Re: [bug #37811] Mismatch of messages given by `find --help' and its real execution result.

[James Youngman]

Thanks for the improvement.   I have applied and pushed it in the
following modified form (including documentation in the ChangeLog and
NEWS files):

commit 74db15e2210178415647411dbdbc31d53cd95fca
Author: Bernhard Voelker <address@hidden>
Date:   Tue Nov 27 00:01:42 2012 +0100

    Improve error message for find -type X (X = an unknown file type).

    * find/parser.c (insert_type): Give a more comprehensible error
    message when the type letter following -type or -xtype corresponds
    to a type of file which was unknown on the system which compiled
    the find binary.
    * NEWS: Mention this improvement.

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 8e40f99..5c8aefb 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+2013-03-24  Bernhard Voelker  <address@hidden>
+
+       Improve error message for find -type X (X = an unknown file type).
+       * find/parser.c (insert_type): Give a more comprehensible error
+       message when the type letter following -type or -xtype corresponds
+       to a type of file which was unknown on the system which compiled
+       the find binary.
+       * NEWS: Mention this improvement.
+
 2013-03-24  James Youngman  <address@hidden>

        Fix Savannah bug #38583: errno-buffer read failed in xargs_do_exec
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 6c89796..4889e85 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -2,6 +2,14 @@ GNU findutils NEWS - User visible changes.      -*-
outline -*- (allout)

 * Major changes in release 4.5.12-git, YYYY-MM-DD

+** Documentation Changes
+
+If you use -type or -xtype with a type letter corresponding to a file
+type which is not supported by the system on which find was compiled,
+find will now give a clearer error message (though the functionality
+is unchanged).  Type letters are affected are D, l and p (for Solaris
+Doors, symbolic links and named pipes respectively).
+
 ** Bug Fixes

 Some bugs in 4.5.11 were fixed without addinng them to the bug
diff --git a/find/parser.c b/find/parser.c
index aa01253..18173fb 100644
--- a/find/parser.c
+++ b/find/parser.c
@@ -2863,30 +2863,50 @@ insert_type (char **argv, int *arg_ptr,
          type_cell = S_IFREG;
          rate = 0.95f;
          break;
-#ifdef S_IFLNK
        case 'l':                       /* symbolic link */
+#ifdef S_IFLNK
          type_cell = S_IFLNK;
          rate = 0.1f;
-         break;
+#else
+         error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0,
+                _("-type %c is not supported because symbolic links "
+                  "are not supported on the platform find was compiled on."),
+                (*typeletter));
 #endif
-#ifdef S_IFIFO
+         break;
        case 'p':                       /* pipe */
+#ifdef S_IFIFO
          type_cell = S_IFIFO;
          rate = 0.01f;
-         break;
+#else
+         error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0,
+                _("-type %c is not supported because FIFOs "
+                  "are not supported on the platform find was compiled on."),
+                (*typeletter));
 #endif
-#ifdef S_IFSOCK
+         break;
        case 's':                       /* socket */
+#ifdef S_IFSOCK
          type_cell = S_IFSOCK;
          rate = 0.01f;
-         break;
+#else
+         error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0,
+                _("-type %c is not supported because named sockets "
+                  "are not supported on the platform find was compiled on."),
+                (*typeletter));
 #endif
-#ifdef S_IFDOOR
+         break;
        case 'D':                       /* Solaris door */
+#ifdef S_IFDOOR
          type_cell = S_IFDOOR;
          rate = 0.01f;
-         break;
+#else
+         error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0,
+                _("-type %c is not supported because Solaris doors "
+                  "are not supported on the platform find was compiled on."),
+                (*typeletter));
 #endif
+         break;
        default:                        /* None of the above ... nuke 'em. */
          error (EXIT_FAILURE, 0,
                 _("Unknown argument to -type: %c"), (*typeletter));