Removing empty folders using the "find" command


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Removing empty folders using the "find" command
# 1  
Old 03-25-2008
Removing empty folders using the "find" command

Hi
I'm trying to remove empty sub-folders from 1 main folder using the find method, but the "- empty" parameter isn't recognized by my Unix version.
Any idea how to implement such thing?
Thanks.
# 2  
Old 03-25-2008
rmdir removes only empty dirs

You can use the below command

Code:
find ./ -type d -exec rmdir 2>/dev/null {} \;

The above will remove all empty directories from the current directory.
# 3  
Old 03-25-2008
Quote:
Originally Posted by krishmaths
You can use the below command

Code:
find ./ -type d -exec rmdir 2>/dev/null {} \;

The above will remove all empty directories from the current directory.
To clarify this, the rmdir command should fail if the directory isn't empty. So by ignoring error messages (redirecting them to a black hole, /dev/null), you will successfully delete the empty ones and the non-empty ones shouldn't be in any danger.

It would probably be a good idea to put dummy data into a directory and try to use rmdir on it, just to make sure your environment behaves this way. But it's the default, so it should be fine.

ShawnMilo
# 4  
Old 03-25-2008
Thank you both for the solution & clarification.
 
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

8 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Using "mailx" command to read "to" and "cc" email addreses from input file

How to use "mailx" command to do e-mail reading the input file containing email address, where column 1 has name and column 2 containing “To” e-mail address and column 3 contains “cc” e-mail address to include with same email. Sample input file, email.txt Below is an sample code where... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: asjaiswal
2 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

Find lines with "A" then change "E" to "X" same line

I have a bunch of random character lines like ABCEDFG. I want to find all lines with "A" and then change any "E" to "X" in the same line. ALL lines with "A" will have an "X" somewhere in it. I have tried sed awk and vi editor. I get close, not quite there. I know someone has already solved this... (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: nightwatchrenba
10 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

find/xargs/*grep: find multi-line empty "try-catch" blocks - eg, missing ; not in a commented block

How can I recursively find all files in a directory and print out the file and first line number of any text blocks that match the below cases? This would seem to involve find, xargs, *grep, regex, etc. In summary, I want to find so-called empty "try-catch blocks" that do not contain code... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: lifechamp
0 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Problem with "find" and "grep" command

I want to list all files/lines which except those which contain the pattern ' /proc/' OR ' /sys/' (mind the leading blank). In a first approach I coded: find / -exec ls -ld {} | grep -v ' /proc/| /sys/' \; > /tmp/list.txt But this doesn't work. I got an error (under Ubuntu): grep:... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: pstein
5 Replies

5. Shell Programming and Scripting

awk command to replace ";" with "|" and ""|" at diferent places in line of file

Hi, I have line in input file as below: 3G_CENTRAL;INDONESIA_(M)_TELKOMSEL;SPECIAL_WORLD_GRP_7_FA_2_TELKOMSEL My expected output for line in the file must be : "1-Radon1-cMOC_deg"|"LDIndex"|"3G_CENTRAL|INDONESIA_(M)_TELKOMSEL"|LAST|"SPECIAL_WORLD_GRP_7_FA_2_TELKOMSEL" Can someone... (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: shis100
7 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

"find command" to find the files in the current directories but not in the "subdir"

Dear friends, please tell me how to find the files which are existing in the current directory, but it sholud not search in the sub directories.. it is like this, current directory contains file1, file2, file3, dir1, dir2 and dir1 conatins file4, file5 and dir2 contains file6,... (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: swamymns
9 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Removing empty folders using 'find'

Hey there! I try to use 'find' to remove empty directories like this: find . -depth -type d -empty -exec rm -rf {} ';' It works just fine, but there are some directories i want to exclude. So i tried to do sth like this: find . -depth -type d -empty -exec grep -v "not this one please" -exec... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: deTTo
5 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

check input = "empty" and "numeric"

Hi how to check input is "empty" and "numeric" in ksh? e.g: ./myscript.ksh k output show: invalid number input ./myscript.ksh output show: no input ./myscript.ksh 10 output show: input is numeric (6 Replies)
Discussion started by: geoffry
6 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question