[olug] Re: [Omaha.pm] Challenge: Prune a directory tree

[Daniel Linder]

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<quote who="Jay Hannah">
> I have a big, deep directory tree. Some directories contain files, some
> don't.
> I want to prune out all the directories for which there are no files in
> that directory, or any sub-directory thereof. Every directory contains
> zero or more sub-directories.

I know it's sacreligious, but how about a simple "find" command?
  cd \base\directory\to\clean
  find . -depth -type d -exec rmdir {} \;

This goes to the maximal subdirectory depth of a tree, then works its way
backwards.  If a directory is empty it gets removed, if it has something
an error is printed to the screen when the "rmdir" fails.

Of course, this only works on a Unix-type system...  The Windows/DOS find
command doesn't work anywhere like this. :(

Dan

- - - - -
"I do not fear computer,
I fear the lack of them."
 -- Isaac Asimov

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