[CentOS] ls and rm: "argument list too long"

Sat Oct 18 00:58:06 UTC 2008
thad <thad.mailist at gmail.com>

Satchel Paige  - "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."


On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 4:36 AM, Laurent Wandrebeck
<l.wandrebeck at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2008/10/17 Jussi Hirvi <greenspot at greenspot.fi>:
>> Since when is there a limit in how long directory listings CentOS can show
>> (ls), or how large directories can be removed (rm). It is really annoying to
>> say, for example
>>
>>    rm -rf /var/amavis/tmp
>>
>> and get only "argument list too long" as feedback.
>>
>> Is there a way to go round this problem?
>>
>> I have CentOS 5.2.
>>
>> - Jussi
> try something like:
> for i in /var/amavis/tmp/*
> do
>    rm -rf $i
> done

it should be:

for i in `ls  /var/amavis/tmp`
do
rm $i
done