thad wrote: > 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 These shouldn't make any difference. The limit is on the size of the expanded shell command line. The original example won't cause it. The ones that expand a list with a * or the output of ls may. The right solution is to let rm recurse with -r or to potentially long list to xargs. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com