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Full Discussion: Remove contents of directory, but not directory
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Remove contents of directory, but not directory Post 91628 by blowtorch on Sunday 4th of December 2005 01:25:58 AM
Old 12-04-2005
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdc
It's not homework. I'm looking to know mostly out of curiosity, but you could argue that using wildcards is bad anyway. If there's a million files in the directory, that's a million rm processes (obviously not all simultaneous, but still). It's not bullet-proof:

/*skipped the code*./

On top of that, it's not easy to use from, say, an exec() call. You need the infrastructure of a shell.

So my question stands.
I dont think you have that right.. a million processes is not a million rm processes. Its all those million files as arguments to one rm process. Now that might fail due to too many arguments (any command can handle only a finite number).
I will give you your second argument about not being easy to use from an exec() call.

Why don't you use a slightly modified form of the find command that ppierald gave:
Code:
find . -exec rm -rf {} \;

That, by the way, would be a million rm processes (one for each file/directory that the find command would output).
 

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LEARN ABOUT OSF1

mmd

mmd(1)							      General Commands Manual							    mmd(1)

NAME

       mmd - mtools utility to make a DOS directory

SYNOPSIS

       mmd [-v] msdosdirectory [msdosdirectories...]

OPTIONS

       Displays the new directory name if the name supplied is invalid.

DESCRIPTION

       The  mmd  command  makes  a new directory on a DOS file system. Unlike DOS conventions, this command accepts multiple arguments. Reasonable
       care is taken to create a valid DOS directory name.  If an invalid name is specified, the mmd command changes the directory name  and  dis-
       plays the new name if the -v option is specified. If the directory specified exists, an error occurs.

       DOS  subdirectory  names  are  supported  with either the '/' or '' separator.	The use of the '' separator or wildcards will require the
       directory name to be enclosed in quotes to protect it from the shell.

       The mcd command can be used to establish the device and the current working directory (relative to DOS), otherwise the default is A:.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned: Success.  Failure.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The following environment variables affect the execution of mmd: If set, this variable names the file that contains the name of the current
       mtools working directory as established by the mcd command.  If this variable is not set, the file $HOME/.mcwd is used.

FILES

       Contains  the  name  of	the  current mtools working directory as established by the mcd command.  If this file does not exist, the default
       mtools working directory is A:.  Executable file

SEE ALSO

       Commands: mcd(1), mrd(1), mtools(1)

																	    mmd(1)
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