GnuWin32 find and missing argument for exec

Reminder on how to use -exec action in GnuWin32 find command in Windows cmd.exe. For example, if you want to find a string, the format is:

find . -type f -exec grep <pattern> {} ;

If you do any of the following, you can get this cryptic error message: find: missing argument to `-exec'

• Put double-quote marks around the command:

  find . -type f -exec "grep <pattern> {} ;"

• Don't leave a space between braces and semi-colon:

  find . -type f -exec "grep <pattern> {};"

• Use Unix shell escape character:

  find . -type f -exec grep <pattern> {} \;

Finally, if all else fails and you lack time to investigate, use xargs:

find . -type f | xargs grep <pattern>