Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:14:56 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 'rm' Can not delete files Message-ID: <4F31A260.20109@infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <1237723287.20120207235924@yandex.ru> References: <1237723287.20120207235924@yandex.ru>
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This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig3CE09D16F9827880D8F947D7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1251 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 07/02/2012 21:59, =CA=EE=ED=FC=EA=EE=E2 =C5=E2=E3=E5=ED=E8=E9 wrote: > # rm * > /bin/rm: Argument list too long. >=20 >=20 > in this directory about 25000 files, > but actually there is only one argument to rm it is '*' sign. >=20 > Why rm get list of all files in directore instead of deleting one by on= e? It's the shell that expands wild cards, and it will attempt to fork and exec rm(1) with an arg list of all matching files. rm(1) itself has no concept of wildcards -- it expects a list of filenames. As you have discovered, it is very easy to overload the argument list. There are many ways around this, but one of the best ones is to use xargs(1). eg: % ls -1 | xargs rm Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW --------------enig3CE09D16F9827880D8F947D7 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.16 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk8xomAACgkQ8Mjk52CukIyhpACfXBWFEK99yOgNbm4Dxce8jvYx xiQAnA21b5IeFG5j4DgJ4j5IXHINJcDV =qLjv -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig3CE09D16F9827880D8F947D7--
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