What is the difference between + and \;?

The difference between + and \; in the -exec option of the find command lies in how they handle the execution of the specified command with respect to the matched files.

\; (Semicolon)

• Execution: When you use \;, the command specified with -exec is executed once for each matched file.
• Behavior: Each matched file is passed to the command individually. This can lead to multiple executions of the command if there are many matched files.
• Example:

  find . -type f -name "*.txt" -exec cat {} \;

  If there are three files (file1.txt, file2.txt, file3.txt), the command effectively runs as:

  cat file1.txt
  cat file2.txt
  cat file3.txt

+ (Plus)

• Execution: When you use +, the command is executed with all matched files passed as arguments at once.
• Behavior: This allows for a single execution of the command with multiple files, which can be more efficient.
• Example:

  find . -type f -name "*.txt" -exec cat {} +

  If there are three files (file1.txt, file2.txt, file3.txt), the command effectively runs as:

  cat file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

Summary:

• Use \; when you want to execute the command separately for each matched file.
• Use + when you want to execute the command once with all matched files as arguments, which is generally more efficient for commands that can handle multiple inputs.