<p>Find is a command in Windows that does very different thing to find in a posix shell.</p>

<p>And that would be the error you would get if you ran the Windows find (usually Windows find is located at <code>C:\Windows\System32\find.exe</code></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-29T06:56:04.327Z
2020-02-29T06:56:04.327Z
hvindin
<p>Your PATH may have somehow changed and you're now hitting the Windows <code>find</code> instead of the *nix-compatible one.</p>

<p>Try specifying the full path, i.e. <code>/usr/bin/find</code> (that's what I see on my windows bash shell when I check with <code>which find</code>) instead of just <code>find</code> in your build process command.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-01T15:53:40.697Z
2020-03-01T15:53:40.697Z
Dan Cornilescu
<p>In the YAML file defining our ADO build pipeline we have the following section</p>

<pre class="lang-yaml prettyprint-override"><code>- bash: |
    pip install pylint
    find preprocessing/ subtyping/ visualisations/ -name '*.py' | grep -v hmm | grep -v /test_ | sort | xargs pylint
  displayName: 'Run linter'
</code></pre>

<p>At some point in the last week this stopped working. It still works on an <code>ubuntu-latest</code> hosted agent, but on Windows (either <code>windows-latest</code> or <code>vs2017-win2016</code>) it now fails with the message</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>FIND: Parameter format not correct</p>
</blockquote>

<p>We have not changed anything, but our build process now fails.</p>

<ul>
<li>What has changed to cause this failure? </li>
<li>Why does it only fail on Windows?</li>
<li>How might I diagnose the problem?</li>
<li>Is there anything wrong with our call to bash's 'find' command?</li>
</ul>

<azure-devops><azure-pipelines>
'find' command suddenly not working in windows hosted agents
dumbledad
# 'find' command suddenly not working in windows hosted agents

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-01-23)

In the YAML file defining our ADO build pipeline we have the following section
- bash: |
    pip install pylint
    find preprocessing/ subtyping/ visualisations/ -name '*.py' | grep -v hmm | grep -v /test_ | sort | xargs pylint
  displayName: 'Run linter'

At some point in the last week this stopped working. It still works on an ubuntu-latest hosted agent, but on Windows (either windows-latest or vs2017-win2016) it now fails with the message

FIND: Parameter format not correct

We have not changed anything, but our build process now fails.

What has changed to cause this failure? 
Why does it only fail on Windows?
How might I diagnose the problem?
Is there anything wrong with our call to bash's 'find' command?

**Tags:** azure-devops, azure-pipelines


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-02-29. Score: 2

Find is a command in Windows that does very different thing to find in a posix shell.

And that would be the error you would get if you ran the Windows find (usually Windows find is located at `C:\Windows\System32\find.exe`


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### Answer by username_2 on 2020-03-01. Score: 1

Your PATH may have somehow changed and you're now hitting the Windows `find` instead of the \*nix-compatible one.

Try specifying the full path, i.e. `/usr/bin/find` (that's what I see on my windows bash shell when I check with `which find`) instead of just `find` in your build process command.


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