I am trying to create a shell script to remove certain files from a directory. How would I be able to achieve this?
Can I write the standard commands in a script as follows:
#!/bin/sh
rm -f /directory/of/file/file1.txt
rm -f /directory/of/file/file2.txt
rm -f /directory/of/file/file3.txt
rm -f /directory/of/file/file4.txt
Or is there a specific way to delete files in a shell script.
This is my first question here, so please bear with me as I do not know all the rules.
Thanks in advance :)
Edit:
Thanks for all the answers in a short matter of time, I really appreciate it.
Forgot to mention this will executed by root cron (crontab -e) every Tuesday and Friday # 5PM.
Do I still need to chmod +x the file if root is executing the file?
Your question can split into a few points:
You can use those commands to delete the specific files (if you have the permissions)
Make sure you add running permissions to the shell script file (that is used to perform the rm commands) by using: chmod +x file_name.sh
In order to delete the folder contents and not the folder itself the command should be: rm -r /path/to/dir/*
Yes you can. However if you don't have the permission to delete the files then you may get error on the statement. Try to handle that error and you are good to go
I am using Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS with ext4 filesystem.
When I make a file like:
touch ../blah.sh
It does not show up when I use:
ls -al
When I try to delete the file with:
rm * --> : rm: cannot remove '*': No such file or directory.
However when I delete it with:
rm ../blah.sh ---> it succeeds.
Besides this I am able to edit the file with vim, put code in there and then run it like:
./../blah.sh
How is this behavior possible? Is this bash specific behaviour or from the operating system? and is it possible to hide a file like this?
When you use .. you are creating the file in the parent directory of where you currently are.
If you try this it should show the file:
ls -al ..
Also for rm you'd have to do the following, though it's dangerous obviously.
rm ../*
I want to write simple script to copy/backup directory then remove on server startup. So something like this:
TC_DIR=${SERVER_HOME}/terracotta
CLUSTER_STAT_DIR=${TC_DIR}/cluster-stat
cp ${CLUSTER_STAT_DIR} ${TC_DIR}/old.cluster-stat
rm ${CLUSTER_STAT_DIR}
Thanks for help guys.
I believe what you have done should work with the only addition that you need to pass -r options to both cp and rm as you are dealing with directories. Try this:
TC_DIR=${SERVER_HOME}/terracotta
CLUSTER_STAT_DIR=${TC_DIR}/cluster-stat
cp -r ${CLUSTER_STAT_DIR} ${TC_DIR}/old.cluster-stat
rm -rf ${CLUSTER_STAT_DIR}
EDIT: if your question is how to execute that on startup take a look here.
I am trying to figure out how to:
move the contents of
/var/www/html/1/ to /var/www/html/
in linux?
mv -i /var/www/html/1/* /var/www/html
The -i is there for safety; it will ask confirmation before overwriting an existing file.
I have a symlink to an important directory. I want to get rid of that symlink, while keeping the directory behind it.
I tried rm and get back rm: cannot remove 'foo'.
I tried rmdir and got back rmdir: failed to remove 'foo': Directory not empty
I then progressed through rm -f, rm -rf and sudo rm -rf
Then I went to find my back-ups.
Is there a way to get rid of the symlink with out throwing away the baby with the bathwater?
# this works:
rm foo
# versus this, which doesn't:
rm foo/
Basically, you need to tell it to delete a file, not delete a directory. I believe the difference between rm and rmdir exists because of differences in the way the C library treats each.
At any rate, the first should work, while the second should complain about foo being a directory.
If it doesn't work as above, then check your permissions. You need write permission to the containing directory to remove files.
use the "unlink" command and make sure not to have the / at the end
$ unlink mySymLink
unlink() deletes a name from the file system. If that name was the last link to a file and no processes have the file open the file is deleted and the space it was using is made available for reuse.
If the name was the last link to a file but any processes still have the file open the file will remain in existence until the last file descriptor referring to it is closed.
I think this may be problematic if I'm reading it correctly.
If the name referred to a symbolic link the link is removed.
If the name referred to a socket, fifo or device the name for it is removed but processes which have the object open may continue to use it.
https://linux.die.net/man/2/unlink
rm should remove the symbolic link.
skrall#skrall-desktop:~$ mkdir bar
skrall#skrall-desktop:~$ ln -s bar foo
skrall#skrall-desktop:~$ ls -l foo
lrwxrwxrwx 1 skrall skrall 3 2008-10-16 16:22 foo -> bar
skrall#skrall-desktop:~$ rm foo
skrall#skrall-desktop:~$ ls -l foo
ls: cannot access foo: No such file or directory
skrall#skrall-desktop:~$ ls -l bar
total 0
skrall#skrall-desktop:~$
Use rm symlinkname but do not include a forward slash at the end (do not use: rm symlinkname/). You will then be asked if you want to remove the symlink, y to answer yes.
Assuming it actually is a symlink,
$ rm -d symlink
It should figure it out, but since it can't we enable the latent code that was intended for another case that no longer exists but happens to do the right thing here.
If rm cannot remove a symlink, perhaps you need to look at the permissions on the directory that contains the symlink. To remove directory entries, you need write permission on the containing directory.
Assuming your setup is something like: ln -s /mnt/bar ~/foo, then you should be able to do a rm foo with no problem. If you can't, make sure you are the owner of the foo and have permission to write/execute the file. Removing foo will not touch bar, unless you do it recursively.
I also had the same problem. So I suggest to try unlink <absolute path>.
For example unlink ~/<USER>/<SOME OTHER DIRECTORY>/foo.
On CentOS, just run rm linkname and it will ask to "remove symbolic link?". Type Y and Enter, the link will be gone and the directory be safe.
I had this problem with MinGW (actually Git Bash) running on a Windows Server. None of the above suggestions seemed to work. In the end a made a copy of the directory in case then deleted the soft link in Windows Explorer then deleted the item in the Recycle Bin. It made noises like it was deleting the files but didn't. Do make a backup though!
you can use unlink in the folder where you have created your symlink
If rm cannot remove a link, perhaps you need to look at the permissions on the directory that contains the link. To remove directory entries, you need write permission on the containing directory.