[SOLVED] Removing files starting with dot

kevz · 04-01-2015, 05:44 PM

Hello,

I would like to remove those files:

MyDir/boo.tmp
MyDir/.zip.tmp

rm MyDir/*.tmp removes only boo.tmp but not .zip.tmp (No such file or directory).

I want to be able to remove any file that finishes with the .tmp extension even if the filename starts with .something.tmp

Thanks for your help :}

Keith Hedger · 04-01-2015, 05:49 PM

Code:

find -iname ".*.tmp" -delete

But be careful with the -delete option to find as you can SERIOUSLY fubar your system, read the man page for find first.

T3RM1NVT0R · 04-01-2015, 06:23 PM

In addition to what Keith suggested. I would say before you go ahead with delete get the list. So here is how you have to do:

Code:

find -iname ".*.tmp" -print >> list_of_files_to_be_deleted

Once you have checked that whatever showing up in the list are indeed the files you want to delete and nothing useful, then you can run a for loop to delete those files like this:

Code:

for i in cat `list_of_files_to_be_deleted`
do
{
     rm -rf $i
}
done

jpollard · 04-01-2015, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevz

Hello,

I would like to remove those files:

MyDir/boo.tmp
MyDir/.zip.tmp

rm MyDir/*.tmp removes only boo.tmp but not .zip.tmp (No such file or directory).

I want to be able to remove any file that finishes with the .tmp extension even if the filename starts with .something.tmp

Thanks for your help :}

This is because files starting with "." are skipped by the shell evaluating "*". It prevents bad things like "rm -rf *" from trying to delete "." and/or "..". Actually deleting these that way would cause you to loose all your files (an rm "..", would remove the parent directory...).

The safer way is to do an "rm .*.tmp", and though it requires a second command, you could do a "rm *.tmp .*.tmp" which will delete both.

kevz · 04-07-2015, 05:35 PM

Thank you for your replies.
I'll probably go with the safer way "rm *.tmp .*.tmp"

Also...
How do you safely remove a file called "*." ?

suicidaleggroll · 04-07-2015, 05:44 PM

You just delimit the *

Code:

rm \*.

jpollard · 04-07-2015, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevz

Thank you for your replies.
I'll probably go with the safer way "rm *.tmp .*.tmp"

Also...
How do you safely remove a file called "*." ?

I usually do it with a "rm './*.'", where the single quotes disable the substitutions that the shell would do. But if you have a mix characteristics where you want to use wildcards as well as non-wildcards you have to escape the non-wildcards...

timl · 04-07-2015, 06:36 PM

I guess

Quote:

rm -i

is an option. This prompts before removal