CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bashfindxargs
user2044576
user2044576

Reputation: 31

Running a command in multiple directories

I am running this command in one of my many subdirectories:

ls *.rst -C1 -t | awk 'NR>1' | xargs rm

Essentially, this lists all files that end with .rst and I sort them based on the time they were created and I want only the most recently created file. I then delete the rest of the *.rst files.

I have 200 directories that I need to execute this command in. I have tried using the find command to pass the location of the directories to this command but I have not been successful. All of these directories contain the files inputs.in. I have tried:

find . -name inputs.in | xargs ls *.rst -C1 -t | awk 'NR>1' | xargs rm

but I believe since the input to the ls *.rst bit is the full path including the file name, it has not been working.

I'm sure it's quick fix but your help and comments would be greatly appreciated. I would like to run this command from the parent directory. Thanks!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 302

Answers (2)

Ole Tange
Ole Tange

Reputation: 33685

If you have GNU Parallel installed:

find . -name inputs.in | parallel "cd {//} && ls *.rst -C1 -t | awk 'NR>1' | xargs rm"

If it is not packaged for your system, this should install it in 10 seconds:

(wget -O - pi.dk/3 || curl pi.dk/3/ || fetch -o - http://pi.dk/3) | bash

To learn more: Watch the intro video for a quick introduction: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL284C9FF2488BC6D1

Walk through the tutorial (man parallel_tutorial). You command line will love you for it.

Upvotes: 0

perreal
perreal

Reputation: 97948

Some ugly way:

find . -name inputs.in | xargs dirname |                     \
     xargs -I{} -n 1 find {} -name '*.rst' | xargs ls -C1 -t |    \
     awk 'NR>1' | xargs rm

ls with wildcard will fail because globbing happens before even find is executed.

Upvotes: 1

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