Re: bug/limitation with rm

[Bob Proulx]

Mark Feijo wrote:
> 
> Just a quick note that it has been verified here that the rm command has a
> limitation of how many files it can delete in a single command.  This was

Thanks for your report.  But that is not a limitation of the rm
command but a limitation of your operating system kernel.  If your
operating system could handle it then rm could too.

> noticed when trying to remove large amounts of redundant mail from out mail
> server.  It returns an error equal or similar to "List of arguments too
> long".  This happened at after about 12000 files were deleted.  We tested
> this with another system, using some test files.  The same thing occurred at
> around 12000 files.
> 
> I'm sure this issue is known.  If there is a fix for this, please let me
> know, or post on your site.  Other than that, keep up the good work and good
> luck to you.

See the FAQ entry here.  Look for "Argument list too long".

  http://www.gnu.org/software/fileutils/doc/faq/

In a nutshell you are exceeding the space needed to stage those files
so that the command can see them in the arg list.  Use find and xargs
as shown in the referenced faq to avoid the limit.

Bob