Delete node_modules folder recursively from a specified path using command line

Question

I have multiple npm projects saved in a local directory. Now I want to take backup of my projects without the node_modules folder, as it is taking a lot of space and can also be retrieved any time using npm install.

So, what would be a solution to delete all node_modules folders recursively from a specified path using the command line interface?

Answer 1

Print out a list of directories to be deleted:

find . -name 'node_modules' -type d -prune

Delete directories from the current working directory:

find . -name 'node_modules' -type d -prune -exec rm -rf '{}' +

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Alternatively you can use trash (brew install trash) for staged deletion:

find . -name node_modules -type d -prune -exec trash {} +