The output from the unix file command on a core file contains output similar to this:

Code:

core:      core file from 'cat' - received SIGQUIT

We can test for the phrase "core file from" and be certain that the file is actually a core file. Beware that the exact format of the output from "core" varies and be sure to test thoroughly.


On some unixes there are legitimate files and directories called "core". I've even seen a system with a user called "core".

This construct commits you to try to delete everything called "core".


We can pipe the list of "core" files to a loop to let us do further checks.
By echoing the "rm" line we can test whether the script will do what we expect without actually deleting anything.

Code:

find // -type f -name core -print | while read filename
do
            filetype=`file "${filename}"|grep "core file from"|awk '{print $2}`
            if [ "${filetype}""X" = "core""X" ]
            then
                     # We have found a core file
                     echo rm "${filename}"
            fi
done