Delete files with a different command

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Knowledge Base tip discussion: How to delete a very large number of files on Unix

When you are trying to delete a very large number of files in a directory on Unix you may get an error message similar to this: "Argument list too long" (I also had this problem on Windows running cygwin). In this case you can use the following command, which will ... View this tip

Delete files with a different command

Computing and IT Support Forums » Operating Systems » Unix

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u2x

Post subject: Delete files with a different command

Posted: Jan 20, 2007 - 11:23 AM

Joined: Jan 20, 2007
Posts: 1

Status: Offline

You can actually run the following command to delete a lot of files:

Code:

find . -exec rm -f {} \;

or if there is a very large number of subdirectories you can run this:

Code:

find . -exec rm -Rf {} \;

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Computing and IT Support Forums » Operating Systems » Unix