Delete empty subfolders, keep parent folderHelp with rsync excludes not workingDelete certain filetypes and empty folders within a folder and subfoldersUnderstanding rm commandRename files in subfolders with parent folder namesShould one call this an inverse differential backup and how does one achieve it?Writing an alias that puts a folder and its subfolders/files into an encrypted archive titled with the dateScript for “extracting” subfolders into parent folderDelete the parent directory (non-empty) if a specific child directory is emptyDelete old backup folders from directory using cronrsync back error 23 on Thunderbird file
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Delete empty subfolders, keep parent folder
Help with rsync excludes not workingDelete certain filetypes and empty folders within a folder and subfoldersUnderstanding rm commandRename files in subfolders with parent folder namesShould one call this an inverse differential backup and how does one achieve it?Writing an alias that puts a folder and its subfolders/files into an encrypted archive titled with the dateScript for “extracting” subfolders into parent folderDelete the parent directory (non-empty) if a specific child directory is emptyDelete old backup folders from directory using cronrsync back error 23 on Thunderbird file
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;
When I use
find /home/user/parentdir -type d -empty -delete
it looks recursively for empty subfolders inside /home/user/parentdir and deletes. But if /home/user/parentdir is also empty, it deletes the parent folder, which is undesirable for me.
I keep this parentdir to rsync some files to backup or cloud, after process I need to delete empty folders, but seems unproductive to recreate it every time.
Any suggestions to keep parentdir? I thought about creating a ".nocopy" file inside parentdir and exclude it from rsync, but looks like overkill. There is a more elegant way?
command-line bash rsync find
asked 10 hours ago
TNTTNT
1134 bronze badges
add a comment
|
When I use
find /home/user/parentdir -type d -empty -delete
it looks recursively for empty subfolders inside /home/user/parentdir and deletes. But if /home/user/parentdir is also empty, it deletes the parent folder, which is undesirable for me.
I keep this parentdir to rsync some files to backup or cloud, after process I need to delete empty folders, but seems unproductive to recreate it every time.
Any suggestions to keep parentdir? I thought about creating a ".nocopy" file inside parentdir and exclude it from rsync, but looks like overkill. There is a more elegant way?
command-line bash rsync find
asked 10 hours ago
TNTTNT
1134 bronze badges
if you add a forward slash / to the end of /parentdir (ie /parentdir/)does that make a difference?
– Graham
9 hours ago
2
-mindepth 1?
– steeldriver
9 hours ago
@Graham /parentdir/ deletes parentdir too, so makes no difference.
– TNT
9 hours ago
ah, I see I missed the * at the end which @Amourk mentions in his answer.
– Graham
8 hours ago
add a comment
|
When I use
find /home/user/parentdir -type d -empty -delete
it looks recursively for empty subfolders inside /home/user/parentdir and deletes. But if /home/user/parentdir is also empty, it deletes the parent folder, which is undesirable for me.
I keep this parentdir to rsync some files to backup or cloud, after process I need to delete empty folders, but seems unproductive to recreate it every time.
Any suggestions to keep parentdir? I thought about creating a ".nocopy" file inside parentdir and exclude it from rsync, but looks like overkill. There is a more elegant way?
command-line bash rsync find
asked 10 hours ago
TNTTNT
1134 bronze badges
When I use
find /home/user/parentdir -type d -empty -delete
it looks recursively for empty subfolders inside /home/user/parentdir and deletes. But if /home/user/parentdir is also empty, it deletes the parent folder, which is undesirable for me.
I keep this parentdir to rsync some files to backup or cloud, after process I need to delete empty folders, but seems unproductive to recreate it every time.
Any suggestions to keep parentdir? I thought about creating a ".nocopy" file inside parentdir and exclude it from rsync, but looks like overkill. There is a more elegant way?
command-line bash rsync find
command-line bash rsync find
asked 10 hours ago
TNTTNT
1134 bronze badges
asked 10 hours ago
TNTTNT
1134 bronze badges
asked 10 hours ago
TNTTNT
1134 bronze badges
asked 10 hours ago
TNTTNT
1134 bronze badges
asked 10 hours ago
TNTTNT
1134 bronze badges
1134 bronze badges
if you add a forward slash / to the end of /parentdir (ie /parentdir/)does that make a difference?
– Graham
9 hours ago
2
-mindepth 1?
– steeldriver
9 hours ago
@Graham /parentdir/ deletes parentdir too, so makes no difference.
– TNT
9 hours ago
ah, I see I missed the * at the end which @Amourk mentions in his answer.
– Graham
8 hours ago
add a comment
|
if you add a forward slash / to the end of /parentdir (ie /parentdir/)does that make a difference?
– Graham
9 hours ago
2
-mindepth 1?
– steeldriver
9 hours ago
@Graham /parentdir/ deletes parentdir too, so makes no difference.
– TNT
9 hours ago
ah, I see I missed the * at the end which @Amourk mentions in his answer.
– Graham
8 hours ago
if you add a forward slash / to the end of /parentdir (ie /parentdir/)does that make a difference?
– Graham
9 hours ago
if you add a forward slash / to the end of /parentdir (ie /parentdir/)does that make a difference?
– Graham
9 hours ago
2
2
-mindepth 1 ?– steeldriver
9 hours ago
-mindepth 1 ?– steeldriver
9 hours ago
@Graham /parentdir/ deletes parentdir too, so makes no difference.
– TNT
9 hours ago
@Graham /parentdir/ deletes parentdir too, so makes no difference.
– TNT
9 hours ago
ah, I see I missed the * at the end which @Amourk mentions in his answer.
– Graham
8 hours ago
ah, I see I missed the * at the end which @Amourk mentions in his answer.
– Graham
8 hours ago
add a comment
|
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
By adding /* to the end of parentdir, you are performing the action on all subdirs of parentdir rather than on parentdir itself. And so in the same way /home/user/ is not deleted in the old command, parentdir will not be not be deleted in the command below.* is called a glob operator and it matches any string of characters.
find /home/user/parentdir/* -type d -empty -delete
answered 9 hours ago
AmourKAmourK
1388 bronze badges
One thing to be aware of with this approach is if there is a large number of files in/home/user/parentdir/, the expanded glob may exceedARG_MAX, resulting in an argument list too long error. You could reduce the chance of that happening by changing the glob to*/so that it matches directories only.
– steeldriver
5 hours ago
Also beware that this will not find any children starting with a dot. And someday you will realize this, and if you also do a find for ".*" you will be in a huge world of hurt (because ".*" matches ".."). Ask me how I know.
– Glenn Willen
1 hour ago
add a comment
|
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1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
By adding /* to the end of parentdir, you are performing the action on all subdirs of parentdir rather than on parentdir itself. And so in the same way /home/user/ is not deleted in the old command, parentdir will not be not be deleted in the command below.* is called a glob operator and it matches any string of characters.
find /home/user/parentdir/* -type d -empty -delete
answered 9 hours ago
AmourKAmourK
1388 bronze badges
One thing to be aware of with this approach is if there is a large number of files in/home/user/parentdir/, the expanded glob may exceedARG_MAX, resulting in an argument list too long error. You could reduce the chance of that happening by changing the glob to*/so that it matches directories only.
– steeldriver
5 hours ago
Also beware that this will not find any children starting with a dot. And someday you will realize this, and if you also do a find for ".*" you will be in a huge world of hurt (because ".*" matches ".."). Ask me how I know.
– Glenn Willen
1 hour ago
add a comment
|
By adding /* to the end of parentdir, you are performing the action on all subdirs of parentdir rather than on parentdir itself. And so in the same way /home/user/ is not deleted in the old command, parentdir will not be not be deleted in the command below.* is called a glob operator and it matches any string of characters.
find /home/user/parentdir/* -type d -empty -delete
answered 9 hours ago
AmourKAmourK
1388 bronze badges
One thing to be aware of with this approach is if there is a large number of files in/home/user/parentdir/, the expanded glob may exceedARG_MAX, resulting in an argument list too long error. You could reduce the chance of that happening by changing the glob to*/so that it matches directories only.
– steeldriver
5 hours ago
Also beware that this will not find any children starting with a dot. And someday you will realize this, and if you also do a find for ".*" you will be in a huge world of hurt (because ".*" matches ".."). Ask me how I know.
– Glenn Willen
1 hour ago
add a comment
|
By adding /* to the end of parentdir, you are performing the action on all subdirs of parentdir rather than on parentdir itself. And so in the same way /home/user/ is not deleted in the old command, parentdir will not be not be deleted in the command below.* is called a glob operator and it matches any string of characters.
find /home/user/parentdir/* -type d -empty -delete
answered 9 hours ago
AmourKAmourK
1388 bronze badges
By adding /* to the end of parentdir, you are performing the action on all subdirs of parentdir rather than on parentdir itself. And so in the same way /home/user/ is not deleted in the old command, parentdir will not be not be deleted in the command below.* is called a glob operator and it matches any string of characters.
find /home/user/parentdir/* -type d -empty -delete
answered 9 hours ago
AmourKAmourK
1388 bronze badges
answered 9 hours ago
AmourKAmourK
1388 bronze badges
answered 9 hours ago
AmourKAmourK
1388 bronze badges
answered 9 hours ago
AmourKAmourK
1388 bronze badges
1388 bronze badges
One thing to be aware of with this approach is if there is a large number of files in/home/user/parentdir/, the expanded glob may exceedARG_MAX, resulting in an argument list too long error. You could reduce the chance of that happening by changing the glob to*/so that it matches directories only.
– steeldriver
5 hours ago
Also beware that this will not find any children starting with a dot. And someday you will realize this, and if you also do a find for ".*" you will be in a huge world of hurt (because ".*" matches ".."). Ask me how I know.
– Glenn Willen
1 hour ago
add a comment
|
One thing to be aware of with this approach is if there is a large number of files in/home/user/parentdir/, the expanded glob may exceedARG_MAX, resulting in an argument list too long error. You could reduce the chance of that happening by changing the glob to*/so that it matches directories only.
– steeldriver
5 hours ago
Also beware that this will not find any children starting with a dot. And someday you will realize this, and if you also do a find for ".*" you will be in a huge world of hurt (because ".*" matches ".."). Ask me how I know.
– Glenn Willen
1 hour ago
One thing to be aware of with this approach is if there is a large number of files in
/home/user/parentdir/, the expanded glob may exceed ARG_MAX, resulting in an argument list too long error. You could reduce the chance of that happening by changing the glob to */ so that it matches directories only.– steeldriver
5 hours ago
One thing to be aware of with this approach is if there is a large number of files in
/home/user/parentdir/, the expanded glob may exceed ARG_MAX, resulting in an argument list too long error. You could reduce the chance of that happening by changing the glob to */ so that it matches directories only.– steeldriver
5 hours ago
Also beware that this will not find any children starting with a dot. And someday you will realize this, and if you also do a find for ".*" you will be in a huge world of hurt (because ".*" matches ".."). Ask me how I know.
– Glenn Willen
1 hour ago
Also beware that this will not find any children starting with a dot. And someday you will realize this, and if you also do a find for ".*" you will be in a huge world of hurt (because ".*" matches ".."). Ask me how I know.
– Glenn Willen
1 hour ago
add a comment
|
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if you add a forward slash / to the end of /parentdir (ie /parentdir/)does that make a difference?
– Graham
9 hours ago
2
-mindepth 1?– steeldriver
9 hours ago
@Graham /parentdir/ deletes parentdir too, so makes no difference.
– TNT
9 hours ago
ah, I see I missed the * at the end which @Amourk mentions in his answer.
– Graham
8 hours ago