Question

rm command

Asked by: ricuff

Hi experts

I need to remove all the files in the current and subdirectories that are named .vacation.msg with the dot I tried

find /home/pop -name .vacation.msg -type f -print | xargs /bin/rm -f

but it does not work could you help me please?

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Asked On
2009-03-23 at 06:54:38ID24255473
Topics

Bourne Shell (sh)

,

Linux

,

Linux Administration

Participating Experts
5
Points
50
Comments
13

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Answers

 

by: brittonvPosted on 2009-03-23 at 06:56:43ID: 23957643

while I am not 100% positive, I think you need to rm -rf

 

by: brittonvPosted on 2009-03-23 at 06:57:45ID: 23957656

I really really really recommend creating a test directory to try that on before running it on your real directory!  Or copy it first

 

by: dalesitPosted on 2009-03-23 at 07:08:22ID: 23957764

find /home/pop -name .vacation.msg -exec rm {} \;

You can add the -type if you wish, but shouldn't be necessary.

Cheers,

Joel

 

by: ricuffPosted on 2009-03-23 at 07:08:54ID: 23957773

using rm -f will delete everythnig I just ant to delete some files that are named .vacation.msg

 

by: ricuffPosted on 2009-03-23 at 07:15:40ID: 23957848

I run

find /home/pop -name .vacation.msg -exec rm {} \;

but it did not delete the files .vacation.msg

 

by: samo4funPosted on 2009-03-23 at 07:36:45ID: 23958082

try this

ls /home/pop | grep .vacation.msg | xargs -i rm {}

 

by: ricuffPosted on 2009-03-23 at 08:00:03ID: 23958348

no it still did not delete the files

 

by: samo4funPosted on 2009-03-23 at 08:24:02ID: 23958651

can you try this...

im out of sh so i cannot try ...

find /home/pop -name .vacation.msg -exec mv {} vacation.msg | xargs -i rm {}

 

by: kosarajudeepakPosted on 2009-03-23 at 08:26:20ID: 23958681

Command you posted and exec commands posted by other experts should work. Can you paste the terminal output when ever u issues your command, break the command in to two, to show the output for us
like below

[root@pro01 ~]# cd /opt/
[root@pro01 opt]# touch .vacation.msg
[root@pro01 opt]# touch .vacation.msg.2
[root@pro01 opt]# touch .vacation.msg.3
[root@pro01 opt]# touch .vacation..msg
< First Part >
[root@pro01 ~ ]# find /opt -name .vacation.msg -type f -print
/opt/.vacation.msg
 
< Second Part >
[root@pro01 opt]# find /opt -name .vacation.msg -type f -print | xargs /bin/rm -f
[root@pro01 opt]# ls -l .vacation.*
.vacation..msg   .vacation.msg.1  .vacation.msg.2  .vacation.msg.3
[root@pro01 opt]# 
                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: ricuffPosted on 2009-03-23 at 08:38:48ID: 23958829

I get this

find /home/pop -name .vacation.msg -exec mv {} vacation.msg | xargs -i rm {}
find: missing argument to `-exec'

 

by: dalesitPosted on 2009-03-23 at 08:39:37ID: 23958843

Do you have permissions to remove the files? If you locate one of them, can you remove it by simply doing

rm .vacation.msg

?

Cheers,

Joel

 

by: TintinPosted on 2009-03-23 at 12:54:19ID: 23961605

find /home/pop -name .vacation.msg -type f -print | xargs /bin/rm -f

will definately work if you have .vacation.msg files *and* you have permission to delete them.

What output do you get when you run the command?

 

by: dalesitPosted on 2009-04-06 at 06:14:15ID: 24076956

You wrote:

find /home/pop -name .vacation.msg -exec mv {} vacation.msg | xargs -i rm {}
find: missing argument to `-exec'



The problem with that statement is that the first find statement needs to have \; at the end.

The second statement will have no input, so will have no effect. You will have moved the file to be vacation.msg, but there will be no output to pass to the xargs statement. And anyway, the original file will no longer exist as it has been moved.

Try deleting one of the files manually to see if you have permissions to do so. Then if that succeeds, try

find /home/pop -name .vacation.msg -exec rm {} \;

Cheers,

Joel

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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