UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

OK. So the ls -t $TGTDIR gives you filenames in $TGTDIR, not absolute pathnames. So you either removed files (of any type; not necessarily directories) in the directory where you ran this script (instead of from $TGTDIR), or it didn't find files in the current directory with the names of the files you were trying to remove (but the rm -f option precluded writing diagnostic messages for nonexistent files).

I'm surprised that the 1st code suggestion MadeInGermany gave you worked (unless you were already located in $TGTDIR). The cd command it used was in a command substitution (which runs in a subshell environment, which should not affect the working directory of the rm command). However, the following slight modification of that command:

Code:

cd $TGTDIR && rm -rf `ls -t | awk 'NR>5'` && cd -

will probably do what you wanted. The 2nd code suggestion he made should work because the directories to be removed would be given to the rm command as absolute pathnames.

Thanks for the fix, Don. I had typed that in a hurry.
I guess it was the second suggestion that worked.
Another suggestion, do the cd in a sub shell so it does not harm the main shell:

Code:

(cd $TGTDIR && rm -rf `ls -t | awk 'NR>5'`)

And the following can handle file names with spaces:

Code:

(cd $TGTDIR && ls -t | awk 'NR>5' | xargs -l rm -rf)

Yes Don, The second suggestion given by MadeInGermany worked for me.

Thank you for sharing the solution.

Hello Devendra,

Code given in POST#5 is working fine for me, not sure(surprised) why it is not working for you.
Let me know if you got any error after executing it. The only difference between 1st command and 2nd command given in
POST#5 is | sh will perform the deletion and 1st command will only print the directories to be deleted
as follows.

Code:

#### To print the directories to be deleted:
ls -ltr $TGTDIR | awk '/^d/ {A++;X[++j]=$NF} END{for(i=1;i<=A-5;i++){print "rm -rf " X[i]}}'
 
##### To delete the directories:
ls -ltr $TGTDIR | awk '/^d/ {A++;X[++j]=$NF} END{for(i=1;i<=A-5;i++){print "rm -rf " X[i]}}' | sh

Thanks,
R. Singh

Hey, Ravinder,

Your code given in #5 is working when i run it from the same directory where the subdirs are present but It won't work from any other dirs outside.

Thank you.

Hello Devendra,

I have figured it out(sorry for confusion), we need to give complete path while deleting the directories while passing it from awk to sh as follows.

Code:

####To delete the directories.
ls -ltr $VAR | awk -vvar=`echo $VAR/` '/^d/ {A++;X[++j]=$NF} END{for(i=1;i<=A-5;i++){print "rm -rf " var X[i]}}' | sh

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
R. Singh

Hey Ravinder,

This Code worked..

Thank you :-)