Remove specific file from directory if it's the only one

Question

I have a lot of directories and sub-directories. I want to recursively remove one specific file from a directory if it's the only one there. Also assume that there are no sub-directories in that directory. So, to summarize, the assumptions are:

The file name is README.TXT (case insensitive)
There are no other files or directories in the directory where that file is found

Structure:

 mkdir usecase cd usecase mkdir destroy_this touch destroy_this/readme.txt mkdir do_not_destroy_this touch do_not_destroy_this/readme.txt touch do_not_destroy_this/something-else.txt mkdir do_nothing cd do_nothing mkdir rm_this touch rm_this/README.TXT cd .. mkdir do_nothing_here cd do_nothing_here mkdir has_sub_dir touch README.TXT cd ..

Running the above would results in this tree structure:

$ tree . . `-- usecase |-- destroy_this | `-- readme.txt |-- do_not_destroy_this | |-- readme.txt | `-- something-else.txt |-- do_nothing | `-- rm_this | `-- README.TXT `-- do_nothing_here |-- has_sub_dir `-- README.TXT

This is what I've got so far:

find . -type f -iname "readme.txt" -exec sh -c 'ls $(dirname "{}") | wc -l' \;

The idea is that I count the number of files and directories and if it's one then remove the file.

slm · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-31 08:57:39Z

What you have is a good base to start. If you modified the contents of your -exec you could introduce a if/then construct which would allow you to act on the state of the count being a 1 or not.

$ find . -type f -iname "readme.txt" -exec \ sh -c 'if [ "$(ls $(dirname "{}") | wc -l)" -eq "1" ]; \ then echo "yes"; \ else echo "no"; \ fi' \; no yes yes no

With this we could expand on the echo "yes" command to perform the actual removal of the file. Something like rm "{}" should do the trick.

Example

$ find . -type f -iname "readme.txt" -exec \ sh -c 'if [ "$(ls $(dirname "{}") | wc -l)" -eq "1" ]; \ then echo "removing {}.."; rm "{}"; \ else echo "no"; \ fi' \; no removing ./usecase/destroy_this/readme.txt.. removing ./usecase/do_nothing/rm_this/README.TXT.. no

Running the above a 2nd time confirms the files are no longer there:

$ find . -type f -iname "readme.txt" -exec \ sh -c 'if [ "$(ls $(dirname "{}") | wc -l)" -eq "1" ]; \ then echo "removing {}.."; rm "{}"; \ else echo "no"; \ fi' \; no no

But what if the readme is in a /dir/w/\newline/readme.txt? ls will just error - it wont even read the directory entry. — mikeserv
– mikeserv, Commented May 31, 2014 at 11:47

mikeserv · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-31 11:22:19Z

find . -type f -iname "readme.txt" -exec sh -c ' for f do ls -1qap ${f%/*} | grep -v "\(readme.txt\$\|/\$\|.\{1,2\}\$\)" && echo rm "$f" ; done' \{\} +

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