ngm-remove 0.0.13

File tools: reflink, copy, remove, mkfile, fileblocks, filestat, filesize

Remove

• removes files
• prints out filepath
• logs filepath to syslog/sqlite

Motivation

• being able to clean up folders deep inside tree, like: remove **/node_nodules
• have some persistent logging on what being removed: in journald/syslog and in sqlite database
• get list of files to remove: from file
• get list of files to remove: from command

Alternative: rm -rf **/node_nodules

• Yes
• However we would not see what entries being removed

Alternative: rm -rfv **/node_nodules

• Yes
• But rm would log each file (inside node_modules) in this case.
• For a large node_modules - the output is overwhelming. I just need to see which node_modules being removed and keep the output log readable.

Alternative:find and xargs

• Yes
• But we will end up with rather longer command for a trivial task

Alternative: find . -type d -name node_modules -prune -print -exec rm -fr {} \;

• Yes, it does work!
• Again, explaining commands like this would take some effort.
• Or, running commands like this, without fully understanding it - is a risky habit

Example

pip install ngm-remove

cd projects

remove **/node_nodules

journalctl -t remove -r

Use in scripts

• In scripts, you might need to use shopt -s globstar to enable ** globs

shopt -s globstar # feature available since bash 4.0, released in 2009
remove **/node_modules

Remove files of certain type

find . -type f -exec file {} \; | grep -i --color=never avif > files.txt
remove --input files.txt

Options

remove file1 file2              # Remove file1 and file2
remove --help                   # Show help
remove --version                # Show version
remove --input list.txt         # Get paths from list.txt and remove those
remove --cmd 'cat list.txt'     # Get paths from running command and remove those