Ubuntu – Remove files in a directory based on partial name

bashcommand linerm

I wanted to know what is the best way to remove any files no matter what their extension is based on a partial name.

Example:

13-05-12_foo_something.jpg
13-06-01_something.png
13-05-05_foo_site.html

rm everything in a directory and within the sub folders with _foo_ in the name.

Best Answer

The simple way:

cd /path/to/directory
rm *_foo_*

rm /path/to/directory/*_foo_*

The asterisk (*) matches all characters.

To get explanations about what is being done, use rm with -v option. To be prompted before every removal, use rm with -i option:

rm -vi *_foo_*

See man rm for more info.

Related Solutions

Bash – Remove All Files and Subdirectories Without Deleting Directory

To remove everything in a directory without removing the directory, type in:

rm -rfv dontDeleteMe/*

Please note, the /* part is very important. If you put a space before the *, it will delete all your files in your current directory.

Also, be very careful playing with rm, -r and * all in the same command. They can be a disastrous combination.

Update: Okay, I realized if you do have hidden/dot files [filenames with dots at the beginning, e.x. .hidden] then this will leave those files intact.

So really, the simplest solution to the original question is:

rm -rfv dontDeleteMe && mkdir dontDeleteMe

Another one would be to use find's -exec option or pipe to xargs (below):

find dontDeleteMe/* -print0  | xargs -0  rm -rv

Command Line – How to Remove a Directory Without Removing Its Content

In these situations there is a risk of files with the same name being overwritten. As mentioned by @Arronical, you can avoid this using the -b flag to mv which causes any identically named files to be differentiated by appending ~ to their names. However, if there are three or more files with the same name, only the first and last will be saved, so check the contents before moving to protect your files.

The first, simple case is easy; we can use a shell glob. However, this won't move hidden files, so if you have any filenames beginning with ., start by turning on dotglob

shopt -s dotglob

Then you can run:

mv -b /home/smit/test/* /home/smit
rmdir /home/smit/test

Turn off dotglob if you like (it will return to default anyway when you open a new shell):

shopt -u dotglob

For the second (real) case, we will use find, which moves hidden files by default:

Make sure you are in the right location first.

cd /usr/share/background/all
find -type f -exec echo mv -vb -- {} . \;

If that looks good, run it without echo to actually move files

find -type f -exec mv -vb -- {} . \;

Then find the directories

find -type d

If you see what you want to remove:

find -type d -delete

This is safe since it will refuse to remove directories that still have contents.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Bash – Remove All Files and Subdirectories Without Deleting Directory

Command Line – How to Remove a Directory Without Removing Its Content

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