Issue
I'm trying to pipe some files from the find command to the interactive remove command, so that I can double check the files I'm removing, but I've run into some trouble.
find -name '#*#' -print0 | xargs -0 rm -i
I thought the above would work, but instead I just get a string of "rm: remove regular file ./some/path/#someFile.js#? rm: remove regular file ./another/path/#anotherFile#?..."
Can someone explain to me what's exactly is happening, and what I can do to get my desired results? Thanks.
Solution
Can someone explain to me what's exactly is happening,
As the man page for xargs says (under the -a option): "If you use this option, stdin remains unchanged when commands are run.
Otherwise, stdin is redirected from /dev/null."
Since you're not using the -a option, each rm -i command that xargs is running gets its stdin from /dev/null (i.e. no input is available). When rm asks whether to remove a particular file, the answer is effectively "no" because /dev/null gives no reply. rm receives an EOF on its input, so it does not remove that file, and goes on to the next file.
and what I can do to get my desired results?
Besides using find -exec as unxnut explained, another way to do it is to use the -o (or --open-tty) option with xargs:
find -name '#*#' -print0 | xargs -0 -o rm -i
That's probably the ideal way, because it allows rm -i to handle interactive confirmation itself, as designed.
Another way is to use the -p (or --interactive) option with xargs:
find -name '#*#' -print0 | xargs -0 -p rm
With this approach, xargs handles the interactive confirmation instead of having rm do it. You may also want to use -n 1, so that each prompt only asks about one file:
find -name '#*#' -print0 | xargs -0 -p -n 1 rm
The advantage of using xargs over find -exec is that you can use it with any command that generates the file path arguments, not just with find.
Answered By - LarsH