rm and grep

TheGNUbie · 12-03-2009, 11:54 PM

if I wanted to recursively remove Thumbs.db files can I use rm with |grep?
ie rm -rf /mp3|grep Thumbs.db

Would this throw an error? or what would happen?

bret381 · 12-04-2009, 12:22 AM

I believe what that would do is remove the folder /mp3 then try to search for thumbs.db inside the recently deleted folder mp3...Not what you are wanting.

Aquarius_Girl · 12-04-2009, 12:38 AM

You can do it simply like

Code:

rm -rf /mp3/Thumbs.db -i

. No need to use grep here. The above shown command does what u want !

And if u don't want to take any risk with 'rm' command u can attach '-i' at the end of the command. In that case it'll ask u before deleting anything !

pixellany · 12-04-2009, 06:46 AM

The pipe operator (|) is used to connect the output of one command to the input of another. In your example, "rm" does not produce any output, so there is nothing to pipe into grep.