Linux Command Line – Delete Files Smaller Than a Certain Size

command linefile managementlinux

I have a folder with many sub-folders containing small tif files (less than 160kb) which have been merged together in bigger pdf files, together with some big multi-page tif files.

I want to delete all small tif files without deleting the bigger files (tif or pdf) and retaining the directory structure. How do I go about it on Linux using the command-line?

Best Answer

find . -name "*.tif" -type 'f' -size -160k -delete

Run the command without -delete first to verify that the correct files are found.

Note the - before 160k. Just 160k means exactly 160 kilobytes. -160k means smaller than 160 kilobytes. +160k means larger than 160 kilobytes.

The -type 'f' forces the command to only act on files and skip directories. this would avoid errors if the path contains folders with names that match the pattern *.tif.

If you want to filter size in bytes (as in 160 bytes instead of 160 kilobytes) then you have to write it like this: 160c. If you just write 160 it will be interpreted as 160*512 bytes. This is a strange requirement by POSIX. Read here for more details: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/259208/purpose-of-find-commands-default-size-unit-512-bytes

Related Solutions

Unix – delete files and folders excluding PATTERN

The following examples have echo prefixed so that you can test the patterns before actually using them. Remove the echo to activate the rm -rf. Substitute rm -ri to prompt for confirmation.

ksh has a negative match extension to its globbing:

# ksh
echo rm -rf !(*foo*)

The same syntax is available in bash if you set the extglob option:

# bash
shopt -s extglob
echo rm -rf !(*foo*)

zsh has its own syntax for this:

# zsh
setopt extended_glob
echo rm -rf ^*foo*

It can also use the ksh-style syntax:

# zsh: ksh-style glob syntax
setopt ksh_glob no_bare_glob_qual
echo rm -rf !(*foo*)

# zsh: ksh-style glob syntax, adapted for the default bare_glob_qual option
setopt ksh_glob bare_glob_qual
echo rm -rf (!(*foo*))

Linux – How to delete files within a directory and subdirectories but not the folders

Traditional `find`

Use find. It will find all files (i.e. not directories) in the current folder. If you want to make sure you don't delete the wrong stuff, call this first.

find . -type f

Then, you can use the exec option to do something with these files – in this case rming them.

find . -type f -exec rm {} \;

`find` piped into `xargs`

You can also use the find output to feed into xargs, which will take the file paths as arguments for a rm command.

find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 rm

The -print0 option is necessary to avoid breaking things with filenames containing whitespace. Generally, don't use such a thing without this option, it's highly insecure.

GNU `find`

GNU find also has a delete option. This is way more efficient than the exec way, as it doesn't have to fork a new process with rm. It is also more secure when considering file paths.

find . -type f -delete

The GNU manual for find has a very extensive section on deleting files.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Unix – delete files and folders excluding PATTERN

Linux – How to delete files within a directory and subdirectories but not the folders

Traditional find

find piped into xargs

GNU find

Related Question

Traditional `find`

`find` piped into `xargs`

GNU `find`