Score:0

Ubuntu

How to delete a list of filenames without path that are matched in multiple subdirectories?

Elias Estatistics

5/21/23, 6:38 PM

Delete_list.txt may contain (each filename is per line):

a.jpg
b.jpg
c.jpg

These files may exists in multiple subdirectories. I want to delete them all. I tried but no success:

for f in $(delete_list.txt); do find . -name "$f" -type f -delete  ; done

2nd try

  f in $(delete_list.txt);  do find . -name "$f" -type f -exec rm -f {} \;

3rd try

while IFS= read -r file ; do rm -r -- "$file" ; done < delete_list.txt

4rth try

for f in $(delete_list.txt); do if [ -f $f ]; then rm $f; fi; done

0 + 0

delete

find

user68186

5/21/23, 8:21 PM

Could you please rewrite the script so that each command is in separate lines and indented where appropriate? This is very hard to read. It seems like you have 3 different attempts of the script all jumbled together.

bac0n

6/8/23, 3:11 PM

Note: even if it's not recommended, and I strongly advise against it, the syntax is `$(<delete_list.txt)`, which is a substitute for `$(cat delete_list.txt)`.

Score:3

Ubuntu

steeldriver

5/21/23, 9:06 PM

In a shell such as bash that supports arrays you could assemble all of the names into a single find predicate

#!/bin/bash

declare -a namep=()

while IFS= read -r name; do 
  namep+=( -name "$name" -o )
done < delete_list.txt

unset namep[-1]    # remove the extraneous trailing -o

find . -type f \( "${namep[@]}" \) -print

Change -print to -delete (or -print -delete) only when you are certain it is finding the right files.

0 + 0

Elias Estatistics

5/21/23, 10:05 PM

So fast! In few minutes deletes many thousand files under thousand subdirectories!!! Can you explain more what is "array" in bash and how it is utilized / used in the system? And why it is much quicker than my option?

Elias Estatistics

5/21/23, 10:06 PM

What it means "extraneous leading"?

steeldriver

5/21/23, 10:08 PM

@EliasEstatistics we want the sequence to start with a `-name` not a `-o`, so we remove the 0th array element

steeldriver

5/21/23, 10:43 PM

... I just modified the sequence a bit - maybe it's clearer this way?

Elias Estatistics

5/22/23, 10:31 PM

I must read about arrays in linux and "extraneous leading". Thanks anyway.

Score:0

Ubuntu

Elias Estatistics

5/21/23, 7:02 PM

This did the trick for me. It is deleting all matched filenames in the given files under all subdirectories.

However, it is extremely slow. The delete_list.txt contains around 100 filenames to be found under 250 thousands+ subdirectories.

 while read -r FILE; do echo "$(find . -name "$FILE" -type f -delete): $FILE"; done < delete_list.txt

0 + 0

Elon Musk

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

EN: How to delete a list of filenames without path that are matched in multiple subdirectories?

TH: จะลบรายชื่อไฟล์ที่ไม่มีพาธที่ตรงกันในหลายไดเร็กทอรีย่อยได้อย่างไร

RO: Cum să ștergeți o listă de nume de fișiere fără cale care se potrivesc în mai multe subdirectoare?

RU: Как удалить список имен файлов без пути, которые совпадают в нескольких подкаталогах?

VI: Làm cách nào để xóa danh sách tên tệp không có đường dẫn được khớp trong nhiều thư mục con?

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