(comment on OP's followup question in the UPDATE): The point of the -follow option on find is to allow you to follow a symlink when traversing directories. The default is off*. find $DIR -follow | xargs $something_destructive would be a bad thing to have run, as it could escape from $DIR.

* I saw an instance of this in a previous life when a root cleanup job included -follow, and there was a symlink into a networked file system. Cleaned up the entire shared file system. :-/

--MidLifeXis

In reply to Re: Should -f test return true for symlinks ? [RESOLVED] by MidLifeXis
in thread Should -f test return true for symlinks ? [RESOLVED] by Bloodnok

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