This option to the find command is useful if the filenames contain spaces when redirecting the output of find to the xargs command. The syntax of the option is:
find [where to start searching from] [expression determines what to find] -print0
The -print0 option tells the find command to print the full file name on the standard output, followed by a null character (ASCII code 0) instead of the newline character. This allows file names that contain spaces or other special characters to be correctly interpreted by the xargs command, which can use the -0 option to read items from the standard input that are terminated by a null character. The syntax of the xargs command with the -0 option is:
xargs -0 [command]
The -0 option tells the xargs command to expect the items from the standard input to be separated by a null character, and to execute the command using the items as arguments.
Therefore, the command find … -print0 | xargs -0 … will search for files and directories using the find command, print the results with a null character as the separator, pipe the output to the xargs command, which will read the items with a null character as the separator, and execute another command using the items as arguments. This will avoid any problems with filenames that contain spaces or other special characters.
The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:
A, -rep-space: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to replace spaces in the filenames with another character in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.
B, -printnul: This option does not exist in the find command. There is a similar option, -print0, which prints the filenames with a null character as the separator, but -printnul is not a valid option. The command will report an error and exit.
C, -nospace: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to ignore spaces in the filenames in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.
D, -ignore-space: This option does not exist in the find command. There is no option to ignore spaces in the filenames in the find command. The command will report an error and exit.
References:
How to Use the find Command in Linux - How-To Geek
find command in Linux with examples - GeeksforGeeks
find(1) - Linux manual page - man7.org
[xargs command in Linux with examples - GeeksforGeeks]
[How to Use the xargs Command on Linux - How-To Geek].
