Csdrhrt

It is my os info:

sudo uname  -a 

Linux machine 4.9.0-8-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.110-3+deb9u6

 (2018-10-08) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Files beginning at test in /tmp.

ls -al  test*

-rw-r--r-- 1 debian9 debian9 0 Nov 16 14:43 test1

-rw-r--r-- 1 debian9 debian9 0 Nov 16 14:43 test2

-rw-r--r-- 1 debian9 debian9 0 Nov 11 18:28 test.txt

I want to list them with find.

find /tmp -name  "test*" -type f  -exec echo  {} ;

find: ‘echo’: Permission denied

find: ‘echo’: Permission denied

find: ‘/tmp/snap.0_anbox_tzkdA1’: Permission denied

find: ‘/tmp/systemd-private-589e0bcc99cc438d9e12d06af643af76-apache2.service-J7vefp’: Permission denied

find: ‘/tmp/systemd-private-589e0bcc99cc438d9e12d06af643af76-colord.service-xtmKpt’: Permission denied

find: ‘echo’: Permission denied

find: ‘/tmp/pulse-PKdhtXMmr18n’: Permission denied

find: ‘/tmp/systemd-private-589e0bcc99cc438d9e12d06af643af76-rtkit-daemon.service-rVBMKE’: Permission denied

find: ‘/tmp/systemd-private-589e0bcc99cc438d9e12d06af643af76-dovecot.service-zTKk5O’: Permission denied

Why are so many find: ‘echo’: Permission denied?

It is no use to run with root

debian9@hwy:/tmp$ su root

Password: 

root@hwy:/tmp# find /tmp -name  "test*" -type f  -exec echo  {} ;

find: ‘echo’: Permission denied

find: ‘echo’: Permission denied

find: ‘echo’: Permission denied

find command can list all files beginning with test.

find /tmp -name "test*" -type f

/tmp/test2

/tmp/test.txt

/tmp/test1

Why -exec echo {} ; can't run?

Nothing wrong or something else as output of the below command.

debian9@hwy:~$ sudo find /tmp  -name "test*" -type f -exec /bin/echo  "{}" ;

Check the permission.

debian9@hwy:~$ sudo ls -al  /bin/echo

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root utmp 0 Nov 11 18:05 /bin/echo

Kamil Maciorowski pointed you in the right direction (hence my +1 for him), but it appears there is something very wrong with your /bin/echo command: here is mine,

# ls -l echo

  -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 35000 gen 18  2018 echo

and here is yours (and I quote):

$ sudo ls -al  /bin/echo

  -rwxr-xr-x 1 root utmp 0 Nov 11 18:05 /bin/echo

Can you see the differences? Your command belongs to the utmp group, instead of the root group. Also, and equally importantly, its size IS ZERO, while it is 35000 bytes in mine.

So, to be clear: your /bin/echo command is totally empty, and it belongs to the wrong group. This clearly indicates serious corruption of system tools. On the basis of the information provided, there is nothing else I can offer. A clean re-install might be your best option.

echo is a builtin in many shells, so when you use it on a daily basis it just works. However find … -exec echo … ; uses an external executable like /bin/echo.

find: ‘echo’: Permission denied means there's something wrong with permissions of the executable. It may be your $PATH leads you to some "wrong" echo or permissions of the "right" echo are wrong. I'm assuming the latter.

1. Locate the executable; whereis echo works on many systems.


2. Check its permissions, like with ls -l /bin/echo.


3. Fix the permissions with sudo chmod …. In my Debian they are rwxr-xr-x (755). Example command: sudo chmod 755 /bin/echo.

No need for -exec echo, in find you can use -print (or -ls if you want more info). In other words:

find $dir -print

and

find $dir -exec echo {} ;

have the same output. This is even the default, if you don't specify a -exec

find $dir -exec echo {} ;