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3.3.3 Querying

To ask the user whether to execute a command on a single file, you can use the find primary -ok instead of -exec:

— Action: -ok command ;

Like -exec (see Single File), but ask the user first (on the standard input); if the response does not start with y or Y, do not run the command, and return false.

When processing multiple files with a single command, to query the user you give xargs the following option. When using this option, you might find it useful to control the number of files processed per invocation of the command (see Limiting Command Size).

--interactive
-p
Prompt the user about whether to run each command line and read a line from the terminal. Only run the command line if the response starts with y or Y. Implies -t.