How to recursively delete files filled with zeros?

Question

I have many files in a folder tree, of which some are filled with zeros and others are real files.

How can I delete files filled with zeros recursively?

what do you mean by "filled with zeroes"? Are they empty files with zero size, or something else?
I mean dummy files created when we start (something like) torrent download. The files display the final size but when we compress them they show their actual size. I want to separate real downloaded files from dummy files by deleting the dummy files.
Those files "filled with zeroes" are called "sparse files": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file. I didn't find any way to reliably detect them automatically, as a file may be only "partially" sparse. I think a better way to approach this problem is to have your bittorrent client keep incomplete files in a working directory and move them elsewhere once they are complete. Hope this helps.

ImaginaryRobots · Answer 1 · 2012-11-13 22:47:36Z

You should be able to identify sparse files by using the find command:

find -type f -printf "%S\t%p\n" 2>/dev/null | awk '{if ($1 < 1.0) print $1 $2}'

You can probably add some more find parameters to look for semi-sparse files, though those will probably depend more on your specific situation.

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