Hya

I cannot figure out why I am getting this error. dir2del is deleted, as I intend.I do not think I should get "No such...". I understand that -exec clause is interpreted as "rm -r dir2del", thus "rm dir2del" results in error.

rm is aliased to "rm -i", but I think it is irrelevant. This also happens when dir2del contains file/dir.

So far, I am unable to locate reason(s) in "man rm", "info rm"...

Does any expert know why?

in the first rm command there is no option -r, therefore rm will report: cannot rm dir
in the second rm command you used -r which means recursive delete, so it will remove dir2del and everything inside. After that find cannot continue, because the currently processed (found) dir disappeared. find would continue to go inside that dir, but lost.

Also, you can use the -delete option instead of -exec. It can be used to delete an empty directory, not just files. Otherwise, if you are going to use -exec you need the rmdir utility.

Also, see discussion of directory options in the GNU findutils manual, particularly, the option -depth. BTW, -delete implies -depth, you don't have to specify it in that case.

So true, and IMHO a wrong design!
Because it does not allow
One must use -exec rm here

Thanks for comments.

Yes, -d or rmdir works. My understanding is:
1. find script finds directory
2. rm -r is evoked (spawned?) then
3. find script finds next target

With "find -exec command {} +", command is evoked after find script finds all targets. In this situation (non sequential execution), it can happen.

So, when things go sequentially, unless directory structure is complex, such as

dir2del/dir2del

and dir2del (level2) is deleted with rm -r dir2del (level1)

such a situation won't happen.

In the case at post #1, directory structure is simple and "-exec rm -r {} ;", none of above applies.

cheers

sorry, do you have a question now?

rm -r is recursive, you should not run it in a recursive find.
The following lets find run on level 1 only i.e. within the start directory:
This is okay, but why not simply
?
The -f is silent if dir2del does not exist.
The trailing / ensures it is a directory.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hya

Still, I do not understand the reason.
So, my next guess:
dir2del is found, then been deleted together with its content. (so far, no error)
nextObject is found ... (no error)

If find remembers der2del, and need to come back, then goto nextObject (cannot come back dir2del, which makes sense for that message. Why need to find the object which is already found?). But in this scenario, I somewhat worry whether or not some file/dir could be missed.


Yes, 'rm -rf dir2del/' works. But, reason for this thread is that "to remove __pycache__/*pyc". dir2del sample in #1 is the most simplified version. I think I need to use "rm -r {} ;"

cheers

you can safely delete the whole __pychace__ dir.
find is a process, rm is another one. When you exec any command which will alter the actual directory (remove/rename it) you definitely will confuse find (because that dir was already red and stored in the memory of find). find will not re-analyze the underlying directory structure, it just assumes the user won't put a halter round his own neck.

Hya

Now, I no longer have a question.

So, my best guess is the situation is something likeAs long as no side effect (un-sought dir/file, orphan inode...), I have no problem.
cheers

So, in this case:
A program did what I wished, but implemented to complain.

Not really. Complaining means it is not the designed way, something went wrong. But anyway you could achieve your goal.

https://cheezburger.com/4215647488/hard-driving-it-in