`find` command interprets standalone forward slash `/` as a DOS switch instead of a Unix path

[spritetong]

Description

With the Coreutils for Windows release, the find multi-call binary handles both Unix-style find and legacy DOS find compatibility. However, when executing a standard Unix find command and specifying the root or a path using a standalone forward slash /, the parser/dispatcher mistakenly treats / as a DOS-style switch prefix rather than a positional path argument. This triggers the legacy Windows find error.

Steps to Reproduce

Run the following command in a terminal where Coreutils for Windows is active:

Bash

find / -name *.txt

Expected Behavior

The command should be routed to the Unix-style find utility, treating / as the starting directory path for the search.

Actual Behavior

The command fails immediately with the legacy DOS find.exe error message:

Plaintext

FIND: Invalid switch

Environment / Context

• OS: Windows 11

• Installation Method: winget install Microsoft.Coreutils

• Shell: PowerShell 7+ / CMD