **. But this will include folders too.

I'm not completely sure why you need to enclose it in single quotes, I believe that Vim will evaluate the special characters inside double quotes. See :help expr-quote and :help literal-string. A single quote will treat the pattern as a literal string and prevent Vim evaluating special characters inside the quote.

In this case, since \. is one of the special characters Vim will evaluate in a double quoted string, I believe this was the culprit.

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  • 1
    Thanks, I didn't think of single-quote, it was too close:) Regarding glob pattern (**) it works for bash and zsh, only when globstar is set, so sometimes it's not set by default. And it include also the folders. But it's a great substitute:) This one {,**/}*.* will exclude folders (bash4).
    – kenorb
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 23:25
  • Yep, you're right, args ** does include folders. You can always give it extensions (:args *.h *.cpp etc) to search for, so that it's both faster and will only find files. Amended my answer though.
    – akshay
    Commented Apr 18, 2015 at 23:48
  • Re: globstar, I've performed some small testing in here.
    – kenorb
    Commented Apr 19, 2015 at 14:36
  • @kenorb, I am trying to run this command: vim /undo/g `find /home/dibya \( -type f -regextype posix-extended -regex '.* vim|.*md' \)`
    – alpha_989
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 17:13
  • 1
    @alpha_989 Have you tried to escape it (\|)?
    – kenorb
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 17:15

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