{"id":453,"date":"2009-04-16T20:50:41","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T17:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.void.gr\/kargig\/blog\/?p=453"},"modified":"2009-05-28T23:02:27","modified_gmt":"2009-05-28T20:02:27","slug":"delete-all-empty-directories-using-xarg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.void.gr\/kargig\/blog\/2009\/04\/16\/delete-all-empty-directories-using-xarg\/","title":{"rendered":"delete all empty directories using xargs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was trying to figure out one 1-liner to delete all empty directories in a tree.
\nThe following should do it’s job:
\n%find -type d -empty | xargs rm -rvf<\/code><\/p>\n

BUT! While this works for directories with “regular” filenames, it doesn’t work when there are special characters inside the filename. Consider this for example:<\/p>\n

%ls -1
\ntest 1
\ntest2
\ntest _ 3
\n%find -type d -empty
\n.\/test 1
\n.\/test2
\n.\/test _ 3
\n%find -type d -empty | xargs rm -rvf
\nremoved directory: `.\/test2'
\n%find -type d -empty
\n.\/test 1
\n.\/test _ 3
\n<\/code><\/p>\n

Only directory “test2” was deleted. To delete the rest of the directories when they contain “special” characters like whitespace and quotes one needs to modify the command like this:<\/p>\n

%find -type d -empty -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rvf
\nremoved directory: `.\/test 1'
\nremoved directory: `.\/test _ 3 '<\/code><\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was trying to figure out one 1-liner to delete all empty directories in a tree. The following should do it’s job: %find -type d -empty | xargs rm -rvf BUT! While this works for directories with “regular” filenames, it doesn’t work when there are special characters inside the filename. Consider this for example: %ls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[104,105,595,47,106],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linux","tag-delete","tag-directory","tag-linux","tag-oneliner","tag-xargs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t