UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

It seems like your problem is related to a very large number of files
being returned from the 'find' command.

To make sure the command is executing properly, try issuing the command:
1) In a directory with a small number of files.
2) With a user that has a small number of files.

hi there,

you could also do a small loop of the command in the different mounts you have. This could help decrease the number of files.

for i in echo "`df -k | awk '{print $1}'|grep '/'`"
do
find $i -user user_name -exec rm -rf {} \;
done

just an idea - of course it will not make problem better if you have all your files on the same mount.
Otherwise you can make a loop for instance in the 100 largest catalogs by using the `du YOURPWD -ok | sort -nr | head -10 | awk '{print $2 }'` instead of the df -k yadayada example above...


Anyway you do, you should always try to carry out a test using regular expressions to remove files or catalogs. You know... just to make sure anything not intended are trashed...


hope you make it work

I know this thread is a little old, but just in case you still haven't solved it...

I think the option you are missing from the find command is -user.

For example, this command should do the trick:

Code:

find / -user <username> -print|grep <username> /etc/passwd | awk -F ':' '{print $6}'

Edit: Oops! Just realized that someone had mentioned the "user" option earlier in the thread. Sorry! Not sure why it's bringing up so many files.