I have a directory structure something like this:

dir1
..cvs
..dir1a
....cvs
....dir1b
......cvs
dir2
..cvs
..dir2a
....cvs

i want to remove all directories names 'cvs'
What is the command to do this?

The following:
rm -d
or
rm -r
aren't quite right.

I think shell script can do it.

A shell script is the best way.

I don't know bash syntax well enough to write it for you from memory, but you want something that:

Searches through the structure recursively looking for directories called CVS and erases them.

Grep is going to be your best friend for this. "man grep", as it has a recursive option, meaning you can ls a folder recursively.

Don't quote me on this, but something like (ls -a $dir1 | grep -r cvs | rm)

That could be complete bull**** code for all I know, but you get the rough idea.

All you have to figure out is how to then delete them all!

BTW, how many CVS directories are we talking about here?

>>BTW, how many CVS directories are we talking about here?
20 or so.
does it matter whether it is 2 or 200?

Maybe something like this.
Be careful with the rm -rf command:

thanks, this works.
i tested it first by doing this:

find . -type d -name 'cvs' -exec ls -R {} \;

and then using the real command on a 'fake' directory structure

Good job! glad it works