Making shell script to 'locate' m4a files and delete them

bd1308 · 02-11-2006, 10:32 PM

Hello, I just added an old mac to my collection of networked computers. using atalkd and it all works. The mac will play mp3's fine, but locks-up for several minutes when trying to play m4a files.

anyway, I need some help designing a shell script to use locate to find ALL *.m4a files and then pipe it to 'rm -rf' using the output from locate as the input to rm....

i tried piping it and it didnt work out well at all...

b

puffinman · 02-11-2006, 11:41 PM

The locate program can be used with a regex, try:

Code:

rm `locate -r \.m4a$`

Of course you might want to check the output with echo first, like

Code:

echo `locate -r \.m4a$`

to make sure you're not deleting anything by mistake you want to keep. Or you can just use mv instead of rm to move them all to one directory, then examine its contents and if it's all unwanted just delete that.

BTW, those are backticks (the character under your tilda) not quote marks. They evaluate the expression inside and place it literally in the command.

bd1308 · 02-12-2006, 09:13 AM

okay, I ran the echo code and it spit out what appears to be a single line wrapped around many times...shouldn't the output be individual lines?

then I ran the main script, and it told me that there was an invalid option, a capital N..I assume this is actually a name of a folder or something, and its confusing rm?

I appreciate your help though. Thank you.

b

bd1308 · 02-12-2006, 10:44 AM

IFS="
#
";
for i in `locate -r '.*\.[mM]4[aA]'`; do
ls -l ${i}
done

that ended up fixing everything

b