How to delete multiple files at once in Bash on Linux?

linux bash rm

user1253847 · May 9, 2012 · Viewed 271.7k times · Source

I have this list of files on a Linux server:

abc.log.2012-03-14
abc.log.2012-03-27
abc.log.2012-03-28
abc.log.2012-03-29
abc.log.2012-03-30
abc.log.2012-04-02
abc.log.2012-04-04
abc.log.2012-04-05
abc.log.2012-04-09
abc.log.2012-04-10

I've been deleting selected log files one by one, using the command rm -rf see below:

rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-14
rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-27
rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-28

Is there another way, so that I can delete the selected files at once?

Answer

Bash supports all sorts of wildcards and expansions.

Your exact case would be handled by brace expansion, like so:

$ rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-{14,27,28}

The above would expand to a single command with all three arguments, and be equivalent to typing:

$ rm -rf abc.log.2012-03-14 abc.log.2012-03-27 abc.log.2012-03-28

It's important to note that this expansion is done by the shell, before rm is even loaded.

How to delete multiple files at once in Bash on Linux?

Answer

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