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rm

Remove particular files in deep directory by rm command

I want to remove all png images in particular directory.

I there are following directories and images, how can I remove all png files at once?

.
├── 1
│   ├── 2
│   │   ├── 3
│   │   └── 3.png
│   └── 2.png
└── 1.png

I tried following command.

rm -rf *.png       #only 1.png was deleted.
rm -rf **/*.png    #only 2.png was deleted.
rm -rf **/**/*.png #only 3.png was deleted.
Solution

  • You need to set the globstar option (introduced in Bash 4) for the recursive globbing to work

    From the Bash reference manual

    globstar

        If set, the pattern ‘**’ used in a filename expansion context will match all files and zero or more directories and subdirectories. If the pattern is followed by a ‘/’, only directories and subdirectories match.

    So this should work

    shopt -s globstar
rm -f **/*.png

    Or alternatively with find and the delete action

    find . -name '*.png' -delete

    Note on the "-r" switch of rm:

    -r switch "remove directories and their contents recursively" (Source: man rm). By default, rm can't remove directories. The switch doesn't change how filename expansion or globbing works.