Delete files beginning with *


 
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# 1  
Old 04-16-2013
Linux Delete files beginning with *

Hi,

I had created a whole bunch of files which are like *, *1, *2 etc...

Can someone tell me if there is a way to batch remove the whole directory?

I tried the solution which goes one level up and removes the file, but that doesn't seem to work for files beginning with a *.

Thanks in advance.
# 2  
Old 04-16-2013
To delete a single file with an asterisk in its name either quote the filename or escape the special character:
Code:
rm '*1'
rm \*2
rm \**

The last rm deletes all files starting with * in the current directory.
To delete a whole directory use the -r flag when you're in the parent directory:
Code:
rm -r yourDirectoryToDelete

# 3  
Old 04-16-2013
Hi,

I did try
Code:
rm -r

initially and all the ones that you said now, none seem to work. I am using cygwin under windows, none of the windows based commands seem to work as well, but the files still show up in the shell and in the cmd prompt as well..

Not sure why Smilie
# 4  
Old 04-16-2013
If you want do delete the directory with all contents, you have to add -f to force the deletion of the contents as well.
For deleting files that start with a wildcard, you can try this:
Code:
[me@somehost]$ ls -1
*bla.txt
bla.txt
*yo.txt
yo.txt
[me@somehost]$ rm -i ./\**.txt
rm: remove regular file `./*bla.txt'? y
rm: remove regular file `./*yo.txt'? y
[me@somehost]$ ls -1
bla.txt
yo.txt

The -i is just added, to delete them interactive single for example purposes.
# 5  
Old 04-16-2013
This is weird. I tried the same thing, here is what I see

Code:
$ ls
*  *1  *2

$ ls -l
ls: cannot access *: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access *1: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access *2: No such file or directory

$ rm -i ./\**
rm: cannot remove `./*': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `./*1': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove `./*2': No such file or directory

The files don't have an extension, does that make any difference to the whole thing?
Code:
$ rm -i ./\**.*

has no effect as well..
# 6  
Old 04-16-2013
You can also remove files with inode number.

Use ls to find out the inode number:
Code:
ls -il

Use find command to remove the file:
Code:
find . -inum [inode] -exec rm -i {} \;

# 7  
Old 04-16-2013
Thanks, but dead end again, I am not being returned any value.

Code:
$ ls -il
ls: cannot access *: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access *1: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access *2: No such file or directory
total 0
? -????????? ? ? ? ?            ? *
? -????????? ? ? ? ?            ? *1
? -????????? ? ? ? ?            ? *2

 
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