Comments on: bash: /bin/rm: Argument list too long – How to fix it

By: Scriptster

Scriptster — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:56:05 +0000

For a less discriminate deletion of EVERYTHING in the directory one can just use ‘ls’ command with -rf keys to delete any directory that may come up in the listing:

ls | xargs rm -rf

BE VERY CAREFUL USING IT!!! Run in a wrong location this will destroy your system!

Also, in your post, it’s best to remove the period (.) from the end – it should not be in the executed command:

find . -name “*.tmp”| xargs /bin/rm (no period at the end)

Cheers!

By: Tudor

Tudor — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:31:47 +0000

find . -name ‘sess_0*’ | xargs rm

By: Ali

Ali — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:59:11 +0000

It works. Thanks

By: Gopikrishna

Gopikrishna — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:42:51 +0000

Thanks a lot. Helpful command.

By: Swynndla

Swynndla — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:41:23 +0000

If some of your filenames have spaces in them then the above wont work, so do this instead:
find -name “*.tmp” -print0 | xargs -0 /bin/rm

By: nap

nap — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:26:26 +0000

thank you very much, helpul command, helps me a lot!