Remove all directories less than 1 MB in size in or below current directory Using du, find, grep, rm, sed, tr, xargs

This command is dangerous because it can blindly remove directories which exist at the level it is run. Example: DirA |--DirB (2 MB) |--DirC (3 MB) |--DirB (1 KB) |--DirD (3 MB) If you run this command in DirA, it will delete the FIRST DirB, and not the DirC/DirB directory. This is due to the way that the find command reports the path information. It shows only the directory found, relative to it's current search position. So when it is in DirC, it reports DirB as "./DirB". Then, when the 'rm' command is run, it is relative to the current directory (DirA) and removes "./DirB" but NOT "./DirC/DirB". I have since changed to the following command: du | awk '{if($1<1028)print;}' | cut -d $'\t' -f 2- | tr "\n" "\0" | xargs -0 rm -rf There may be a more efficient way of doing that, but I'm still learning (aren't we all). I used 1028 as a value because my system uses 4KB for a directory so blank directories are 4KB + 1024KB = 1028. This may work differently on systems depending on variations of awk, and other commands. Always try this without the last command (xargs ...) so that nothing is removed right away.

i814u2 · 461 weeks and 1 day ago

This command is dangerous because it can blindly remove directories which exist at the level it is run. Example: DirA |--DirB (2 MB) |--DirC (3 MB) |--DirB (1 KB) |--DirD (3 MB) If you run this command in DirA, it will delete the FIRST DirB, and not the DirC/DirB directory. This is due to the way that the find command reports the path information. It shows only the directory found, relative to it's current search position. So when it is in DirC, it reports DirB as "./DirB". Then, when the 'rm' command is run, it is relative to the current directory (DirA) and removes "./DirB" but NOT "./DirC/DirB". I have since changed to the following command: du | awk '{if($1<1028)print;}' | cut -d $'\t' -f 2- | tr "\n" "\0" | xargs -0 rm -rf There may be a more efficient way of doing that, but I'm still learning (aren't we all). I used 1028 as a value because my system uses 4KB for a directory so blank directories are 4KB + 1024KB = 1028. This may work differently on systems depending on variations of awk, and other commands. Always try this without the last command (xargs ...) so that nothing is removed right away.

i814u2 · 461 weeks and 1 day ago

Sorry for the double-post, I received an error on the first one and simply resubmitted. Also I see that it stripped extra spaces. The directory example should look more like this: DirA |--DirB (2 MB) |--DirC (3 MB) .....|--DirB (1 KB) .....|--DirD (3 MB)

i814u2 · 461 weeks and 1 day ago

And, perhaps this is different on different systems, but I felt the need to comment just in case it saves someone. And remember to always test before actually removing, especially when system differences can mean that apps produce slightly different results.

i814u2 · 461 weeks and 1 day ago

works well. Just tested on some folders that were less than 2MB. Is there a way to set a date limit, so only folders older than 7 days get deleted, but newer folders are left alone?

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Remove all directories less than 1 MB in size in or below current directory

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