How to work around shell limitation of 'Argument list too long'?

Question

How can I work around the bash shell limitation of 'Argument list too long' when using filename wildcards that match a ton of files in /tmp/?

[my-centos4 tmp] rm -rf /tmp/myLocalFiles*
bash: /bin/rm: Argument list too long

Solution 1

for i in myLocalFiles*; do rm -f $i; done

Solution 2

This is a little simpler than jáquer suggested:

find /tmp -name "myLocalFiles*" -delete

Solution 3

For those who can't use -delete to find command, this also works:

find /tmp -name "myLocalFiles*" -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rf

Solution 4

find /tmp -name "myLocalFiles*" -exec rm -rf {} +

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Comments

[WilliamKF]

My 'find' on centos4 does not support the -delete option.

[Dennis Williamson]

@WilliamKF: Then your find probably also does not support find ... -exec rm {} +

[Édouard Lopez]

from #bash channel: "xargs(1) is dangerous (broken, exploitable, etc.) when reading non-NUL-delimited input. If you're working with filenames, use find's -exec [command] {} + instead or -print0 | xargs -0 provided you don't care about portability and like doing unnecessary extra work. Othwerwise a nice for loop."