[Solved] Delete files with condition

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1

I have a directory containing thousands of items �video files�, these items were generated by an application, which generates two items with the same name but with different extensions �.avi and .mp4�. There was a tool in my application to remove one item @ a time. Later I found this tool removes item with one extension �.avi� the other file �.mp4� remains.
I want to remove the items .mp4 after checking that the items .avi is not exist.
Thank you in advance

2

Try this:

#!/bin/ksh

ls *.mp4|while read line
do
  print "Checking [$line] ... \c"
  if [[ -f "${line%.mp4}.avi" ]]; then
    print ".avi exists"
  else
    print "No matching .avi, deleting $line"
    # remove the comment after validating
    #rm -f "$line"
  fi
done

exit 0
3

I may have misunderstood your requirements, but what's wrong with this bash "one" liner:

for i in directory/with/videos/files/*.mp4;do if [ ! -e ${i%.mp4}.avi ] ; then rm $i;fi;done

Or more explicitly:

for i in directory/with/videos/files/*.mp4;do # work through all mp4 files
   if [ ! -e "${i%.mp4}.avi" ] ; then # if no matching avi file exists
      rm "$i" # delete the mp4 file
   fi
done
4

Note: Double quotes around variable references, will ensure that file names with spaces do get processed properly..

5

Doh, good catch. I updated my example.

6

many thanks for your help

solved