[SOLVED] Delete files with complex filenames with a script

NickJH · 05-24-2010, 08:53 AM

Hi,
I am trying to write a bash script to delete a file where I know the first part of the name, but it has spaces in it. The second part of the file name is a random set of characters. I was hoping to use a wildcard for this, but I keep getting a error massage saying file or directory does not exist. This is a simplified form of my script:

Code:

MYFILE=This is my file

rm "$MYFILE*"

The file may be something like "This is my file.123abc456.suffix"

How can I delete this file using a script and wildcard?

PMP · 05-24-2010, 08:59 AM

Code:

find <path/of/dir> -name "$MYFILE*" | xargs -i rm -f {}

alli_yas · 05-24-2010, 09:00 AM

Wouldn't the following work:

Code:

$cd /path/to/files

$sudo rm first\ part\ you\ know*

So if you had two files "first part you knowblahblah.blah" and "first part you know2blahblah.blah" the above should prompt and remove them.

Basically the back slashes escape the spaces.

Hope this helps,

catkin · 05-24-2010, 09:00 AM

Or search LQ for similar questions. Here is a search for find filename and space.

NickJH · 05-24-2010, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PMP

Code:

find <path/of/dir> -name "$MYFILE*" | xargs -i rm -f {}

Thanks but I am now failing with the meta-characters "[" and "]" in the filename.

The full file name I want to delete is

Code:

"Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel[2009.DvDRiP[NoRaR]L33t - bittoxic.8eaa61dc40f690ea.torrent"

where I know everything up to and including bittoxic.

catkin · 05-24-2010, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickJH

Thanks but I am now failing with the meta-characters "[" and "]" in the filename.

Time to wheel on the robust solution

Code:

while IFS= read -r -d '' file
do
   echo rm "$file"
done < <(find your_starting_directory -type f -name 'your_name_starting_string*' -print0)

Remove the echo when you are confident the loop is generating the correct command.

NickJH · 05-24-2010, 11:51 AM

I'm struggling to get it to work.

This is where I'm at:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH=/home/transmission/
DOWNLOADPATH=/home/transmission/Downloads/
TORRENTPATH=$TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/

if [ -e $DOWNLOADPATH* ]; then
	for i in $DOWNLOADPATH*; do
		TORRENTNAME=${i/$DOWNLOADPATH/}
		chown :howitts "$i" -R
		chmod 774 "$i" -R
		while IFS= read -r -d '' file
		do
			echo rm "$file"
		done < <(find $TORRENTPATH -type f -name '$TORRENTNAME*' -print0)


	done

fi

There is another bug in the if statement when the path has multiple files in it, but I'll sort that later. I've tried with and without the trailing "/" at the end of setting TORRENTPATH but it makes no difference. The echo statement appears to do nothing which is odd.

catkin · 05-24-2010, 12:58 PM

The echo statement is not being run because find $TORRENTPATH -type f -name '$TORRENTNAME*' -print0 is not finding anything because of the single quotes which prevent $TORRENTNAME from being expanded. Fix by changing the single quotes to double quotes.

NickJH · 05-24-2010, 01:38 PM

I've tried changing the single quotes to double quotes, but it looks like the while loop is still not doing anything.

catkin · 05-24-2010, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickJH

I've tried changing the single quotes to double quotes, but it looks like the while loop is still not doing anything.

A powerful debugging technique is to peel the onion from the inside out.

First off, find what $TORRENTPATH and $TORRENTNAME are for the find

Code:

#!/bin/bash

TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH=/home/transmission/
DOWNLOADPATH=/home/transmission/Downloads/
TORRENTPATH=$TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/

if [ -e $DOWNLOADPATH* ]; then
        echo "DEBUG: TORRENTPATH: '$TORRENTPATH', TORRENTNAME: '$TORRENTNAME'"
	for i in $DOWNLOADPATH*; do
		TORRENTNAME=${i/$DOWNLOADPATH/}
		chown :howitts "$i" -R
		chmod 774 "$i" -R
		while IFS= read -r -d '' file
		do
			echo rm "$file"
		done < <(find $TORRENTPATH -type f -name '$TORRENTNAME*' -print0)
	done
fi

BTW it does look od that you are setting TORRENTNAME=${i/$DOWNLOADPATH/} inside the loop, after it has already been used in the find command. EDIT2: that's nonsense, please ignore!

Then you can run the find command at the command line and see if it produces sane output (remove the -print0 so it's easier to see).

EDIT: you can also use set -xv to trace the script (and set +xv to turn it off)

EDIT3: the debug line is in the wrong place, should be like this

Code:

#!/bin/bash

TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH=/home/transmission/
DOWNLOADPATH=/home/transmission/Downloads/
TORRENTPATH=$TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/

if [ -e $DOWNLOADPATH* ]; then
	for i in $DOWNLOADPATH*; do
		TORRENTNAME=${i/$DOWNLOADPATH/}
		chown :howitts "$i" -R
		chmod 774 "$i" -R
                echo "DEBUG: TORRENTPATH: '$TORRENTPATH', TORRENTNAME: '$TORRENTNAME'"
		while IFS= read -r -d '' file
		do
			echo rm "$file"
		done < <(find $TORRENTPATH -type f -name '$TORRENTNAME*' -print0)
	done
fi

NickJH · 05-24-2010, 02:11 PM

I have been using echo's to try to debug this and the parameters outside the while loop seem to be fine.

Moving the echo inside the for loop I get:
TORRENTPATH: '/home/transmission/.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/'
TORRENTNAME: 'Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel[2009.DvDRiP[NoRaR]L33t - bittoxic'

TORRENTPATH should be the folder where Transmission stores its Torrent tracker.
TORRENTNAME is the name of the file downloaded by the torrent.

Downloaded Torrents go into the DOWNLOADPATH when the download has completed. The idea of the for loop is to pick each completed download in turn then strip off the path to the download to get the pure file name (TORRENTNAME) for later use. I would expect to set TORRENTNAME inside this loop as it changes for each downloaded file that I want to move.

The Torrent's tracker gets stored in TORRENTPATH and is the same as TORRENTNAME with a "." then some random digits then ".torrent" stuck on the end.

Removing the -print0 does nothing. Have we still got the meta-character problem?

catkin · 05-24-2010, 02:16 PM

What is the output of

Code:

find '/home/transmission/.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/' -type f -name 'Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel[2009.DvDRiP[NoRaR]L33t - bittoxic*'

Meanwhile I'll study the rest of what you have posted and reply later.

NickJH · 05-24-2010, 02:22 PM

As you posted I was trying your set -xv trick and had just tried your command on its own!

Unfortunately it produces nothing.

catkin · 05-24-2010, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NickJH

As you posted I was trying your set -xv trick and had just tried your command on its own!

Unfortunately it produces nothing.

That explains why the echo in the while IFS= read loop is not executed. What is the output from

Code:

/bin/ls -l /home/transmission/.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/Alvin*

Meanwhile, maybe this will work

Code:

#!/bin/bash

TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH=/home/transmission/
DOWNLOADPATH=/home/transmission/Downloads/
TORRENTPATH=$TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/

cd $DOWNLOADPATH || exit 1
for TORRENTNAME in *
do
    for TORRENT in "$TORRENTPATH$TORRENTNAME"*.torrent
    do
        echo rm "$TORRENT"
    done
done

NickJH · 05-24-2010, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catkin

What is the output from

Code:

/bin/ls -l /home/transmission/.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/Alvin*

Code:

-rw------- 1 transmission allusers 14936 May 22 11:27 /home/transmission/.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/Alvin and the Chipmunks - The Squeakquel[2009.DvDRiP[NoRaR]L33t - bittoxic.8eaa61dc40f690ea.torrent
-rw------- 1 transmission allusers 31606 May 23 12:40 /home/transmission/.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/Alvin.and.the.Chipmunks.The.Squeakquel.2009.NORDiC.DVDR-HiGH.f836de6d3a3497cf.torrent

It is only the first of these I am trying to delete.

Quote:

Meanwhile, maybe this will work

Code:

#!/bin/bash

TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH=/home/transmission/
DOWNLOADPATH=/home/transmission/Downloads/
TORRENTPATH=$TRANSMISSIONHOMEPATH.config/transmission-daemon/torrents/

cd $DOWNLOADPATH || exit 1
for TORRENTNAME in *
do
    for TORRENT in "$TORRENTPATH$TORRENTNAME"*.torrent
    do
        echo rm "$TORRENT"
    done
done

It is looking good.