How to remove all subdirectory/file under current directory ?
in [Shell]
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From: Ivan Shmakov on 9 Mar 2010 08:53 >>>>> houghi <houghi(a)houghi.org.invalid> writes: >>>>> Dominic Fandrey wrote: >> What you are looking for is the both dangerous and popular drug >> rm -rf * > On a sidenote, what I have forced myself to learn is using `rm * > -rf` It somehow gives me just that fraction of a second to realize > what I want to delete before press ENTER. A good habit, indeed. > It might not work everywhere, nut it des on (my) linux and > especially when using [TAB] for completion has saved me in the > past. e.g. if I want to delete a directory ~/none, use tab for > completion and mistye the n for a b: rm -rf ~/b[tab][enter] The > ENTER is almost imidiatly after the tab and I have deleted bin and > not none. When it comes to me, I occasionally mistype nothing for a letter. So, it'd easily become $ rm -rf ~/ RET, if not such a habit. > Now if I would do `rm ~/b[tab] -rf` I would have the time of typing > " -rf" before I hit enter and see that it says ~/bin and not ~/none. -- FSF associate member #7257
From: jellybean stonerfish on 9 Mar 2010 09:35 On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:35:29 -0600, Ed Morton wrote: > On 3/9/2010 1:06 AM, moonhkt wrote: >> Hi All >> >> Any suggestion ? Currently, I am using below shell command >> >> cd delete_path >> rm -f * # remove current directory files rm -f */* # remove >> subdirectory files rm -f */*/* # repeat ... >> rm -f */*/*/* >> rm -f */*/*/*/* >> rm -f */*/*/*/*/* >> rm -f */*/*/*/*/*/* >> rm -f */*/*/*/*/*/*/* >> rm -f */*/*/*/*/*/*/*/* >> du -k | awk '{print $2}' |sort -r |xargs rmdir -p # remove all >> subdirectory >> >> moonhkt > > Genuinely curious - "rm" only has about 5 or 6 options so when you > looked up the man page did you not understand what "recursively" meant > or not notice it or was it something else? > > Ed. The man pages may not be available in moonhkt's native language?
From: Sven Mascheck on 9 Mar 2010 09:44 houghi wrote: > what I have forced myself to learn is using `rm * -rf` It somehow > gives me just that fraction of a second to realize what I want to > delete before press ENTER. Options after arguments is not portable [1], (and btw: incompatible with a terminating "--"). And a few times, when I noticed that it's possible at all, e.g. in GNU, I (personally) even found that rather annoying - but obviously an "ymmv". [1] not to confuse with find, which additionally knows "expressions".
From: Ed Morton on 9 Mar 2010 10:12 On 3/9/2010 8:35 AM, jellybean stonerfish wrote: > On Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:35:29 -0600, Ed Morton wrote: > >> On 3/9/2010 1:06 AM, moonhkt wrote: >>> Hi All >>> >>> Any suggestion ? Currently, I am using below shell command >>> >>> cd delete_path >>> rm -f * # remove current directory files rm -f */* # remove >>> subdirectory files rm -f */*/* # repeat ... >>> rm -f */*/*/* >>> rm -f */*/*/*/* >>> rm -f */*/*/*/*/* >>> rm -f */*/*/*/*/*/* >>> rm -f */*/*/*/*/*/*/* >>> rm -f */*/*/*/*/*/*/*/* >>> du -k | awk '{print $2}' |sort -r |xargs rmdir -p # remove all >>> subdirectory >>> >>> moonhkt >> >> Genuinely curious - "rm" only has about 5 or 6 options so when you >> looked up the man page did you not understand what "recursively" meant >> or not notice it or was it something else? >> >> Ed. > > The man pages may not be available in moonhkt's native language? Yes, but if so then neither is this NG and I'd think this from the rm man page: -r, -R, --recursive remove directories and their contents recursively would be at least as easy to understand as the comments the OP wrote in his script: rm -f * # remove current directory files rm -f */* # remove subdirectory files rm -f */*/* # repeat ... and the responses posted here. Like I said, I'm just curious about how a question like this gets posted.... Ed.
From: Stephane CHAZELAS on 9 Mar 2010 12:28
2010-03-9, 16:21(+01), houghi: > Sven Mascheck wrote: >> houghi wrote: >> >>> what I have forced myself to learn is using `rm * -rf` It somehow >>> gives me just that fraction of a second to realize what I want to >>> delete before press ENTER. >> >> Options after arguments is not portable [1], > > That is what I thought and therfore wrote that it might not work > everywhere. [...] Actually, it doesn't work on Unix systems. It only works on GNU systems if there's no POSIXLY_CORRECT variable in the environment. Also, rm -rf ./* or rm -rf -- * are better in case some filenames start with "-" It should also be noted that it will not remove dot files. zsh issues a "zsh: sure you want to delete all the files" prompt in that very case (which you can disable), that is when calling a "rm" command with an argument that is "*" or "whatever/*" In zsh, to remove every file: rm -rf ./*(D) (The (D) is to include the dot files except "." and ".."). -- Stéphane |