How to remove certain types of file?

heislyc · 02-16-2006, 07:40 PM

Hi all,

I've been surfing around but none of them helps.

I need to find out how to remove certain files base on file extension in Linux.

I've tried this from another website:

Quote:

find /scratch/yourdir -name 'core.*' > find.out then edit this new file. For example, remove the files you want to keep from 'find.out,' then put the remove command and a space ('rm ') at the beginning of each remaining line. To do this, while in the vi editor for example, enter:%s/^/rm /Write and quite the file, change its mode (chmod u+rwx find.out) and execute the file (./find.out). All files that remain in find.out will be deleted from your disk.

The result is: (let say i want to remove all .pif00 files listed in [find.out])

Quote:

rm: cannot lstat 'myfolder/file.doc': No such file or directory

Quote:

rm: cannot lstat '.pif': No such file or directory

OK, for above, i realize that because those files are with names like:

Quote:

filename.doc[ long spaces in between ].pif

That's why the method i used not really working. (How do i fix this?)

Guys, what's wrong? Or could anyone suggest me other ways to remove multiple files in multiple sub-directories base on file extensions?

kegwell · 02-16-2006, 08:01 PM

Unless I don't understand your question, why can't you simply use a wildcard recursively? For example, if you wanted to remove all .txt files within the directories report, project, work, and documents in the directory structure, /home/heislyc/documents/work/project/report just run the following command: rm -rR /home/heislyc/*.txt

I believe that is what you are looking for?

gilead · 02-16-2006, 08:21 PM

Have you tried something like the following:

Code:

find /tmp -name '*log' -exec rm -f {} \;

This will delete all of the files whose name ends in log that are in or below the /tmp directory.

heislyc · 02-17-2006, 01:07 AM

I managed to solve the problem by using mv command.

Initially, the rm -R /home/*.txt doesn't work, it gives me no such files error.

After that, i've tried using mv -R /home/*/*/*.txt dummy, then only i managed to move out all those files to dummy directory, then delete all files that moved into [dummy].

That basically means, you need to insert each wildcard for each level of directory tree. :S

Thanks guys for reply, as for find command, i'll try it out, but i think same rules applied.

lurker79 · 02-17-2006, 05:22 AM

I would use -ok instead of -exec when removing files as it will prompt you whether or not you want to run that command on that file, saves you from accidently deleting files when you typo the find command.

e.g.

find /tmp -name '*log' -ok rm -f {} \;

gilead · 02-17-2006, 12:21 PM

If there are only a few files, -ok would be practical. If there a lot of files, I use the following process:

Code:

find /tmp -name '*log' -exec ls -l {} \; # Sometimes I pipe through grep, if everything is OK I run
find /tmp -name '*log' -exec rm -f {} \;

Since I regularly backup my system this way is more practical.