UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

I would like to rm all files begining with 't' without descending recursively. So if you have 2 files (say t1 and t2 under /tmp) and
(t3 and t4 under /tmp/test), ou like to rm only t1 and t2.

find /tmp/ -name 't*' -mtime +x .... ; ## to finish

Any help please

Thinks

Sof

Try:

find /tmp \( ! -name /tmp -prune \) -type f -name t\*....

I think a simple

rm */t*

should do it too. That way only files in the first level of directories will be deleted from.

sof,
You can try this.

find /tmp/ -name "t*" -exec rm -i {} \;

This will ask confirmation before deleting the file.
Hope this might help
Anent

I use the following to remove files with find:
<b>rm -f `find /tmp|grep t*`</b>
Note that the <b>`</b> is not the single quote located below the <b>"</b> but rather the angled quote.

You might want to use rm -i if you are unsure about what you might be deleting.

i think this is work also:


rm /tmp/t*


just as simple as this.

rm */t* will not remove recursively will it? It will only remove files beginning with a t in all directories one level down (at least that is what happens on our systems here....)

Also,

rm -rf t* does not work because this will remove directories AND files that start with a t.


Also,

rm -f `find /tmp|grep t*` will also remove directories will it not?

So, I think you may have to add the -type f switch to find to insure that directories are not removed, right? Becomes:

rm -f `find -type f /tmp|grep t*

However, this also has problems because find returns the full path name so the syntax above will not work, seems to me

Which implies that the suggestion

find /tmp/ -name "t*" -exec rm -i {} \;

Also does not work because find returns the full path name on our systems. From here, seems like Perderabo's"

find /tmp \( ! -name /tmp -prune \) -type f -name t\*....

However, This does not work for me either !!!!

I suggest a variation of:

find /tmp -type f -regex .*\/t[^\/]*$ -exec rm {} \;

Which should work right?? It finds only regular files, searches for t's after / and insures that no more /s exist before the end of the filename, then removes it......

BTW: Here is a URL to a summary for how to use regex (regular expressions)

Click
here for an even better page on Regular Expressions ....

To get a feel for what the expression can do try this:

find / -type f -regex .*\/t[^\/]*$ | more

This seems to work on our systems ......