UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

What would be the easiest way to write a script that for example I can run in a directory and:

1. look for files either 110 bytes or 150 bytes
and
2. has *testing* in the file name

If both conditions are met I simply remove them.

I know this may sound easy for most but I really need to be careful I dont remove the wrong files.

Thanks in advance.

Something like this should work:

# ls -l
total 6
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 110 Oct 31 15:19 testing110
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 150 Oct 31 15:19 testing150
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 200 Oct 31 15:19 testing200
# ls -l *testing* | awk '{if ($5==110||$5==150) { print $9 } }' | xargs -I {} rm -f {}
# ls -l
total 2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 200 Oct 31 15:19 testing200
#

does the following work on your system

Code:

find . -size 110c -name "*testing*" -print | xargs ls -ld
find . -size 150c -name "*testing*" -print | xargs ls -ld

?

if so, this is identifying the files

then replace the "ls -ld" with "rm"

Touche. Find would definitely be a cleaner way to write this.

# ls -l
total 6
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 110 Oct 31 15:41 testing110
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 150 Oct 31 15:41 testing150
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 200 Oct 31 15:19 testing200
# find . \( -size 110c -o -size 150c \) -a -name "*testing*" -exec rm -f {} \;
# ls -l
total 2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other 200 Oct 31 15:19 testing200

It works. Thanks. Of course a rm with a -i flag would prompt for a confirmation to delete each file correct?

(a) do a backup

(b) use "xargs -n 1 rm -i"

(c) put it in a script, test in separate area, then run script to avoid mistypes.

(d) don't call the script "testing.sh" with 110 bytes in it.

LoL@Step (d)

I'll try this tomorrow, thanks.