How to delete files matching linux command output

Question

I have a list of files which I got using find / -type f -size +10M -exec ls -l {} \; I got this command from here

How can I remove all these files ?

I tried

sudo rm `find / -type f -size +10M -exec ls -l {} \;`

but it doesn't work.

Also, what does {} \ do ? And what's the use of -exec in this command, will the pipe operator not work ?

I recommend you [read the `find` manual page](http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/find.1.html). — Some programmer dude, Sep 27 '17 at 07:18
As for your problem, why don't you have `find` execute `rm` for you instead of `ls`? — Some programmer dude, Sep 27 '17 at 07:19
`'{}'` is the placeholder for the `exec` command (it works a bit like `xargs`). It is replaced by the file name found for every new file meeting requirements is found. `\;` is used with `-exec` option which denotes the termination of `exec`. — Ardit, Sep 27 '17 at 07:28

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 27 '17 at 07:35

1

I think it should be possible to have find run rm on each file found, but I couldn't get it to work.

So here is my solution using a for loop:

for $f in `find / -type f -size +10M`;do rm $f;done

answered Sep 27 '17 at 07:35

AcId

2

Outch! `find / -type f -size +10M -exec sudo rm '{}' +` – ceving Sep 27 '17 at 07:40
@ceving the `+` did the trick for me. When I tried ending the command with `\;` it just kept saying "missing argument to `-exec' – AcId Sep 27 '17 at 07:45

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 27 '17 at 08:26

0

Thanks guys, I finally got it to work with @some-programmer-dude suggestion:

find / -type f -size +10M -exec rm {} \;

answered Sep 27 '17 at 08:26

mrid

2 Answers2