Simple question about eliminating files!

[MAD_2]

OK, here is a simple one for most of you. I would like to use a command that can sort just certain files from a directory and then elminate those files meeting certain criteria.

I have used the command "find /directory/filepattern -mtime +days -print -exec rm -f {} \;"

However, when I try this one the message I get is "/usr/bin/find: arg list too long". The number of files meeting the pattern given is very (I mean very) long.

What other command may I use that will not care about the number of files found?

Thanks,

ADAM

[MAD_2]

OK, I guess I found an answer, and probably some of the problem may have been my own syntax, this is what I am using now:

"find /dir/subdir -name "*filepattern*" -mtime +daysold -print -exec rm -f {} \;

This seems to work, other ways to do it?

[James R. Ferguson · Accepted solution]

Hi Mynor:

You are probably running a 10.x environment. The limitation of ARG_MAX is substantially relieved on 11.x. With that aside, there is an easy solution which is also much less resource intensive. Using 'exec' means a new process is spawned for every argument. To avoid the limitation of ARG_MAX and to avoid a new process for every argument, do this:

# find /directory/filepattern -type f -mtime +days | xargs -n 100 rm -f

Have a look at the man pages for 'xargs' for more details. Essentially this will process 100 arguments at a time until the list is exhausted.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Helen French]

Hi Mynor,

For safety purpose, NEVER put the -exec option (especially with rm -f) until you are sure the find actually returns the names you expect. A catastrophic result will take place if you accidently put a space in front of the * for your -name parameter !

However, you can use 'xargs' command instead of -exec, if needed.

find /dir_path -name '*pattern*' -depth -mtime days -print | xargs rm -f {}

See man pages of xargs.

HTH,
Shiju

[MAD_2]

Thank you both.

This is exactly what I was looking for.