The following reply was made to PR bin/20470; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Alan Barrett <apb@netbsd.org>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: 
Subject: PR/20470 CVS commit: src/usr.bin/find
Date: Sat,  7 Oct 2006 17:06:28 +0000 (UTC)

 Module Name:	src
 Committed By:	apb
 Date:		Sat Oct  7 17:06:28 UTC 2006
 
 Modified Files:
 	src/usr.bin/find: find.1
 
 Log Message:
 Document "find ... -exec ... {} +".  Also make some other minor updates.
 
 Changes initially supplied by John Hawkinson in PR 20470, but edited by me.
 
 /msg wizd: search for ".sp"
 ? .depend
 ? .gdbinit
 ? 20470
 ? ID
 ? d
 ? d2
 ? find
 ? find.1.SAVE
 ? find.20061007.diff
 ? find.cat1
 ? find.d
 ? function.d
 ? ls.d
 ? main.d
 ? misc.d
 ? operator.d
 ? option.d
 ? stat_flags.d
 cvs diff: Diffing .
 Index: find.1
 ===================================================================
 RCS file: /cvsroot/src/usr.bin/find/find.1,v
 retrieving revision 1.58
 diff -d -u -r1.58 find.1
 --- find.1	7 Oct 2006 16:34:06 -0000	1.58
 +++ find.1	7 Oct 2006 17:04:38 -0000
 @@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
  .\"
  .\"	from: @(#)find.1	8.7 (Berkeley) 5/9/95
  .\"
 -.Dd September 23, 2006
 +.Dd October 7, 2006
  .Dt FIND 1
  .Os
  .Sh NAME
 @@ -206,37 +206,69 @@
  24-hour periods.
  .It Ic -empty
  True if the current file or directory is empty.
 -.It Xo Ic -exec Ar utility Op argument ...
 -.No ;
 -.Xc
 -True if the program named
 +.\" The ".sp" below is probably not the right way to get the desired effect.
 +.It Ic -exec Ar utility Oo argument ... Oc No ;
 +.sp -1l
 +.It Ic -exec Ar utility Oo argument ... Oc No {} +
 +Execute the specified
 +.Ar utility
 +with the specified arguments.
 +The list of arguments is terminated by
 +.Dq Li \&;
 +or
 +.Dq Li \&+ .
  .Ar utility
 -returns a zero value as its exit status.
 -Optional arguments may be passed to the utility.
 -The expression must be terminated by a semicolon
 -.Pq Dq \&; .
 -If the string
 -.Dq {}
 -appears anywhere in the utility name or the
 -arguments it is replaced by the pathname of the current file.
 -.Ar Utility
  will be executed from the directory from which
  .Nm
  was executed.
 -.It Xo Ic -execdir Ar utility Op argument ...
 -.No ;
 -.Xc
 +.Pp
 +If terminated by a semicolon
 +.Pq Dq \&; ,
 +the
 +.Ar utility
 +is invoked once per path.
 +If the string
 +.Dq {}
 +appears anywhere in the utility name or the arguments,
 +it is replaced by the pathname of the current file.
 +.Pp
 +If terminated by a plus sign
 +.Pq Dq \&+ ,
 +the pathnames for which the
 +primary is evaluated are aggregated into sets, and
 +.Ar utility
 +will be invoked once per set, similar to
 +.Xr xargs 1 .
 +If any invocation exits with non-zero exit status, then
 +.Nm
 +will eventually do so as well, but this does not cause
 +.Nm
 +to exit early.
 +The string
 +.Dq {}
 +must appear, and must appear last.
 +Each set is limitted to no more than 5,000 pathnames,
 +and is also limitted such that the invokation of
 +.Ar utility
 +does not exceed
 +.Dv ARG_MAX .
 +.It Ic -execdir Ar utility Oo argument ... Oc No ;
  The
  .Ic -execdir
 -primary is identical to the
 +primary is similar to the semicolon-terminated
 +.Pq Dq \&;
 +variant of the
  .Ic -exec
 -primary with the exception that
 -.Ar Utility
 +primary, with the exception that
 +.Ar utility
  will be executed from the directory that holds
  the current file.
  The filename substituted for the string
  .Dq {}
  is not qualified.
 +Set aggregation
 +.Pq Do \&+ Dc termination
 +is not supported.
  .It Ic -exit Op Ar n
  This primary causes
  .Nm
 @@ -254,10 +286,7 @@
  primary so it can continue to the next expression (using an
  .Cm -or
  operator, for example).
 -.It Xo
 -.Ic -flags
 -.Oo Fl Oc Ns Ar flags
 -.Xc
 +.It Ic -flags Oo Fl Oc Ns Ar flags
  If
  .Ar flags
  are preceded by a dash
 @@ -368,23 +397,25 @@
  was started, rounded up to the next full 24-hour period, is
  .Ar n
  24-hour periods.
 -.It Xo Ic -ok Ar utility Op argument ...
 -.No ;
 -.Xc
 +.It Ic -ok Ar utility Oo argument ... Oc No ;
  The
  .Ic -ok
 -primary is identical to the
 +primary is similar to the semicolon-terminated
 +.Pq Dq \&;
 +variant of the
  .Ic -exec
 -primary with the exception that
 +primary, with the exception that
  .Nm
  requests user affirmation for the execution of the utility by printing
  a message to the terminal and reading a response.
  If the response is other than
 -.Dq y
 +.Dq y ,
  the command is not executed and the
 -value of the
 -.Ar \&ok
 -expression is false.
 +.Ar -ok
 +primary evaluates to false.
 +Set aggregation
 +.Pq Do \&+ Dc termination
 +is not supported.
  .It Ic -name Ar pattern
  True if the last component of the pathname being examined matches
  .Ar pattern  .
 @@ -427,10 +458,7 @@
  .Pq Dq /
  are treated as normal characters and do not have to be
  matched explicitly.
 -.It Xo
 -.Ic -perm
 -.Oo Fl Oc Ns Ar mode
 -.Xc
 +.It Ic -perm Oo Fl Oc Ns Ar mode
  The
  .Ar mode
  may be either symbolic (see
 @@ -604,6 +632,16 @@
  Primaries which themselves take arguments expect each argument
  to be a separate argument to
  .Nm  .
 +.Sh EXIT STATUS
 +The
 +.Nm
 +utility normally exits 0 on success, and exits with 1 under certain
 +internal error conditions.
 +If any invokations of
 +.Dq Ic -exec Ar ... No +
 +primaries return non-zero exit-status, then
 +.Nm
 +will do so as well.
  .Sh EXAMPLES
  The following examples are shown as given to the shell:
  .Bl -tag -width findx
 @@ -640,6 +678,7 @@
  .Xr chflags 1 ,
  .Xr chmod 1 ,
  .Xr locate 1 ,
 +.Xr xargs 1 ,
  .Xr stat 2 ,
  .Xr fts 3 ,
  .Xr getgrent 3 ,
 @@ -717,6 +756,13 @@
  utility arguments if it had preceding or following non-whitespace characters.
  This version replaces it no matter where in the utility name or arguments
  it appears.
 +.Pp
 +Support for
 +.Dq Ic -exec Ar ... No +
 +is consistent with
 +.Em IEEE PASC Interpretation 1003.2 #210 ,
 +though the feature originated in
 +.Tn SVR4 .
  .Sh HISTORY
  A much simpler
  .Nm find
 
 
 To generate a diff of this commit:
 cvs rdiff -r1.58 -r1.59 src/usr.bin/find/find.1
 
 Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
 copyright notices on the relevant files.