Help me understand bash syntax (programming.dev)

submitted 10 months ago by emotional_soup_88@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

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I was trying to find all symbolic links in /usr/lib and use file on the first entry in the list, which I delimited with head -n 1.

Why does find /usr/lib -maxdepth 1 -type l | file $(head -n 1) work but find /usr/lib -maxdepth 1 -type l | head -n 1 | file does not?

It complains that I am not using file correctly. Probably because it lacks an argument, but - programmatically/syntactically - why can't file grab it's argument from the pipe?

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[-] emotional_soup_88@programming.dev 7 points 10 months ago

Thanks! Yeah, I just came to the realization that this was more about my lack of understanding of the file command than anything else.

this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025

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