Question

Code snippet to delete files in a directory

Asked by: luke_airig

Unix version is: SunOS 5.10 Generic_141414-02 sun4v sparc SUNW,T5240

I am encountering the following error:
  'ksh: /usr/bin/find: arg list too long'

The directory that I am trying to clean up is huge and I would prefer to not have to provide multiple file name patterns to match.

Can someone provide an alternative code snippet that will:

1) Delete all files in a directory
2) Not delete any files in any sub-directories (prune functionality)
3) Not delete any sub-directories in the directory

TIA

Luke

#!/bin/ksh
FILE_AGE_CRITERION_IN_DAYS=$1
FILE_NAME_PATTERN_TO_MATCH=*
DIR_TO_CLEAN=$3       
LOG_DIR=$4
 
FILES_DELETED_COUNT=0
for FILE in `find $DIR_TO_CLEAN/*  -prune  -type f  -name "$FILE_NAME_PATTERN_TO_MATCH"  -mtime +$FILE_AGE_CRITERION_IN_DAYS  -print`
do
  rm -f  $FILE                                       
  let "FILES_DELETED_COUNT+=1"
done
echo "- Deleted $FILES_DELETED_COUNT file(s) from $DIR_TO_CLEAN" | tee -a $LOG_DIR/$LOG_FILE

                                  
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Asked On
2009-10-13 at 09:39:25ID24808376
Tags

ksh Korn shell Unix

Topics

KornShell (ksh)

,

Unix Operating Systems

Participating Experts
2
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: amit_gPosted on 2009-10-13 at 10:54:12ID: 25562397

find $DIR_TO_CLEAN/*  -prune  -type f  -name "$FILE_NAME_PATTERN_TO_MATCH"  -mtime +$FILE_AGE_CRITERION_IN_DAYS  -print | xargs -n 10 rm -f

 

by: amit_gPosted on 2009-10-13 at 10:58:33ID: 25562441

If you have to get the count also, you could probably do something like

find $DIR_TO_CLEAN/*  -prune  -type f  -name "$FILE_NAME_PATTERN_TO_MATCH"  -mtime +$FILE_AGE_CRITERION_IN_DAYS  -print | tee /tmp/FileCount.$$ | xargs -n 10 rm -f

FILES_DELETED_COUNT=`cat /tmp/FileCount.$$ | wc -l`

rm /tmp/FileCount.$$

 

by: TintinPosted on 2009-10-13 at 14:40:55ID: 25565067

My suggestion would be to install GNU find (you can grab it from http://sunfreeware.com)

Then you can do

find $DIR_TO_CLEAN -type f -maxdepth 1 | xargs rm -f


 

by: luke_airigPosted on 2009-10-13 at 22:58:32ID: 25567659

amit_g,

Just want to confirm. Piping find to xargs will not encounter the same 'arg list too long' issue with find?

 

by: TintinPosted on 2009-10-13 at 23:11:48ID: 25567700

>Just want to confirm. Piping find to xargs will not encounter the same 'arg list too long' issue with find?

No, xargs won't help in this instance.  The arg list too long is caused by the find $DIR_TO_CLEAN/*

That's why GNU find will easily solve your problem.

 

by: amit_gPosted on 2009-10-14 at 07:54:34ID: 25571202

xargs with -n (xargs -n 10 rm -f) should help in this case as the target command would only be run on 10 files at a time. Give it a try

 

by: TintinPosted on 2009-10-14 at 14:10:42ID: 25575324

amit_g

the reason the find command gets an "arg list too long" is that when you do

find /path/*

the shell is globbing the * and if the number of files matched by * exceeds the limit, you'll get the arg list too long error.

 

by: amit_gPosted on 2009-10-14 at 14:17:11ID: 25575368

Ah, thanks Tintin. I did not noticed that. Could we not just use

find $DIR_TO_CLEAN  -prune  -type f  -name "$FILE_NAME_PATTERN_TO_MATCH"  -mtime +$FILE_AGE_CRITERION_IN_DAYS  -print | tee /tmp/FileCount.$$ | xargs -n 10 rm -f

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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