chmod-find-type

#!/bin/sh
set -euf -o pipefail

##
# Change permissions on a specific file type, using `chmod` and `find`.
#
# Example:
#
#     chmod 750 /foo d
#     => change mods to "rwxr-x---" on all directories, at `/foo` recursively.
#
#     chmod 640 /foo f
#     => change mods to "rw-r-----" on all files, at `/foo` and within.
# 
# The primary goal of this script is safety, even in cases when a file name
# has atypical characters, such as a space, leading dash, newline, etc.
#
# For safety, the script uses `find` with `-print0` and `xags` with `-0`,
# which are GNU options that handle file names with atypical characters.
# Acceptable tradeoffs are the options are slower (~2x) and not POSIX.
#
# Contact: Joel Parker Henderson (joel@joelparkerhenderson.com)
# License: GPL
# Updated: 2015-07-13
##

mods="$1"
path="$2"
type="$3"

find "$path" -type "$type" -print0 | xargs -0 chmod "$mods" --