Is there a app / command that will hunt for files

Question

Is there a app / command that will hunt for specified files ( thumbs.db, .m3u and similar ) files across my home dir and delete them?

Answer 1

Not forgetting the use of '*' in the search... use one of these. The find command has a delete switch, but it is more common to see and use the exec option.

find ~ -type f -name \*.m3u -delete
find ~ -type f -name \*.m3u -exec rm -rf {} \;

Or you could use -regex not -name.

Answer 2

None of the others are wrong, but before letting something off like this, make sure you test it without the exec or delete flags so you can just see what files it's matching!

eg:

find ~ -name "thumbs.db"

I might even go one further and say perhaps have the files moved into your trash (instead of being straight-deleted) so at least you can undo the process:

find ~ -name "thumbs.db" -exec gvfs-trash {} \;

Answer 3

That can be done from the terminal with the following command, use it with CAUTION:

find $HOME -name "thumbs.db" -exec rm {} \;

It will starting search your home dir for files matching that name and will execute rm (remove) on them.

Answer 4

Open a terminal and execute this command.

 find ~/ -name thumbs.db -type f -print | xargs rm -f