Recursively Delete Files from Command Line

By  on  

I'm one of those people who can't stand a messy laptop;  I don't keep around files I don't need and I refuse to install apps unless I absolutely need them.  Unfortunately Mac OS X and Windows generate files whenever they like, like .DS_Store and Thumbs.db.  Sure they serve their purpose but that doesn't mean the clutter doesn't annoy me.

If you want to recursively find delete files you don't want, there's a simple way to do that:

find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete

You can use * as a wildcard too:

find . -name '*.zip' -type f -delete

Of course my cleanup only lasts a short time, but hey -- you can use this command for more intelligent purposes!

Recent Features

  • By
    Page Visibility API

    One event that's always been lacking within the document is a signal for when the user is looking at a given tab, or another tab. When does the user switch off our site to look at something else? When do they come back?

  • By
    How to Create a RetroPie on Raspberry Pi – Graphical Guide

    Today we get to play amazing games on our super powered game consoles, PCs, VR headsets, and even mobile devices.  While I enjoy playing new games these days, I do long for the retro gaming systems I had when I was a kid: the original Nintendo...

Incredible Demos

Discussion

  1. Tolga

    Interestingly. I only knew about -exec and xargs.

  2. Hristo
    rm find . -name '.DS_Store'
  3. I use Asepsis for .DS_Store files: http://asepsis.binaryage.com/

  4. Just to mention that the order of the -delete flag is very important. Putting -delete flag first will make find try to delete everything below the specified starting point.

  5. If you’re on Windows, the following will work the same:

    del /s .DS_Store
    del /s Thumbs.db
    
  6. Using -iname instead of -name will ignore case.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!