I have a text file that has a list of paths to various files. Is there a command I can use that will iterate through each line and delete the file at the stated path?
Use xargs:
xargs rm < file # or
xargs -a file rm
But that will not work if the file names/paths contain characters that should be escaped.
If your filenames don't have newlines, you can do:
tr '
' '0' < file | xargs -0 rm # or
xargs -a file -I{} rm {}
Alternatively, you can create the following script:
#!/bin/bash
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo -e "Usage: $(basename $0) FILE
"
exit 1
fi
if [ ! -e "$1" ]; then
echo -e "$1: File doesn't exist.
"
exit 1
fi
while read -r line; do
[ -n "$line" ] && rm -- "$line"
done < "$1"
Save it as /usr/local/bin/delete-from, grant it execution permission:
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/delete-from
Then run it with:
delete-from /path/to/file/with/list/of/files
