listing/deleting empty directories recursively

listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[zzapper]

Hi

ls -ld *(/^F)

Will list any empty directories, but only for one level of subdirectories, how to make it delete
empty directories at any level.

-- 
zzapper
Success for Techies and Vim,Zsh tips
http://SuccessTheory.com/

listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[zzapper]

Hi

ls -ld *(/^F)

Will list any empty directories, but only for one level of subdirectories, how to make it delete
empty directories at any level.

(2nd posting, couldn't see the first)
-- 
zzapper
Success for Techies and Vim,Zsh tips
http://SuccessTheory.com/

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Christian Taylor]

> ls -ld *(/^F)
>
> Will list any empty directories, but only for one level of subdirectories,
> how to make it delete empty directories at any level.

ls -ld **/*(/^F)
(will list empty directories at any level in the current working directory)

Christian

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[zzapper]

On Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:57:25 +0100,  wrote:

>> ls -ld *(/^F)
>>
>> Will list any empty directories, but only for one level of subdirectories,
>> how to make it delete empty directories at any level.
>
>ls -ld **/*(/^F)
>(will list empty directories at any level in the current working directory)
>
>Christian
Thanx works just dandy,
Now I'd like to rm those directories, and log which ones were deleted. 

-- 
zzapper
Success for Techies and Vim,Zsh tips
http://SuccessTheory.com/

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Thor Andreassen]

On Sat, Nov 19, 2005 at 11:28:15AM +0000, zzapper wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:57:25 +0100,  wrote:
> 
> >> ls -ld *(/^F)
> >>
> >> Will list any empty directories, but only for one level of subdirectories,
> >> how to make it delete empty directories at any level.
> >
> >ls -ld **/*(/^F)
> >(will list empty directories at any level in the current working directory)
> >
> >Christian
> Thanx works just dandy,
> Now I'd like to rm those directories, and log which ones were deleted. 

This should do the trick:

for dir in `ls -ld **/*(/^F)`; do echo $dir > LOGFILE; rmdir $dir; done

-- 
mvh
Thor Andreassen

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Thor Andreassen]

On Sat, Nov 19, 2005 at 12:56:53PM +0100, Thor Andreassen wrote:
[snip]
> This should do the trick:
> 
> for dir in `ls -ld **/*(/^F)`; do echo $dir > LOGFILE; rmdir $dir; done

You should use double quotes (") around the dir variable if you have
dirnames with spaces (and some other chars), i.e. echo "$dir" and rmdir
"$dir".

-- 
Thor Andreassen

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Christian Taylor]

Thor Andreassen wrote:
> > This should do the trick:
> >
> > for dir in `ls -ld **/*(/^F)`; do echo $dir > LOGFILE; rmdir $dir; done
>
> You should use double quotes (") around the dir variable if you have
> dirnames with spaces (and some other chars), i.e. echo "$dir" and rmdir
> "$dir".

That probably wouldn't work, since ls -ld prints a whole lot of additional 
information that will be interpreted as directories to log and delete. It's 
far simpler to do away with ls:

for dir in **/*(/^F); do print $dir >> LOGFILE; rmdir $dir; done

or with the alternative syntax I really like:

for dir (**/*(/^F)) { print $dir >> LOGFILE; rmdir $dir }

As far as I can see, filenames generated this way are already quoted 
correctly, so spaces and special characters shouldn't be an issue.

Christian

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Thorsten Kampe]

* Christian Taylor (2005-11-19 12:48 +0100)
> Thor Andreassen wrote:
>>> This should do the trick:
>>>
>>> for dir in `ls -ld **/*(/^F)`; do echo $dir > LOGFILE; rmdir $dir; done
>>
>> You should use double quotes (") around the dir variable if you have
>> dirnames with spaces (and some other chars), i.e. echo "$dir" and rmdir
>> "$dir".
> 
> That probably wouldn't work, since ls -ld prints a whole lot of additional 
> information that will be interpreted as directories to log and delete. It's 
> far simpler to do away with ls:
> 
> for dir in **/*(/^F); do print $dir >> LOGFILE; rmdir $dir; done

Exactly. Using "for x in $(ls)" or "for x in $(ls *)" instead of "for
dir in *" is a common mistake (mentioned in "From bash to zsh").
 
> or with the alternative syntax I really like:
> 
> for dir (**/*(/^F)) { print $dir >> LOGFILE; rmdir $dir }
> 
> As far as I can see, filenames generated this way are already quoted 
> correctly, so spaces and special characters shouldn't be an issue.

Sorry, but it completely the other way round: the filenames are not
split (shwordsplit) so there's no need to quote them.

That's one major reason for the superiority of zsh to other shells
like bash.

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Stephane Chazelas]

On Sat, Nov 19, 2005 at 01:48:29PM +0100, Christian Taylor wrote:
[...]
> for dir in **/*(/^F); do print $dir >> LOGFILE; rmdir $dir; done
> 
> or with the alternative syntax I really like:
> 
> for dir (**/*(/^F)) { print $dir >> LOGFILE; rmdir $dir }
> 
> As far as I can see, filenames generated this way are already quoted 
> correctly, so spaces and special characters shouldn't be an issue.

They will as you forgot the "-r" for print, and to mark the end
of options with "--" for both print and rmdir.

Moreover, note that that won't remove directories that only
contain empty directories, you may prefer:

zargs rmdir -- ./**/*(/od) 2> /dev/null

as rmdir won't remove non-empty dirs anyway.

-- 
Stéphane

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Lloyd Zusman]

zzapper <david@tvis.co.uk> writes:

> On Sat, 19 Nov 2005 10:57:25 +0100,  wrote:
>
>>> ls -ld *(/^F)
>>>
>>> Will list any empty directories, but only for one level of subdirectories,
>>> how to make it delete empty directories at any level.
>>
>>ls -ld **/*(/^F)
>>(will list empty directories at any level in the current working directory)
>>
>>Christian
> Thanx works just dandy,
> Now I'd like to rm those directories, and log which ones were deleted. 

How about this?

  print **/*(/^F) | xargs -n1 -t rmdir

The xargs command dates back to something like 1977, in the infancy of
Unix.  It's still quite useful for tasks such as this one.

-- 
 Lloyd Zusman
 ljz@asfast.com
 God bless you.

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Bart Schaefer]

On Nov 19, 11:28am, zzapper wrote:
} Subject: Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively
}
} >ls -ld **/*(/^F)
} >
} >Christian
} 
} Now I'd like to rm those directories, and log which ones were deleted. 

On a GNU-ish system?

    rmdir --verbose **/*(/^F)

You can work out the stderr redirections yourself.

Of course you realize that this only finds/removes empty leaf directories.
Every time you remove a directory you might discover that its parent has
also become empty.  For that reason you might be better off doing a depth-
first traversal attempting to remove *all* directories, and simply allow
rmdir to fail if the directory isn't empty.

    rmdir --verbose **/*(/od)

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[zzapper]

On Sat, 19 Nov 2005 16:09:31 +0000,  wrote:

>On Nov 19, 11:28am, zzapper wrote:
>} Subject: Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively
>}
>} >ls -ld **/*(/^F)
>} >
>} >Christian
>} 
>} Now I'd like to rm those directories, and log which ones were deleted. 
>
>On a GNU-ish system?
>
>    rmdir --verbose **/*(/^F)
>
>You can work out the stderr redirections yourself.
>
>Of course you realize that this only finds/removes empty leaf directories.
>Every time you remove a directory you might discover that its parent has
>also become empty.  For that reason you might be better off doing a depth-
>first traversal attempting to remove *all* directories, and simply allow
>rmdir to fail if the directory isn't empty.
>
>    rmdir --verbose **/*(/od)
I presume this can be xarg?
eg
print **/*(/od) |  xargs -n1 -t rmdir

The disadvantage of this is that it produces a flood of warning messages which may prevent you
spotting something untoward.


-- 
zzapper
Success for Techies and Vim,Zsh tips
http://SuccessTheory.com/

Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively

[Bart Schaefer]

On Nov 19,  5:07pm, zzapper wrote:
} Subject: Re: listing/deleting empty directories recursively
}
} >    rmdir --verbose **/*(/od)
} I presume this can be xarg?

Or zargs, as Stephane suggested.

} The disadvantage of this is that it produces a flood of warning
} messages which may prevent you spotting something untoward.

I guess the question is whether you want a short command or minimal
output.  You can do the recursive descent yourself, of course.

    function rmemptydir() {
      emulate -RL zsh
      local here=$REPLY
      local -a deep
      deep=( $here/*(N/+rmemptydir) )
      [[ -n $deep ]] && rmdir --verbose $deep
      reply=( $here(N^F) )
    }
    : *(N/+rmemptydir)

This all assumes a version of zsh recent enough that recursive calls
to the (e) glob qualifier don't cause a crash, and so that you have
the (+) qualifier shortcut.