Script to delete files with an input for directories and an input for path/file

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hello,

I'm trying to figure out how best to approach this script, and I have very little experience, so I could use all the help I can get. :wall:

I regularly need to delete files from many directories.

A file with the same name may exist any number of times in different subdirectories.
When I perform the deletion, I will have a list of the upper level directories I want to delect the file path from, and a list of pathed files I want to delete from those directories only.

What would be the best way to set this up with the two input files?

For example, I need to delete:

/red/rotten/apple.t
/red/rotten/apple.x
/green/ripe/pear.t
/green/ripe/pear.x
/green/ripe/grapes.t
/green/ripe/grapes.x
/green/rotten/oranges.t
/green/rotten/oranges.x

from

/orchard1/old
/orchard1/new
/orchard2/old
/orchard2/new
/orchard6/old
/orchard6/new
/orchard8/old
/orchard8/new

But I want files with the same names elsewhere to be left alone.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated! :smiley:

2

Please post examples from the target directory and explain the deletion rules.

3

This should get you started you might want to implement more actions (like prompt) and perhaps control which actions occur with command line args check out getopts

if [ $# -ne 2 ]
then
   echo "usage: $0 list_file dir_file"
   exit 1
fi
LIST_FILE=$1
DIR_FILE=$2
if [ ! -f "$LIST_FILE" ]
then
   echo "unable to open list_file: $LIST_FILE"
   exit 2
fi
if [ ! -f "$DIR_FILE" ]
then
   echo "unable to open dir_file: $DIR_FILE"
   exit 3
fi
found=0
for action in list count del
do
    for del_dir in $(cat $DIR_FILE)
    do
        for del_path in $(cat $LIST_FILE)
        do
            [ -f ${del_dir}/${del_path} ] && case $action in
               count) let found=found+1 ;;
               list) echo "  ${del_dir}/${del_path}" ;;
               del) rm ${del_dir}/${del_path} ;;
            esac
        done
    done
    if [ $action = "count" ]
    then
        [ $found -eq 0 ] && echo "No files found to delete" && exit 5
        printf "OK to delete %d file(s) (Y/N)? " $found
        read ans
        [ "$ans" != "Y" -a "$ans" != "y" ] && exit 0
    fi
done
4

If interactivity is not required, if there are no blank lines in either file, and if your pathnames (both directories and files) do not contain any whitespace:

join -12 -22 dirs files | tr -d ' ' | xargs echo rm --

PROCEED WITH CAUTION: I cannot emphasize that enough. If the rm commands printed are acceptable, remove the word "echo" to delete the files. Error messages from non-existent files are harmless. To silence them, append 2>/dev/null (or redirect to some other file).

Regards,
Alister