Delete all files - *.txt from a directory and sub directorys

[xircon]

Stumped! rm -r *.txt does not do it. Google foo has deserted me!

Cheers

Steve

[eanfrid]

Be careful with rm and its syntax but...

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find (directory) -type f -name *.txt -exec rm -f {} \;

should do what you want. Validate your regex syntax before with:

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find (directory) -type f -name (regex)

[xircon]

Must be doing something wrong:

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 find /home/molly3/temp -type f -name *.txt -exec rm -f {} \;
find: paths must precede expression: 2.txt
Usage: find [-H] [-L] [-P] [-Olevel] [-D help|tree|search|stat|rates|opt|exec] [path...] [expression]


Any ideas?

[eanfrid]

Maybe you have file names found containing spaces. Try

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find /home/molly3/temp -type f -name "*.txt" -exec rm -f {} \;

[xircon]

That did it cheers.

Steve

[anmys]

The solution will give you trouble when there are files with space in their names. It is also better to use xargs rather than exec. To get round that problem use the following command :

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find dirname -name "*.txt" -print0 | xargs -0 rm


Regards.

[widget]

After this experience you can see why, under Linux, it is best not to have file names with spaces.

Use some thing like - or _ between words if you must have a space.

I use capitols for things like GrubLegacy.

Makes life easier if you go with what the file system wants.

[xircon]

True, but unfortunately I did not create the files