how to recursively delete *.xtension files from a directory structure

kpachopoulos · 12-07-2006, 04:44 PM

Hi,
how can i recursively delete *.xtension files from a directory structure? I cannot find an "rm -r" trick for this? Is there one or do i have to write a script?

Thnx

reddazz · 12-07-2006, 04:52 PM

How about "rm -rf *.extension"? You could also do something like

Code:

$find /some/path -name "*.extension" -exec rm -rf {} \;

dxqcanada · 12-07-2006, 04:55 PM

The -r / -R should only remove directorys ... so I think you will need to pipe some commands together (or put it in a script).

matthewg42 · 12-07-2006, 04:57 PM

If you're just interested in files (not directories with the extension), and want to be "safe" with file names with spaces in, do it like this:

Code:

find /your/dir -type f -name "*.extension" -print0 |xargs -0 rm -f

All sub-directories in /your/dir will be searched, although note that symbolic links will not be followed. Also only regular files will be deleted, not symbolic links or special files like fifos.

svzard · 08-23-2008, 08:12 AM

Hello,

I would be obliged if you could explain the commands you both suggested.

I've the same problem. I stupidly tried

Code:

rm -r /mydir/*.exe

and the whole data got deleted.

I'll try your commands on a test directory and if it solves my problem will execute it on the pen drive with which I'm having problem. (My pendrive is infected with a virus which creates an 'exe' file by the same name as the directory. The more directory you have the more problem.)

Regards,
SV

matthewg42 · 08-23-2008, 08:33 AM

The xargs version will be faster, if you have a large number of files to remove. If it's only a few files, it won't make a lot of difference between -exec and xargs variants.

See this post for some background which will help you understand the find / xargs combination.

svzard · 08-24-2008, 08:53 AM

thanks a lot for the link matthew. will also go through man pages.