GNU Info

(find.info)Cleaning Up

---

Next: Strange File Names Prev: Archiving Up: Common Tasks

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Cleaning Up
===========

   This section gives examples of removing unwanted files in various
situations.  Here is a command to remove the CVS backup files created
when an update requires a merge:

     find . -name '.#*' -print0 | xargs -0r rm -f

   You can run this command to clean out your clutter in `/tmp'.  You
might place it in the file your shell runs when you log out
(`.bash_logout', `.logout', or `.zlogout', depending on which shell you
use).

     find /tmp -user $LOGNAME -type f -print0 | xargs -0 -r rm -f

   To remove old Emacs backup and auto-save files, you can use a command
like the following.  It is especially important in this case to use
null-terminated file names because Emacs packages like the VM mailer
often create temporary file names with spaces in them, like `#reply to
David J. MacKenzie<1>#'.

     find ~ \( -name '*~' -o -name '#*#' \) -print0 |
       xargs --no-run-if-empty --null rm -vf

   Removing old files from `/tmp' is commonly done from `cron':

     find /tmp /var/tmp -not -type d -mtime +3 -print0 |
       xargs --null --no-run-if-empty rm -f
     
     find /tmp /var/tmp -depth -mindepth 1 -type d -empty -exec rmdir {} \;

   The second `find' command above uses `-depth' so it cleans out empty
directories depth-first, hoping that the parents become empty and can
be removed too.  It uses `-mindepth' to avoid removing `/tmp' itself if
it becomes totally empty.