Linux delete files by size

Linux delete file with size 0 [duplicate]

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How do I delete a certain file in linux if its size is 0. I want to execute this in an crontab without any extra script.

l filename.file | grep 5th-tab | not eq 0 | rm 

8 Answers 8

This will delete all the files in a directory (and below) that are size zero.

find /tmp -size 0 -print -delete 

If you just want a particular file;

if [ ! -s /tmp/foo ] ; then rm /tmp/foo fi 

shortcut: [ -s /tmp/foo ] || rm /tmp/foo (test if size is zero, else remove). Also note the xargs is unsafe if file/directory names contain spaces; find . -exec rm ‘<>‘ \; is safe in that situation.

@FrankH: Plus, even if using find -exec , always favour + over ; in cases where you can (and this is one such case).

Would rm — (note the trailing — characters) be safer here than simply rm to prevent rogue filenames? serverfault.com/questions/337082/…

@lilydjwg Exactly, if we’re allowed to use non POSIX flags, find . -empty -delete is the coolest. 🙂

To search and delete empty files in the current directory and subdirectories:

find . -type f -empty -delete 

-type f is necessary because also directories are marked to be of size zero.

The dot . (current directory) is the starting search directory. If you have GNU find (e.g. not Mac OS), you can omit it in this case:

If no files to search are specified, the current directory (.) is used.

I would add -name ‘*.SomeFileExtension’ for example: if you wanted to delete just text files then I would use: find . -name ‘*.txt’ -type f -empty -delete

@jspek, well, that depends if you have that specific use. Usually when you are after empty files you are up to kill them all. 🙂

Had to grab a coffee after running this command on a directory with 2.2 million files. 😛 Had worked like a charm when I came back, 350.000 remained. Thanks!

You can use the command find to do this. We can match files with -type f , and match empty files using -size 0 . Then we can delete the matches with -delete .

find . -type f -size 0 -delete 

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -size 0 -delete This finds the empthy files in the current directory without going into sub-directories.

On Linux, the stat(1) command is useful when you don’t need find(1):

(( $(stat -c %s "$filename") )) || rm "$filename" 

The stat command here allows us just to get the file size, that’s the -c %s (see the man pages for other formats). I am running the stat program and capturing its output, that’s the $( ) . This output is seen numerically, that’s the outer (( )) . If zero is given for the size, that is FALSE, so the second part of the OR is executed. Non-zero (non-empty file) will be TRUE, so the rm will not be executed.

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How do I delete all files smaller than a certain size in all subfolders?

I have a folder with many sub-folders containing small tif files (less than 160kb) which have been merged together in bigger pdf files, together with some big multi-page tif files. I want to delete all small tif files without deleting the bigger files (tif or pdf) and retaining the directory structure. How do I go about it on Linux using the command-line?

1 Answer 1

find . -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete 

This will search for files with filenames matching the glob *.tif and size smaller than 160 kilobytes recursively (in the current directory and all subdirectories) and then delete them.

Run the command without -delete first. It will just list the files instead of deleting. This way you can verify the correct files are to be deleted.

A typical find command looks like this

find dirname -test a -test b -action 

we start with all files (and all directories) in dirname . then the tests filter the files (and directories) based on some criteria. the tests work in series. so the second test gets the result from the first test. the action then does things with the final result. if no explicit action is given then it is default -print (print the filename including path to file).

find . -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete 

we start in current directory (the dot: . ); filter out directories ( -type f ); filter by name; filter by size; and ultimately delete those files.

now explanation for each part. for brevity will i will only say «files» from now on instead of «files and directories».

find . -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete ^^^^^^^ 

This is the action. As the name says it instructs find to delete the files found.

A directory will only be deleted if it is empty. In our case it does not matter because we filtered out directories.

Other common actions are -printf (to print based on custom format) or -exec (to execute a command on the found file). There is also -ls which will print the files found in a format similar to the command ls .

find . -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete ^^^^^^^^^^^ 

This test filters the files based on size. This is the relevant part for this question.

Note the — before 160k . Just 160k means exactly 160 kilobytes. -160k means smaller than 160 kilobytes. +160k means larger than 160 kilobytes.

If you want smaller and equal to 160k then do -161k .

If you want to filter size in bytes (as in 160 bytes instead of 160 kilobytes) then you have to write it like this: 160c . If you just write 160 it will be interpreted as 160*512 bytes. This is a strange requirement by POSIX. Read here for more details: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/259208/purpose-of-find-commands-default-size-unit-512-bytes

find . -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

This test filters the files based on filename.

The pattern is a glob. It works like you would expect in a typical command like for example rm *.tif .

Be carefull to put the glob in quotes ( «*.tif» ). Otherwise the shell will expand the glob before find gets the arguments and it will execute a completely different command. See here for more information about quoting the glob: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/82139/what-is-the-difference-between-pl-and-pl-in-grep-why-does-quoting-change

There are several tests that filter agains the «name» of a file: -name matches against the filename regardless of the path to the file. -path matches against the filename and the path to the file. and -regex which uses regular expression instead of glob to match against filename including path.

for more info on glob and regex read this article https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/globbing-and-regex-so-similar-so-different or search for «difference glob regex»

find . -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete ^^^^^^^ 

This test filters based on type. In this case we request it to only filter for files.

If you leave this test out you get both files and directories.

Typically, for all but the simplest find commands, you will want to filter only files or only directories.

To filter only directories use -type d .

find . -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete ^ 

the dot ( . ) stands for the current directory. you can also search another directory in the current directory

find some/dir -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete 

or an absolute path somewhere on the system

find /absolute/path -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete 

on sane versions of find (GNU find) you can leave out the dot and it will search in the current directory by default. practically all linuxes use the GNU version of find. some overpriced non-free systems (Mac OS X) use outdated and/or inferior versions of find just to avoid the GPL (the perpetualy free license of GNU and linux).

if you want to exclude subfolders, or in other words: not recursively, then do it like this

find . -maxdepth 1 -type f -name "*.tif" -size -160k -delete ^^^^^^^^^^^ 

this will tell find to not look deeper than one level. in effect it will not go down subdirectories.

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Delete files with certain conditions on Linux

Delete files on the Linux Operating System is very easy, with the command rm (remove) your file can be deleted quickly. However, what if we want to delete files with certain conditions, for example, the file size is above x MB. Or I want to delete files over the age x days. Here is how to delete files with certain conditions.

The commands below apply to all types of Linux, including Raspberry Pi.

Delete files with the rm command

The rm command is a standard command for deleting files. Here is how to delete files with the rm command.

Delete single file

Use the following command to delete a single file. Suppose you want to delete the file myfile.txt.

Alternatively, if you want to delete files with specific directories such as /home/teknotut/aku.txt. Use the following command.

Delete without Confirmation

The previous command will delete the file with a confirmation. You will be asked if you really want to delete the file. If you are sure, you can press the Y key. Sometimes we want to delete the file without being asked. Use the following command.

The -f option is a force, meaning it doesn’t need to be asked, immediately delete it.

Delete Directory

To delete a directory, you must use the -r option which means recursive. Suppose you want to delete my data folder and all its contents, use the following command.

If you use the folder -f (force) option and its contents, it is immediately deleted without confirmation.

Delete multiple files

To delete several files, you only need to separate the file names with spaces. Suppose you want to delete the file aku.txt, kamu.txt in the current directory, use the following command.

If you are unsure, you can remove the -f (force) option.

Delete file with Wildcard

Deleting certain files can use wildcards, which are represented by a * (Asterisk). Suppose we want to delete all files with the extension .txt, use the following command;

If you want to delete files with data prefix, for example in one directory, you have a file with the name dataaku.txt, your datakamu.xlsx, and you want to delete all files that start with data. Use the following command.

If you want to delete all files in the current directory, use the following command.

Be careful when using the command above. Your files in the selected directory will be deleted.

Delete old file

To delete certain old files, for example, you want to delete files that were one year old in the /home/teknotut/dataku folder. Use the following command.

find /home/teknotut/dataku/* -mtime +365 -delete

The above command will search for files with the age of 365 days and before, after being found, then deleted.

Change -mtime with the age of the file you want (in days).

Delete files of a certain size

To delete files of the specified size, for example, you want to delete files above 1GB in the current directory, use the following command.

find . -type f -name "*" -size +1G -delete

Sign . (dot) Indicates the current directory, if you want to delete it in another directory, you only have to change the sign with the desired directory path.

The -name option is a search by file name. An asterisk indicates a wildcard, which means all files. If you want to delete files with certain extensions, for example, you want to delete files with Extensions .mp3, .tar, and .gz with file sizes above 4MB, use the following command.

find -type f \( -name "*zip" -o -name "*tar" -o -name "*gz" \) -size +4M -delete

Alternatively, you can exclude files. For example, delete all files above 5MB that are not .mp3 and .mp4, you can use the following command.

find . -type f ! -name '*.mp3' ! -name '*.mp4' -size +5M -delete

The -size option is the file size criterion, the + sign to indicate above, and the — sign will indicate below. To -size +1G means you will search for files with a size above 1GB. If you type size -1G, then you search for files under 1GB.

The -delete option will execute the deletion when the criteria file that we specify is found.

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