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rm command issue

 
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# 1  
Old 01-31-2012
Question rm command issue
Hi,

Getting the below error.

Code:
rm *.txt
bash: /usr/bin/rm: Arg list too long

I understand the error is because there are lakhs of .txt file.

Any fix ?
# 2  
Old 01-31-2012
hi,

may you try to start removing a part of txt files by running:
Code:
rm *<chars>.txt

where <chars> is a string of one ore more characters contained at the end of a part of the .txt files.

In this way the list of .txt files to be removed should contain less elements.

Another way could be:
Code:
for currfile in `ls /targetdir`
do
rm ${currfile}
done

see ya
fra
# 3  
Old 01-31-2012
@frappa
Doh. Surely the expanded command will still be too long.
Also it will misbehave with filenames containing space characters.

Much safer to feed the list into a while loop.
Code:
ls -1d *.txt 2>/dev/null | while read filename
do
       # Remove echo when tested
       echo rm "${filename}"
done

# 4  
Old 01-31-2012
This is a job for xargs:
Code:
ls *.txt | xargs rm

or use find to have more control over what files to search for if needed:
Code:
find . -type f  -name "*.txt" -exec rm {} \;

# 5  
Old 01-31-2012
Error
Option 1 does not help.

Option 2, I copied your code in a file called "lumbermoht.sh"

See its output below.

Code:
wlsadmin@tss5s068n2c2> ./lumbermoht.sh
rs.out: No such file or directory
rs.out00001.gz: No such file or directory
rsserver4: No such file or directory
cd /tmp/rsserver2
ls
rs.out          rs.out00001.gz  rsserver4

Do you know what's wrong ?

---------- Post updated at 01:47 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:28 PM ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by gary_w
This is a job for xargs:
Code:
ls *.txt | xargs rm

or use find to have more control over what files to search for if needed:
Code:
find . -type f  -name "*.txt" -exec rm {} \;


Find command is very slow.

the other command:

Code:
ls *.txt | xargs rm
bash: /usr/bin/ls: Arg list too long
usage: rm [-fiRr] file ...

Please help.
# 6  
Old 01-31-2012
Try this:
Code:
find . -type f -name "*.txt" -print | xargs rm

find will not throw the arg list too long error.
# 7  
Old 01-31-2012
Error
Quote:
Originally Posted by gary_w
Try this:
Code:
find . -type f -name "*.txt" -print | xargs rm

find will not throw the arg list too long error.
Sure but it is too slow.

Need a quicker command.

Here is more info.

Code:
 ls | wc -l
  140023

 
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