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regular delete syntax runs out of memory

what is best syntax for deleting millions of session files from sessions directory (without deleting the directory)?

rm -rf   ?

mkdir empty_dir 
rsync -a --delete empty_dir/    yourdirectory/ ?

thanks

Alex Glaros

I'd do it using xargs. First, run this to make sure you've got the right directory etc:

ls /tmp/foo/* | xargs -n1 echo rm

...where /tmp/foo is the directory. That should print out something like this:

rm /tmp/foo/1
rm /tmp/foo/2
rm /tmp/foo/3
rm /tmp/foo/4
rm /tmp/foo/5
rm /tmp/foo/6
rm /tmp/foo/7
rm /tmp/foo/8
rm /tmp/foo/9
rm /tmp/foo/10

....where 1, 2, 3 and so on are the first ten files. Double-check that the filenames look sane, then run the command again, but this time remove the echo and the head so that it runs for real:

ls /tmp/foo/* | xargs -n1 rm