Find only text files in directory

Question

I tried using this:

      $ find . -type f -exec file {} \;
        ./alma: ASCII text
        ./jaj.C: C source, ASCII text
        ./repa: ASCII text, with escape sequences
        ./mas.cpp: C++ source, ASCII text
        ./capa: ASCII text
        ./valami: ASCII text

But if it's a cpp file for example it still writes text so I can't use grep to exclude binary files....what should I do?

`.cpp` is text just the same as `.c`. Why exclude `.cpp` when you are including `.c`? — John1024, Jun 16 '16 at 07:02
well aren't c and cpp files binary files?I would like to exclude them — Reggie Kapros, Jun 16 '16 at 07:08
@ReggieKapros You can look at the in a text editor and they are readable (non-garbage) — Krzysztof Krasoń, Jun 16 '16 at 07:29

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 16 '16 at 07:02

Here's the fast method to do it:

find . -type f -exec grep -Iq . {} \; -print

-I in grep will ignore binary files, text files will match right away because of . (any character match), grep will give success for matched file, so -print from find will print the filename.

Find only text files in directory

1 Answers1