CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxxargsrm
Martin G
Martin G

Reputation: 18109

Removing files with rm using find and xargs

When I do

rm file.txt

or

rm *.txt

I'm prompted for each file, since I didn't specify the -f option to rm.

But when I do this:

find . -type f -name '*.txt' | xargs rm

the files are removed without the confirmation.

What is the logics behind this? Is it possible to find the reason in some documentation? I cannot explain why this would be the case.

Upvotes: 33

Views: 87437

Answers (5)

Sun
Sun

Reputation: 1581

ls "fnames with wild chars" | xargs -I{} rm -v {}

Here -I{} is used to replace all inputs be substituted in place of {}.

NOTE: It can be catastrophic to use names with improper wildcards as a file that is removed cannot be retrieved. Use it with caution and try to refrain from using recursive(-r) flag.

Upvotes: 0

jteks
jteks

Reputation: 641

You want to remove into PATH_DIR1 existing files in PATH_DIR2 :

find PATH_DIR1 -type f  -exec basename '{}' ';' | xargs printf -- 'PATH_DIR2/%s\n' | xargs rm

Explanations :

  1. List all filenames in PATH_DIR1

find PATH_DIR1 -type f -exec basename '{}' ';'

  1. Filter the previous listing with the existing files in PATH_DIR2 (find the intersect data)

xargs printf -- 'PATH_DIR2/%s\n'

  1. Execute the remove action to the filtered result

xargs rm

Upvotes: -1

Stephen
Stephen

Reputation: 783

you can use this simple command to solve your problem

find . -type f -name '*.txt' -delete

Upvotes: 27

Angelos
Angelos

Reputation: 25

Depending on your version of xargs you may have the --no-run-if-empty GNU extension option available to you:

find . -type f -name '*.txt' | xargs  --no-run-if-empty  rm -rf

Upvotes: 2

Harald Gliebe
Harald Gliebe

Reputation: 7544

You have an alias set for the rm command to 'rm -i'. Therefore if you invoke the command directly as in 

rm file.txt

or

rm *.txt

the alias will be expanded. If you will call it with xargs as in

find . -type f -name '*.txt' | xargs rm

The rm is passed as a simple string argument to xargs and is later invoked by xargs without alias substitution of the shell. You alias is probably defined in ~/.bashrc, in case you want to remove it.

Upvotes: 36

Related Questions