Remove files that are listed in a text file

Question

I have a file that exported a bunch of file names that need to be removed. I need to know how to go about removing each file without having to issue it one at a time at the command line.

I've thought about just cating it inside a for loop, which would probably work, but wanted to know if there was an easier, or even a better solution to doing this.

Thanks.

Solution 1

rm -rf `cat /path/to/filename`

`` characters can be replace with $()

from bash man page:

   Command Substitution
       Command substitution allows the output of a command to replace the command
       name.  There are two forms:

              $(command)
       or
              `command`

       Bash performs the expansion by executing command and replacing the command
       substitution  with  the  standard output of the command, with any trailing
       newlines deleted.  Embedded newlines are not  deleted,  but  they  may  be
       removed  during  word splitting.  The command substitution $(cat file) can
       be replaced by the equivalent but faster $(< file).

       When the old-style backquote  form  of  substitution  is  used,  backslash
       retains its literal meaning except when followed by $, `, or \.  The first
       backquote not preceded by a backslash terminates the command substitution.
       When  using  the  $(command)  form, all characters between the parentheses
       make up the command; none are treated specially.

       Command substitutions may be nested.  To nest when  using  the  backquoted
       form, escape the inner backquotes with backslashes.

       If the substitution appears within double quotes, word splitting and path‐
       name expansion are not performed on the results.

Solution 2

No need for cat or a loop:

xargs -d '\n' -a file.list rm

Solution 3

$ cat file.list | xargs rm

Solution 4

while read filename ; do rm "$filename" ; done < files.lst

Solution 5

perl -lne 'unlink' files_to_remove.txt

If you need to remove lots of files this is several times faster than xargs + rm, and many many times faster than a shell loop.

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Comments

[Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams]

Will fail with filenames that contain whitespace.

[drewrockshard]

My failnames did not have spaces and this worked better in this case. This does need work though to handle spaces in filenames.

[T. Israel]

I would prefer xargs - it handles whitespace and special characters as it should.

[Dennis Williamson]

You don't need to modify the original file, just do it on the fly: sh -c "$(sed -e 's/\(.*\)/rm -f "\1"/' <filename>)" (also showing an alternative sed script).

[Andrew M.]

Fair warning, this will also be limited by the number of results you get--anything over 32k will fail on kernels pre-2.6.23. This is generally why xargs is used: cat /path/to/filename | xargs rm -rf. Its also much easier to read and debug.

[Adam Erickson]

Contrary to the comment of @AndresRehm this did not properly handle whitespace in my case. So, I removed the whitespace in the text file using the Vim command: :%s/\s\+$//e