Re: remove files sensibly

[John Pearson <john@huiac.apana.org.au>]

On Mon, Jun 14, 1999 at 11:59:26AM -0400, Arcady Genkin wrote
> Hi all:
> 
> How would I enter a command (or write a simple script) that would do:
> 
> FOR EACH FILE *.elc IF THERE IS CORRESPONDING *.el, DELETE IT
> 
> Are there any good online resources about writing similar scripts?
> 

I'm assuming you want to delete the "*.elc" files if you have the source,
and not the other way around.

Equivalent but simpler to script:
FOR EACH FILE_a *.el IF THERE IS CORRESPONDING FILE_b *.elc, DELETE FILE_b

One-liner, from the base of the directory tree you want to search:
  find . -name "*.el" -exec rm \{\}c \;

Easier to type, much less efficient if there are a large number of 
*.el without matching *.elc.  

For that case, you can use:
  find . -name "*.el" -printf "test -f %pc && rm %pc" | /bin/sh
which has the added benefit of not spitting out an error message 
for each missing .elc file.  To confirm what it will do, issue 
the command without the '| /bin/sh' first.


John P.
-- 
huiac@camtech.net.au
john@huiac.apana.org.au
"Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." - Bill Gates in Denmark