grep/list bash recursive

Question

parts = grep "/root/backups/*"

for part in $parts
do
    echo $part
    rm -rf $part #delete
done

I basically need to iterate through a folder and return every item in the folder using a Bash script.

Unable to get working via grep, although may be a much simpler way. First line is pure pseudo-no-clue-code.

You can use find if I'm understanding what you need to do it's simply... find /root/backup/* — egorgry, Dec 21 '10 at 20:03

SethG · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-21T22:53:45.047

3

This can easily be done without looping.

If you just want to get rid of the files, just use rm:

$ rm -rf /root/backups/*

If you want to show the filenames as you delete them, use find instead:

$ find /root/backups -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -print -exec rm -rf {} \;

The -maxdepth option tells find to not descend any further than one level from the starting point, /root/backups. The -mindepth option tells find where to start returning results, effectively telling find to ignore the the starting point. The -print option just prints the found files to the screen. With the -exec, the {} are replaced with the found files, so this calls rm to delete them.

EDIT: eliminated an unnecessary -exec per comment

edited Dec 21 '10 at 22:53

answered Dec 21 '10 at 20:43

SethG

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Would -print and -delete work in place of your -exec's? – Aaron Copley Dec 21 '10 at 20:48
You could use -print to replace the first -exec, but -delete will not work on directories that are not already empty. I think you'll still need the second -exec. – SethG Dec 21 '10 at 20:58

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 21 '10 at 20:35

1

Change the grep command to:

for i in ``ls -bRC1 /path/* ; do echo $i ; rm $i ; done

The -b will escape spaces and other characters that may result in errors and unintended consequences with the rm. -R is recursive. -C1 is single column (which may be redundant). I would reconsider the -rf

You may want to use find instead of a for loop

find /path -H -maxdepth 3 -type f -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; -ls

If you don't know what the above options mean, type man find.

answered Dec 21 '10 at 20:35

PaulR

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`for i in /path/*` does everything except the recursion and works with filenames that have spaces. Here is some information regarding [avoiding parsing `ls`](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs). – Dennis Williamson Dec 22 '10 at 00:52

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 21 '10 at 20:34

0

grep -l will give you just the filenames

parts = grep -rl ....

answered Dec 21 '10 at 20:34

silviud

2,687
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`grep` is the wrong tool for this job. – Dennis Williamson Dec 22 '10 at 00:52
i presumed there is some content he wants to look into it - yes grep is not doing any good – silviud Dec 22 '10 at 01:24

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 22 '10 at 00:57

You want a list of file names in a given directory. There is a program that does this, and you be embarrassed to read it's name: ls. Thats all it does! You want a recursive listing including files in subdirectories, so use ls -R. You can put the output of that into a variable in your script and do as you please with it.

grep/list bash recursive

4 Answers4