Optimal way of deleting huge numbers of files

rsync -a --delete empty-dir/ target-dir/

This command works by rsyncing the target directory (containing the files you want to delete) with an empty directory. The '--delete' switch instructs rsync to remove files that are not present in the source directory. Since there are no files there, all the files will be deleted. I'm not clear on why it's faster than 'find -delete', but it is. Benchmarks here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130929001850/http://linuxnote.net/jianingy/en/linux/a-fast-way-to-remove-huge-number-of-files.html

By: malathion

2016-06-07 16:56:55

rsync delete rsync

4 Alternatives + Submit Alt

Optimal way of deleting huge numbers of files

Using xargs is better than: find /path/to/dir -type f -exec rm \-f {} \; as the -exec switch uses a separate process for each remove. xargs splits the streamed files into more managable subsets so less processes are required.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
12

find /path/to/dir -type f -print0 | xargs -0 rm

root · 2009-01-26 11:30:47 70
Optimal way of deleting huge numbers of files

Optimal way of deleting huge numbers of files Using -delete is faster than: find /path/to/dir -type f -print0 | xargs -0 rm find /path/to/dir -type f -exec rm {} + find /path/to/dir -type f -exec rm \-f {} \;
This is sample output - yours may be different.
11

find /path/to/dir -type f -delete

SlimG · 2009-12-09 01:30:52 23
Optimal way of deleting huge numbers of files
This is sample output - yours may be different.
3

find /path/to/dir/ -type f -exec rm {} +

cfajohnson · 2009-12-10 04:44:44 48
Optimal way of deleting huge numbers of files

cd $target_dir then run the command for fast removal of millions of files
This is sample output - yours may be different.
0

perl -e 'for(<*>){((stat)[9]<(unlink))}'

neocruiser · 2016-07-14 04:05:53 15

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What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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