How to delete long list of files in Linux?
Let’s say you have a long list of files that you want to delete and simply running rm -fv * just won’t work and Linux will let you know by giving you this error:
Argument list too long.
When you get this error, it means that the number of files is too many for the kernel to process.
There is a simple workaround for this.
By using xargs, you can pipe xargs into the command to process each output. This can be done like so:
ls | xargs rm -fv
This command will list all files in the working directory and execute delete without confirmation.
If it still returns the same error, you can use find and pipe xargs.
find . -type f | xargs rm -fv
The command find will search the current directory for all files, excluding directories, and delete without confirmation.
xargs is a versatile Linux and you can use the man page anytime if you want to know more.
man xargs
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