Bash find command verbose output

You could concoct something with -printf, but the easiest is just to tack on -print on the end. This will show what was successfully deleted.

How about just using rm -vf for verbose rm output.

$ touch file1 file2 file3
$ find . -name "file?" -exec rm -vf {} \;
removed `./file2'
removed `./file3'
removed `./file1'

An alternative is to let the commands be executed by sh -x:

$ find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -n1 echo rm | sh -x
+ rm ./file1
+ rm ./file2
+ rm ./file3

There is also find -D xxxx that could help in some cases.

 $ find -D help
 Valid arguments for -D:
 help       Explain the various -D options
 tree       Display the expression tree
 search     Navigate the directory tree verbosely
 stat       Trace calls to stat(2) and lstat(2)
 rates      Indicate how often each predicate succeeded
 opt        Show diagnostic information relating to optimisation
 exec       Show diagnostic information relating to -exec, -execdir, -ok and -okdir

Below are two examples of find -D search:

Using RHEL 6.3 (find v4.4):

$ mkdir -p aa/bb
$ touch aa/11 aa/22 aa/33 aa/bb/44 aa/bb/55
$ find -D search aa -type f -delete
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_D , fts_level= 0, prev_depth=-2147483648 fts_path=`aa', fts_accpath=`aa'
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_D , fts_level= 1, prev_depth=0 fts_path=`aa/bb', fts_accpath=`bb'
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 2, prev_depth=1 fts_path=`aa/bb/55', fts_accpath=`55'
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 2, prev_depth=2 fts_path=`aa/bb/44', fts_accpath=`44'
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_DP, fts_level= 1, prev_depth=2 fts_path=`aa/bb', fts_accpath=`bb'
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 1, prev_depth=1 fts_path=`aa/22', fts_accpath=`22'
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 1, prev_depth=1 fts_path=`aa/33', fts_accpath=`33'
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 1, prev_depth=1 fts_path=`aa/11', fts_accpath=`11'
consider_visiting: fts_info=FTS_DP, fts_level= 0, prev_depth=1 fts_path=`aa', fts_accpath=`aa'
$ find --version
find (GNU findutils) 4.4.2
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Eric B. Decker, James Youngman, and Kevin Dalley.
Built using GNU gnulib version e5573b1bad88bfabcda181b9e0125fb0c52b7d3b
Features enabled: D_TYPE O_NOFOLLOW(enabled) LEAF_OPTIMISATION SELINUX FTS() CBO(level=0)

Using Cygwin 1.7 (find 4.5):

$ mkdir -p aa/bb
$ touch aa/11 aa/22 aa/33 aa/bb/44 aa/bb/55
$ find -D search aa -type f -delete
consider_visiting (early): 'aa': fts_info=FTS_D , fts_level= 0, prev_depth=-2147483648 fts_path='aa', fts_accpath='aa'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa': fts_info=FTS_D , isdir=1 ignore=1 have_stat=1 have_type=1
consider_visiting (early): 'aa/11': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 1, prev_depth=0 fts_path='aa/11', fts_accpath='11'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa/11': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, isdir=0 ignore=0 have_stat=0 have_type=1
consider_visiting (early): 'aa/22': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 1, prev_depth=1 fts_path='aa/22', fts_accpath='22'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa/22': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, isdir=0 ignore=0 have_stat=0 have_type=1
consider_visiting (early): 'aa/33': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 1, prev_depth=1 fts_path='aa/33', fts_accpath='33'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa/33': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, isdir=0 ignore=0 have_stat=0 have_type=1
consider_visiting (early): 'aa/bb': fts_info=FTS_D , fts_level= 1, prev_depth=1 fts_path='aa/bb', fts_accpath='bb'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa/bb': fts_info=FTS_D , isdir=1 ignore=1 have_stat=1 have_type=1
consider_visiting (early): 'aa/bb/44': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 2, prev_depth=1 fts_path='aa/bb/44', fts_accpath='44'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa/bb/44': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, isdir=0 ignore=0 have_stat=0 have_type=1
consider_visiting (early): 'aa/bb/55': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, fts_level= 2, prev_depth=2 fts_path='aa/bb/55', fts_accpath='55'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa/bb/55': fts_info=FTS_NSOK, isdir=0 ignore=0 have_stat=0 have_type=1
consider_visiting (early): 'aa/bb': fts_info=FTS_DP, fts_level= 1, prev_depth=2 fts_path='aa/bb', fts_accpath='bb'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa/bb': fts_info=FTS_DP, isdir=1 ignore=0 have_stat=1 have_type=1
consider_visiting (early): 'aa': fts_info=FTS_DP, fts_level= 0, prev_depth=1 fts_path='aa', fts_accpath='aa'
consider_visiting (late): 'aa': fts_info=FTS_DP, isdir=1 ignore=0 have_stat=1 have_type=1
$ find --version
find (GNU findutils) 4.5.11
Packaged by Cygwin (4.5.11-1)
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Eric B. Decker, James Youngman, and Kevin Dalley.
Features enabled: D_TYPE O_NOFOLLOW(enabled) LEAF_OPTIMISATION FTS(FTS_CWDFD) CBO(level=2)