how to find and delete multiple files in bash/linux

Question

I have directories with sub directories containing .srt files. I need to go through the directories and delete them all. I know how to find them like so:

find ./directory -name *.srt

but I'm not sure how to pipe them to rm.

First of all you should quote *.srt to avoid shell globbing. Without the quotes it will work as you expect only when there are no *.srt files in the current directory. — Kamil Maciorowski, Jun 09 '17 at 16:57

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 09 '17 at 16:58

1

The syntax is a little bit tricky:

find ./directory -name "*.srt" -exec rm {}  \;

answered Jun 09 '17 at 16:58

pkk

129

1

it'd be nicer to use -delete – djsmiley2kStaysInside Jun 09 '17 at 17:00
1

-exec rm {} \; spawns rm for every file. -exec rm {} + removes many files at once; -delete is the best because it doesn't create new processes, I believe. – Kamil Maciorowski Jun 09 '17 at 17:04
1

@djsmiley2k though -delete isn't strictly portable, though BSD and GNU both support it. It isn't specified in POSIX though, but if you've got it that's the way to go – Eric Renouf Jun 09 '17 at 17:56
Here's what I used and it worked fine. Thanks to all those who answered and commented: find TV_Recordings/ -name "*.srt" -delete – Widgeteye Jun 09 '17 at 18:01

how to find and delete multiple files in bash/linux

1 Answers1

Linked