Linux: rm and the ‘Argument list too long’ error message.
Linux: rm and the ‘Argument list too long’ error message.
Let’s say you wanted to delete all the files in a directory that begins with the word ’spam’:
[root@yoursite filter]# rm spam*
bash: /bin/rm: Argument list too long
ERROR!
This happens when you are trying to delete too many files in a directory at the same time – it seems rm has limits ….
To solve the problem:
Use ‘find’ to pipe all the matching files to ‘rm’, one at a time.
[root@yoursite filter]# find . -name ’spam*’ | xargs rm
» Read more: inux: rm and the ‘Argument list too long’ error message.
