find -exec rm -r print delete

Kong

11/9/22, 9:50 PM

I am trying to delete terabytes worth of folders and would like to see that things are actually being deleted. Currently, the command

find . -name "labelled_point_clouds" -type "d" -exec rm -r {} +

doesn't show anything and I will be left waiting for days not knowing if it is doing something. How can I have the command also output each folder it deletes?

448

1 + 1

command-line

find

bac0n

11/10/22, 4:49 AM

It's mandatory to use `-depth` in these situations, or `find` may feed objects to `-exec` that's already been deleted.

Score:3

Ubuntu

mondotofu

11/9/22, 10:13 PM

Your command is almost right. You should add the verbose flag to the rm command that you want to execute to see progress and paths removed.

find . -name "labelled_point_clouds" -type "d" -exec rm -r -v {} +

I added a directory structure similar to yours and put in a few files just for illustration.

find . -name "labelled_pointclouds" -type d -exec rm -r -v {} + 

removed './2/labelled_pointclouds/NARA-21-0006-0001_content.pdf'
removed directory './2/labelled_pointclouds'
removed './4/labelled_pointclouds/NARA-21-0006-0007_content.pdf'
removed './4/labelled_pointclouds/NARA-21-0006-0001_content.pdf'
removed directory './4/labelled_pointclouds'
removed './1/labelled_pointclouds/NARA-21-0006-0007_content.pdf'
removed directory './1/labelled_pointclouds'
removed './3/labelled_pointclouds/NARA-21-0006-0001_content.pdf'
removed directory './3/labelled_pointclouds'
removed directory './5/labelled_pointclouds'

So you can see the files removed and then the directory removed once it is empty.

0 + 0

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: find -exec rm -r print delete

TH: ค้นหา -exec rm -r พิมพ์ ลบ

RO: find -exec rm -r print delete

RU: найти -exec rm -r распечатать удалить

VI: tìm -exec rm -r in xóa

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