Deleting LARGE number of files
Chris
redhat-list at dotcomdesigners.com
Sun May 2 20:40:21 UTC 2004
Thank you all for your suggestions! I like Andrew's bash
iterator method which he sent off-list the best. The
directory removing option was not a viable alternative, as
the directory in question actually happens to be
/var/spool/mqueue and I remember once upon a time (years
ago) when I just deleted it and recreated it manually, the
mail server was complaining ever since about incorrect
something or other. I don't recall what it was, it's been
too long ago, but it was not permissions or ownership of the
re-created directory. In any case, I'd rather leave the
directory alone and just wipe the thousands of undeliverable
messages in it, which now I can. :-)
Thanks again,
Chris
> -----Original Message-----
> Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 1:44 PM
> To: General Red Hat Linux discussion list
> Subject: Re: Deleting LARGE number of files
>
> You can remove the directory recursively,
> or be more precise with a combination of
> find and xargs.
>
> The basic tool is xargs. See the man page.
>
> --- Chris <redhat-list at dotcomdesigners.com> wrote:
> > Okay, newbie question - and I can't find the answer
> > on Google... :-|
> >
> > How can you delete the contents of a directory that
> > has a HUGE number of files? By huge I mean when
> > "rm -f *" complains with "too many items" error
> > message. I don't care what's in there, I just want
> > to wipe it all.
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