On 31 Oct 1998, in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sami Dalouche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: | I've made a script : | | while true | do | mkdir 1 | cd 1 | done | | and executed in my /tmp directory | so I've ????? thousands of subdirectories | | When I do | rm -rf 1, it say | 1/1/1..../1 Directory not empty" for the last directory ! Yeah, you've hit the pathname-too-long-problem. Just reverse things. Make a script (really, don't put this in the command line because it uses exit, and will log you out at the end:-) # recurse to the bottom while [ -d 1 ] do cd 1 || exit if [ ! -d 1 ] then # we've hit bottom, start unwinding while true do cd .. # the set -x is just to see things happening (set -x; rmdir 1) || exit done done This way you're always using short pathnames (just as you did when you make the directories in the first place). -- Cameron Simpson, DoD#743 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/ A squealing tire is a happy tire. - Bruce MacInnes, Skip Barber Driving School instructor
