My remove script

matthewa · 07-12-2005, 03:16 AM

I wrote up a little script that I use to remove large amounts of files with. It's not much now but I was hoping to get some feedback on this thing. Maybe some ways to make it better?

#!/bin/bash

rm -rf \
<path to file you want removed> \
<path to file you want removed? \

One thing that is really a pain is that you actually have to paste in a list of the files you want removed and then append a "\" to the end of each one of them. I would really like to find a way to just paste in the files and run the script to remove the files, without all the work! Another thing that I thought about was adding "updatedb" to update slocates database after it clears all the files.

Any feedback would be appreciated. thanks

phil.d.g · 07-12-2005, 04:10 AM

you don't need the backslash after every line, write the script the same as you would write it on the command line, you put a different command on a new line, if you want more than one command on a line then separate those commands with a semi-colon

Search google for tutorials to write bash scripts, there are millions lying around

Ephracis · 07-12-2005, 04:29 AM

I made a little script here that you can use if you want:

Here is from when I tried it out:

Code:

$ touch /tmp/file1
$ touch "/tmp/file with space"
$ mkdir "/tmp/directory1"
$ ./removal.sh
Usage: ./removal.sh [option] <removelist>
Try ./removal.sh -h for more info.
$ ./removal.sh -v
Removal Tool v0.1
$ ./removal.sh -h
Removal Tool usage:
        -h, --help              Show this
        -v, --version           Show version
        -t, --trash             Use trashcan, do not remove
        -e, --empty             Empty trashcan

$ cat removelist
/tmp/file1
/tmp/directory1
/tmp/file with space
$ ./removal.sh --trash removelist
Trashcan set to: /home/mezzymeat/trashcan
Moving "/tmp/file1" to trashcan ...
Moving "/tmp/directory1" to trashcan ...
Moving "/tmp/file with space" to trashcan ...
$ ls ~/trashcan/
directory1/  file with space  file1
$ ./removal.sh -e
Cleaning up in /home/mezzymeat/trashcan ...
Done!
$ ls -l ~/trashcan/
total 0

And here is the code. It is simple and not optimized, so you can make a lot of improvements to it:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

if [ $# -lt 1 ] || [ $# -gt 2 ]; then
        echo "Usage: $0 [option] <removelist>"
        echo "Try $0 -h for more info."
        exit
fi;

if [ $1 == "-h" ] || [ $1 == "--help" ]; then
        echo "Removal Tool usage:"
        echo -e "\t-h, --help\t\tShow this"
        echo -e "\t-v, --version\t\tShow version"
        echo -e "\t-t, --trash\t\tUse trashcan, do not remove"
        echo -e "\t-e, --empty\t\tEmpty trashcan"
        echo ""
        exit
fi;

if [ $1 == "-v" ] || [ $1 == "--version" ]; then
        echo "Removal Tool v0.1"
        exit
fi;

if [ $1 == "-e" ] || [ $1 == "--empty" ]; then
        if [ -z $TRASHCAN ]; then
                TRASHCAN="$HOME/trashcan"
        fi;

        if [ -d $TRASHCAN ]; then
                if [ -w $TRASHCAN ]; then
                        echo "Cleaning up in $TRASHCAN ..."
                        rm -r $TRASHCAN/*
                        echo "Done!"
                        exit
                else
                        echo "! You do not write permission for $TRASHCAN"
                        exit
                fi;

        else
                echo "! $TRASHCAN does not exist."
                exit
        fi;

        echo "Cleaning up in $TRASHCAN ..."
        exit
fi;

trash=0
if [ $1 == "-t" ] || [ $1 == "--trash" ]; then
        if [ -z $TRASHCAN ]; then
                TRASHCAN="$HOME/trashcan"
        fi;

        if [ ! -d $TRASHCAN ]; then
                echo "! $TRASHCAN does not exist."
                exit
        fi;
        echo "Trashcan set to: $TRASHCAN"

        trash=1
fi;

cat removelist | while read entry; do

        if [ -w "$entry" ]; then
                if [ $trash == 1 ]; then
                        echo -e "Moving \"$entry\" to trashcan ..."
                        mv "$entry" $TRASHCAN
                else
                        echo -e "Removing \"$entry\" ..."
                        rm -r "$entry"
                fi;
        else
                if [ -e "$entry" ]; then
                        echo "Cannot access: $entry"
                else
                        echo "No such file or directory: $entry"
                fi;
        fi;
done;

Regads.

matthewa · 07-12-2005, 05:39 AM

ephracis, now thats a neat script! I have no clue as to how to use it, but believe me I'm studying it right now. Thanks for sharing!

Ephracis · 07-12-2005, 06:24 AM

It is very simple. I added the trashcan functionality and put the remove-list you wanted in a seperate file. Now you just need to have a file with a list of all files/dirs you want to remove and then run something like "removal -t <file>" and it should remove the files listed.

You can improve some things:

The switches (-h, -t, -e) works now but if you add some more and want to have two switches (eg you add -V for verbose and want to run "-t -V" or "-Vt" the script should be changed a little bit.
You may add so if the trashcan-dir does not exist the script asks the user if he wants it to be created.

Have fun!