Arch Linux

guvery

Member

Registered: 2011-10-30

Posts: 6

Removing backup files

I have a script that runs

if [ -f ~/bin/*~ ]; then
	rm ~/bin/*~
fi

In theory it checks to see if backup files exist in the bin directory, and then deletes them if they do.
But it seems that this does not work correctly and I haven't the slightest clue why. Any help?

cfr

Member

From: Cymru

Registered: 2011-11-27

Posts: 7,168

Re: Removing backup files

Use

set -x

at the start to see what it does.

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stqn

Member

Registered: 2010-03-19

Posts: 1,191

Website

Re: Removing backup files

Maybe it doesn't work when there are several files ending with ~. "man test" says "-f FILE", not "FILES".

Edit: you can also remove the test and use "rm -f", though it might be risky.

Last edited by stqn (2012-03-13 10:07:09)

skanky

Member

From: WAIS

Registered: 2009-10-23

Posts: 1,847

Re: Removing backup files

You can't check for the existence of multiple files using -f in test.
What you can do is either get a list of files and iterate through the list of files ending in ~ or use find.

eg:

for file in *~; do rm $file; done

Probably best to use echo rather than rm to test.

Edit: also to prevent future ones appearing this in vimrc will work:

set backupdir=/tmp

Or you can just turn them off.
If you use something like nano there may be a similar setting, I can't remember.

Last edited by skanky (2012-03-13 10:37:51)

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falconindy

Developer

From: New York, USA

Registered: 2009-10-22

Posts: 4,111

Website

Re: Removing backup files

I must be missing something...

rm -f ~/bin/*~

edit: if you really want to see if files exist matching a given pattern, it's not entirely straight forward:

shopt -s nullglob
files=("$HOME"/bin/*~)
if (( ${#files[*]} )); then
  # do stuff with "${files[@]}"
else
  # you has no files
fi

Last edited by falconindy (2012-03-13 12:46:24)

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skanky

Member

From: WAIS

Registered: 2009-10-23

Posts: 1,847

Re: Removing backup files

I must be missing something...

Hmmm, no but I was seeing something that wasn't there (that is, a reason for the extra step).

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"...one cannot be angry when one looks at a penguin."  - John Ruskin
"Life in general is a bit shit, and so too is the internet. And that's all there is." - scepticisle

guvery

Member

Registered: 2011-10-30

Posts: 6

Re: Removing backup files

Thank you very much for your replies.. I will try some of what you guy's suggested later on. I did end up turning off backups though. I just like to have a clean bin folder