Argument list

Argument list

[David Gómez]

Hi all,

I created a directory with 100000 files to test the new htree patch for the
ext3 filesystem, and found a ¿bug? when I tried to remove all the files.
The command 'rm *' gave the error 'zsh: argument list too long'. If expansion
doesn't support so many parameters, what it's the supossed way to remove all
these files without deleting the directory?

thanks,

-- 
David Gómez

"The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of
 whether submarines can swim." -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

Re: Argument list

[Jason Price]

"David Gómez" <david@pleyades.net> writes:

> I created a directory with 100000 files to test the new htree patch
> for the ext3 filesystem, and found a bug when I tried to remove all
> the files.  The command 'rm *' gave the error 'zsh: argument list too
> long'. If expansion doesn't support so many parameters, what it's the
> supossed way to remove all these files without deleting the directory?

This is actually an OS limit rather than a zsh limit.  IIRC, zsh
dynamically alocates space for arguments as needed.  However, the OS
usually has a hard limit set somewhere.

ls | xargs rm

though there's probably a cleaner way.  Season the 'ls' command to
taste.

Jason

Re: Argument list

[Dan Nelson]

In the last episode (Oct 01), David Gmez said:
> I created a directory with 100000 files to test the new htree patch
> for the ext3 filesystem, and found a ¿bug? when I tried to remove all
> the files. The command 'rm *' gave the error 'zsh: argument list too
> long'. If expansion doesn't support so many parameters, what it's the
> supossed way to remove all these files without deleting the
> directory?

You sure the error wasn't 'zsh: argument list too long: rm' ?

internal shell wildcard expansion has no argument limit.  execve()
does.  Either raise your kernel's limit (sorry; don't know how to do it
on Linux), or use "echo * | xargs rm", and let xargs split the argument
list up.

-- 
	Dan Nelson
	dnelson@allantgroup.com

Re: Argument list

[David Gómez]

> > I created a directory with 100000 files to test the new htree patch
> > for the ext3 filesystem, and found a ¿bug? when I tried to remove all
> > the files. The command 'rm *' gave the error 'zsh: argument list too
> > long'. If expansion doesn't support so many parameters, what it's the
> > supossed way to remove all these files without deleting the
> > directory?
> 
> You sure the error wasn't 'zsh: argument list too long: rm' ?

You're right, that was the full error line. I didn't put the rm because
i thought it wasn't important, my fault.

> internal shell wildcard expansion has no argument limit.  execve()
> does.  Either raise your kernel's limit (sorry; don't know how to do it
> on Linux), 

I've been trying to raise some limits, but none of them affect the number of 
parameters execve() supports, maybe is possible to change it in linux through
some /proc variable, or a kernel recompilation is needed.

I just wanted to know if this was a zsh related problem, now i'll look forward
to know how to change execve limits.

Thanks to all the replies ;),


-- 
David Gómez

"The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of
 whether submarines can swim." -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

Re: Argument list

[Thomas Köhler]

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David Gómez wrote [2002/10/02 09:12]:
> 
> > > I created a directory with 100000 files to test the new htree patch
> > > for the ext3 filesystem, and found a ¿bug? when I tried to remove all
> > > the files. The command 'rm *' gave the error 'zsh: argument list too
> > > long'. If expansion doesn't support so many parameters, what it's the
> > > supossed way to remove all these files without deleting the
> > > directory?
> > 
> > You sure the error wasn't 'zsh: argument list too long: rm' ?
> 
> You're right, that was the full error line. I didn't put the rm because
> i thought it wasn't important, my fault.
> 
> > internal shell wildcard expansion has no argument limit.  execve()
> > does.  Either raise your kernel's limit (sorry; don't know how to do it
> > on Linux), 
> 
> I've been trying to raise some limits, but none of them affect the number of 
> parameters execve() supports, maybe is possible to change it in linux through
> some /proc variable, or a kernel recompilation is needed.
> 
> I just wanted to know if this was a zsh related problem, now i'll look forward
> to know how to change execve limits.

/usr/src/linux/include/linux> grep ARG_MAX limits.h 
#define ARG_MAX       131072    /* # bytes of args + environ for exec() */

Hopefully, changing this value and recompiling your kernel will help...

Ciao,
Thomas

-- 
 Thomas Köhler Email:   jean-luc@picard.franken.de     | LCARS - Linux
     <><        WWW:     http://jeanluc-picard.de      | for Computers
                IRC:             jeanluc               | on All Real
               PGP public key available from Homepage! | Starships

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Re: Argument list

[David Gómez]

> /usr/src/linux/include/linux> grep ARG_MAX limits.h 
> #define ARG_MAX       131072    /* # bytes of args + environ for exec() */
> 
> Hopefully, changing this value and recompiling your kernel will help...

Thanks! ;). I'll change it and test a new kernel

-- 
David Gómez

"The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of
 whether submarines can swim." -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

Re: Argument list

[DervishD]

    Hi David :)

> The command 'rm *' gave the error 'zsh: argument list too long'.

    Obvious ;) That's a good bunch of files to delete ;))

> If expansion doesn't support so many parameters,

    I'm not quite sure, but I think you can raise the limit on
argument list length :????

> what it's the supossed way to remove all
> these files without deleting the directory?

    The easier is find+xargs. 'find' will feed the filenames
(-print0 is your friend here if you have 'strange' names) to xargs,
which will process them a handful at a time.

    Of course, I may miss some point here, I'm not a Zsh gurú.

    Raúl